Christine Nicholson has a 25-year experience of running companies in multiple sectors. She started, built, and exited multiple successful businesses. She took a business from £0-£4.5m turnover in 15 months. And she also rescued a bankrupt company from millions in debt to an eight-figure exit in under 18 months. More than just experience, she studied hard to become a Chartered Management Accountant with a law degree, a postgraduate degree in Information Systems Management - and a Professionally Accredited and Experienced Business Mentor. 

In this episode, Christine shares valuable insights on several key topics related to business valuation and pricing like the owner's emotional attachment, preparing a business for sale and customer feedback for pricing strategies. She provides a balanced view of how to strategically prepare a business for sale, emphasizing the importance of logical pricing decisions and understanding customer value perceptions.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Gain insights on emotional influence in business decisions to help you make more informed, rational decisions that enhance your company's value.
• Discover actionable tips on how to boost a company's valuation by implementing effective pricing strategies. 
• Learn the importance of customer engagement to understand their perception of value for better pricing decisions.

"Go and ask your customers what they think of your service. If you were no longer providing this service, what would they be willing to pay for the level of service that they get from someone else?"

- Christine Nicholson

Topics Covered:

01:02 - How did she get involved in pricing

03:20 - Discussing a common misconception among business owners regarding the value of their businesses

03:51 - Highlighting a scenario of the emotional complexities and the challenges business owners face when selling their businesses

12:22 - The psychological dynamics involved when business owners try to value their businesses and their services

14:37 - Explaining the key factors that sophisticated buyers look for when purchasing a company

17:22 - Deeper motivations tied to personal beliefs and values other than price when selling a business

19:40 - How adjusting pricing is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve a business

22:05 - Christine's approach to helping companies fix their pricing strategies which involves more than simply raising prices

24:07 - Addressing the emotional and logical aspects of business decision-making

25:36 - Christine's best pricing advice

Key Takeaways:

"When you're talking directly to your customers, you have to talk with your heart because you're dealing with one human being typically to another. " - Christine Nicholson

"...if you get your pricing right, then you're going to make more profits; you're going to generate more positive cash flows." - Christine Nicholson

"When it comes to selling your business, all the heart is with the seller, and all the logic is with the buyer." - Christine Nicholson

"When people put their soul into something, they attach a value to it when they're selling their business; ironically, and completely paradoxically, they don't attach the value of the effort that they put into the business to their customers." - Christine Nicholson

"One of the biggest problems that I see from a selling business is where somebody is mentally associating the value of the business by the effort they've put in, but they're not reflecting that correctly in the way that their pricing to their customers." - Christine Nicholson

"You need to believe the value that you are giving to your client." - Christine Nicholson

"Buyers do not want to buy a job. They are buying an investment that has a hard return on capital. And the more certain they are about the return on capital, the higher the money that they will pay and the faster you'll get the cash in your bank." - Christine Nicholson

Connect with Christine Nicholson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-nicholson/
• Website: https://getexitready.co.uk/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com