Ep 38. Exit Planning, Selling Your Business, and Maximising Value with Rod Cook

**Episode Overview** If you had to sell your business tomorrow, what would it actually be worth to a buyer — without you in it? Every year over 50,000 NZ businesses close and only ~2,000 actually sell. Businesses that sell are built to run without the owner as the glue. Rod Cook spent over a year pulling himself out of the critical path of Jackson's Flooring Design Commercial to make that possible. - **Origin story:** Rod joined his wife Leanne's family flooring business, buying the commercial division in Hawke's Bay. - **Investing in advice early:** A business coach from day one, plus a rule to always pay himself a salary — "the cost was irrelevant to the benefit I got from it." - **Weathering the cycles:** The GFC and COVID — the pandemic pause pushed a systems overhaul that set up later growth. - **Delegate, don't abdicate:** Early hiring mistakes taught Rod the difference, before building a nine-person team. - **"Milk the cow a little longer":** An accepted sale offer was shelved on advice from friend John Hutch (Plan A Consulting) — unpopular with Leanne at the time, but the right call. - **The 2024 plan:** Standalone premises, working Rod out of the day-to-day, and preparing for a future sale. - **On loneliness in business:** Why an informal "board" of trusted advisors matters without formal governance. - **Sales as the engine:** Ranked #1 in his franchise group for 19 of 20 years. - **Would it have run without him a decade ago?** "Not a chance in hell." "Delegate, but don't abdicate." — advice from John Hutchinson that reshaped how Rod built his team. The Better SMB is on a mission to lift New Zealand's productivity by helping SMB leaders take practical steps to improve business performance — through the podcast, our column *The Last Word*, and our growing community. 🌐 **Website:** The Better SMB — Turning High Performance Into a System - Setseed — for your online platform requirements - **PerformIQ** — for your in-depth business assessment and benchmarking *(send me a URL and I'll link it)* *Enjoyed this episode? Like, share, and comment — it helps us bring more great guests and content to New Zealand's SMB community.* HighlightsKey QuoteAbout The Better SMBWith Thanks to Our Sponsors