Venice, the Place and the People. Salve Venetia (Volume 2); Gleanings From Venetian History Book

Here is what I got out of this book:

Step 1-4 focus on building value. 5-8 on selling the company.

1. Isolate a product with potential to scale.
- Specific offering. Not customizable.
- Develop a sales pitch for your product

2. Create a positive cash flow cycle
- Subscriptions
- Make sure no one customer makes up more than 15% of your revenue.

3. Hire a sales team
- Remove yourself from selling the product
- Hire 2 sales employees. They are competitive
“Your job as an entrepreneur is to hire salespeople to sell your products and services so you can spend your time selling your company.”

4. Stop selling everything else
“Business owners often believe that to be “customer centric,” they have to give customers whatever they want. But giving customers too much choice can be a detriment, especially if you’re trying to build a company you can scale and ultimately sell.”
- Customization kills scalability
- Lead your customers. Do not follow. Do not be afraid to end the business relationship if they don't like your standard product.

5. Launch a long term incentive plan for managers
- Prove your managers can run the company and will stick around. Not equity.

6. Find a broker
- Must be able to answer:
“Describe your sales cycle.”
“How many salespeople do you have?” “Describe your cash flow cycle.”
“Who are your customers?”
“How do you know if they are satisfied?”
“How often do they repurchase?”

7. Tell your management team
- Offer bonus when company sells

8. Convert offers to a binding deal
- Beware of earn-outs


Now for the hard part, putting these ideas into action.