Pride, as well as chocolate, are both great as long as they are held to moderation.  Pride is a great thing to see (watch any college football game and you can see all the kids showing their pride) and even better to experience.  We all have felt some type of pride whether it is school pride while watching a game, in our country when a Navy ship comes into the bay carrying our US military men and women home from a long tour of duty or our kids and what they have become.

Pride in ourselves, our personal accomplishments and our business are all very healthy and strongly recommended.  It is that pride that has made your business so successful.  Pride makes us work harder on and in our business and shows that we really do care for our business. 

Everyone knows that homeowners take better care of their house then any renters will.  That’s because tenants don’t take pride in the house like the owner.  The same goes for a business where the employees often do not take the same pride in it as we do.

Pride connects us to our business and this emotional connection is exactly what makes it one of the seven deadly sins when it comes to selling your business.  That connection the business owners feels about their business sometimes, actually I will say most of the time, blinds them to reality.  Just as parents are often very defensive to criticism about their children, business owners are defensive to advice about selling their business.

A prideful person is someone who is not able to listen, they often get angry at the defense of their feelings and cannot listen to another point of view.   Most business owners do not sell their business more than once in a lifetime so this unique experience should be done with advisors.  This requires you to relax on the pride, we know what you think of it, and let your advisors help you sell it.

Your emotional attachment to creating, nurturing and growing this business needs to be put on the shelf and looking at it objectively should be your new goal.  Let me put it this way, you pride, passion, hard work and commitment have taken you to where your business can be sold.  Words like profit, opportunity, flexibility and creativity will sell your business.

Please don’t miss understand what I am saying, pride is great when managing the company, just not selling one.  Listen to your advisors and let them help you.  Remember if you can transfer the pride you have into a potential buyer then you have just sold your business.

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