Ep 38. Exit Planning, Selling Your Business, and Maximising Value with Rod Cook

Episode OverviewIf you had to sell your business tomorrow, what would it actually be worth to a buyer — without you in it? Every year over 50,000 NZ businesses close and only ~2,000 actually sell. Businesses that sell are built to run without the owner as the glue. Rod Cook spent over a year pulling himself out of the critical path of Jackson's Flooring Design Commercial to make that possible.Origin story: Rod joined his wife Leanne's family flooring business, buying the commercial division in Hawke's Bay.Investing in advice early: A business coach from day one, plus a rule to always pay himself a salary — "the cost was irrelevant to the benefit I got from it."Weathering the cycles: The GFC and COVID — the pandemic pause pushed a systems overhaul that set up later growth.Delegate, don't abdicate: Early hiring mistakes taught Rod the difference, before building a nine-person team."Milk the cow a little longer": An accepted sale offer was shelved on advice from friend John Hutch (Plan A Consulting) — unpopular with Leanne at the time, but the right call.The 2024 plan: Standalone premises, working Rod out of the day-to-day, and preparing for a future sale.On loneliness in business: Why an informal "board" of trusted advisors matters without formal governance.Sales as the engine: Ranked #1 in his franchise group for 19 of 20 years.Would it have run without him a decade ago? "Not a chance in hell.""Delegate, but don't abdicate." — advice from John Hutchinson that reshaped how Rod built his team.The Better SMB is on a mission to lift New Zealand's productivity by helping SMB leaders take practical steps to improve business performance — through the podcast, our column The Last Word, and our growing community.🌐 Website: The Better SMB — Turning High Performance Into a SystemSetseed — for your online platform requirementsPerformIQ — for your in-depth business assessment and benchmarking (send me a URL and I'll link it)Enjoyed this episode? Like, share, and comment — it helps us bring more great guests and content to New Zealand's SMB community.HighlightsKey QuoteAbout The Better SMBWith Thanks to Our Sponsors