The most important tool for selling your business

There are two types of people in this world: the ones who buy Easter chocolate pre-holiday, and everyone else, who only buy it the Monday after.

Hot off the SMB press this week: 

• Selling your business? Then you need a business playbook.
• Your middle managers need a little extra love. Here’s how to support them.
• Teach your employees how to make the right decisions with this process template.

But first, here are some headlines that caught our attention this week.

TL; DR

This week's highlight reel

• Ask, and ye shall receive. Trainual peeps, rejoice! You can easily make updates to the people on your team with bulk management. No longer do you need to perform individual edits for every single team member. You can now edit permissions, archive, and more — all in bulk. Huzzah!
• Money (that’s what we want). A special alert for all our Black, women, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs: Visa is hosting three startup competitions to support business founders in the aforementioned communities as part of their Everywhere Initiative. Overall winners for each competition receive $20K — and applications are due April 17th.
• *Face with tears of joy*. April Fools’: a joyous holiday for the jokers in your life, and a nightmare for the more gullible among us (guilty). Marketers had some fun with this year’s April 1st, including language-learning app Duolingo and EV manufacturer Tesla. Too bad Elon’s other company couldn’t get their April Fools’ prank out in time.
• One small step. When it comes to improving ourselves — reading more books, doing more exercise, taking on more projects at work — we tend to think about all the time we don’t have. But according to calculations, making sustainable change only takes 9.6 minutes a day. We can definitely wake up 10 minutes earlier to make that happen… Maybe…

RING IT UP

Having a business playbook could help you sell your SMB

Thinking of selling your business one day?
It’s more common than you think. For some entrepreneurs, their main purpose for starting a business is to eventually sell it to the highest bidder. Some plan to use that money to fund their retirement — others, to jumpstart their next venture.

But finding someone who sees the actual value of your business — and is willing to pay the right price — isn’t easy.

So, how do you make your business appealing to buyers?
According to Adam Arkfeld, the founder and former president of ParaCore, this is the answer: Present the best possible product (AKA, a smooth-running operation), along with the business playbook to run it. 

In other words, Adam sold his business by documenting everything about ParaCore — from standard company info to their processes and systems operations — in Trainual. With it, the business runs efficiently, but presents a neat package to help buyers understand exactly how everything is connected. All they needed to do was reference ParaCore’s Trainual account.

Sound too good to be true? Here are the three crucial ways Trainual helped Adam sell his business:

1. By solidifying company knowledge for the buyer.
Adam initially decided to partner with Trainual as a way to organize and share ParaCore’s company knowledge. As a result, the team had a blueprint for running the business and a solidified place for keeping and transferring knowledge.

And when it came time to sell, Adam gave his prospective buyer access to ParaCore’s Trainual account. That way, the buyer could review their documentation and training, experience their company culture, and deeply understand how the business operates. 

Plus, having everything documented “builds confidence and trust [for prospects] since they know you’re a legitimate company.”

👉 Still not convinced? Read on.

IN THE MIDDLE

This job level needs extra support

Okay, I’ll bite. Which level?
Hint 1: It’s the one that makes sure things get done (the right way). Hint 2: It’s often overlooked, much like the poor little middle child. That’s right — it’s middle management.

These positions are the liaison between junior roles and senior management, so they make up the center of your role chart. Because of this, they’re often pulled in different directions as they both direct and perform work — doing their best to ensure leadership’s plans are implemented while managing their subordinates.

And when your middle management is stretched too thin, there are bound to be some consequences. In fact, one study showed that mid-level managers fell in the bottom 5% when it came to job satisfaction. In another, 18% of middle managers reported depression — compared to 11% reported by owners and executives.

And as a business leader, it’s your job to support middle managers before they become stressed out, burned out, or ineffective. Here are five things they need:

1. Value and empowerment.
Middle managers have the best perspective of how your processes and procedures are actually working. Makes sense — they’re experts at what their teams are in charge of. So, make sure they feel like their points of view and feedback are heard and considered.

When your middle managers feel empowered to make decisions and contributions, they’re less likely to feel like they’re just a go-between. Instead, they’ll feel recognized, valued, and like they have ownership in what you’re building. (Rightfully so!)

👉 See all five ways to support middle managers.

STARTER PACK

Template of the week: Decision Approval Process

Looking for more ways to empower your middle managers (and the rest of your team)? You’re in the right spot. When employees start to feel more empowered, you can see increased efficiency, job satisfaction, retention, and more. So you need to make it crystal clear that you trust your team to make the right decisions — by giving them a guide to making the right moves for your SMB.

Here at Trainual, we’re in the business of making documentation as easy as possible. So, every week, we’re showcasing a template — for a policy, process, or role (with responsibilities) — that you can take and use in your own business playbook. All it needs is your personal touch, and then it’s ready to share with the rest of your team.

👉 Communicate the autonomy you give your team right in your business playbook. Snag our Decision Approval Process template to get a jumpstart on your process documentation today.

Can’t wait a whole week for your next template? Check out our entire template archive of free, multimedia-enhanced, and customizable policy, process, and role starters. New to Trainual? Try for free.