Even if you have no immediate plans to sell your business, it's never too soon to start building your company's value. Doing so will not only help you in the long term (if you're depending on the sale of your business to fund your retirement or your next venture), it will also help you create a thriving and revenue generating business right now.

This week we continue our podcast series with exit planning expert and author, John Warrillow. In his book Built to Sell, John outlines the eight steps he says are critical to creating a sellable business. Two of those steps are the topic of our podcast discussion this week. First, we go in-depth into the importance of reducing the amount of operating cash your business requires so that you can maximize the amount of cash an acquirer will pay you. Then we discuss what to look for and how to hire the right sales team.

This discussion is important no matter what stage of business your in. We invite you to listen and comment below.

Podcast: Is Your Business Built to Sell?

(Download MP3)

Listen to the other podcasts in this series with John Warrillow:

• Is Your Business Built to Sell?
• Creating a Standard Service Offering

John Warrillow is an entrepreneur, author and speaker. Throughout his career as an entrepreneur, John has started and exited four companies. Most recently he transformed Warrillow & Co. from a boutique consultancy into a recurring revenue model subscription business, which he sold to The Corporate Executive Board (NASDAQ: EXBD) in 2008. He is the author of Built to Sell and Drilling for Gold and in 2008 was recognized by BtoB magazine’s “Who’s Who” list. builttosell.com