Finish What You Started: The Key to Business Optimization
In this episode of Freedom to Exit, Lani Dickinson breaks down one of the most overlooked exit strategies: optimization.
Most founders only take their systems 60% of the way—then wonder why their business won’t sell. But buyers are looking for clean, scalable systems, predictable outcomes, and processes that run without you. Lani shows you how AI and automation can finish what you started, give buyers the certainty they need, and help you walk away with more cash and fewer earn-outs.
If your business feels like chaos and you're not sure what to fix first—this episode is your roadmap.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why only 1 in 5 businesses actually sell (and how to be one of them)
- What buyers are really looking for—and why they’ll walk away from a “rescue project”
- How AI and automation can drive real optimization without a huge team
- The step-by-step process to optimize your sales flow, onboarding, and delivery
- Why optimized systems reduce earn-outs, seller financing, and buyer risk
- What founders can do today to increase leverage, cash at close, and sale success
Links Mentioned:
✅ 7 Ways to Incorporate AI Into Your Business (Free Guide)
✅ The Changes Assessment (Find What’s Broken in Your Business)
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Connect with Lani Dickinson:
📌 Instagram: @stealthfreedomtoexit
📌 Facebook: Lani Dickinson
🌐 Website: stealthfreedomtoexit.com
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Transcript
>> Lani Dickinson: Today we're going to talk about optimization is
Speaker:the exit strategy, how AI can help you
Speaker:finish what most founders won't. So welcome
Speaker:back to the Freedom to Exit podcast. Today we're going to dive
Speaker:into a hard truth that most founders don't really want to
Speaker:hear. Only one in five businesses actually sell. Not
Speaker:because the rest didn't make any money, or not because they weren't doing
Speaker:good work, not because they weren't good at what they did, but
Speaker:because they never finished building something someone else
Speaker:would actually want to buy. They started tweaking
Speaker:the offer, they tried optimizing the follow up, they built a
Speaker:funnel and tested some subject lines, but they never truly
Speaker:optimized anything all the way through the
Speaker:last three years, I've been working with businesses from 1 to
Speaker:20 million dollars. And I can tell you I have not
Speaker:yet found a founder who wants to stick with the
Speaker:boring stuff long enough to fully optimize it
Speaker:the way we would have done it in corporate. Buyers,
Speaker:they can tell instantly. So I'd like to
Speaker:share sort of the corporate versus founder thinking,
Speaker:let's call it what it is. Big companies
Speaker:optimize every single step of
Speaker:the process, from market research to product,
Speaker:market fit, to speed, to lead, to churn, to
Speaker:profit margin, definitely in cost of
Speaker:delivery. They use data, they test and
Speaker:retest, they make a change. They
Speaker:test and retest, they make every part of
Speaker:the business a machine without losing
Speaker:the touch. Most founders, they will change
Speaker:a headline, run a new ad, and then say
Speaker:it didn't work. Why? We're busy, we're
Speaker:reactive of a little entrepreneurial add,
Speaker:and if we don't see results in five minutes, we move on.
Speaker:Or we undervalue. Just how much
Speaker:optimization can give us because it's boring.
Speaker:We're always on to the next thing, the
Speaker:next idea, the adrenaline rush. But that
Speaker:is where the riches come in. So here's where
Speaker:founders get stuck. They stop around 60% effort.
Speaker:We get a few lead, we get a few sales and we
Speaker:declare that part done even with the
Speaker:follow up is weak. Maybe the onboarding is leaky and no
Speaker:one knows what to do next. Onboarding is
Speaker:incredibly important to retention. So you've got to
Speaker:know the data points and what works
Speaker:well, the real magic, the revenue, the freedom. You
Speaker:built your business for the valuation so you can
Speaker:walk away and live the life you want. At the end of all of
Speaker:this, that comes from that last
Speaker:20% of optimization. That's what the buyers
Speaker:see. And AI and automation is
Speaker:the optimization engine. You
Speaker:need to really get that last 20%. But how do you
Speaker:finish what you start? Well, again, AI and
Speaker:automation. Because AI never gets bored,
Speaker:never skips steps. However it's designed,
Speaker:it's going to follow the steps. It always
Speaker:executes just the way you want it to and it
Speaker:captures the data and brings it back so you can make
Speaker:decisions to do it better. It doesn't just automate the
Speaker:task, it shows you exactly where
Speaker:the system is breaking down and what's working
Speaker:best. So you get the visibility you need and
Speaker:the consistency you need to have a business you can
Speaker:actually improve. One you might actually learn to love again. One that
Speaker:gets you home at night so your wife loves it again.
Speaker:When I talk about this, people freak out. Do I have to change
Speaker:everything? I mean, my assessment is called the changes assessment.
Speaker:Lonnie, you love change. That's true. I do love change.
Speaker:Because I like better, I like better, I
Speaker:like faster, I like more. But no, you don't have to overall
Speaker:your whole business all at once. I like to say
Speaker:let's start closest to cash one so you can
Speaker:get the reward for doing the work. But
Speaker:also when you generate more cash, you can pay other people
Speaker:to do the work. You can make the investments you need to
Speaker:make into the business to automate more or better
Speaker:improve things without impacting your lifestyle. So I
Speaker:say let's start closest to cash and first let's
Speaker:optimize lead response. Let's fix the leaky
Speaker:bucket, capture everything that's coming to us
Speaker:and then work on the process to improve
Speaker:every step of that. And then let's optimize the
Speaker:qualification process to make sure that we
Speaker:are not getting humans involved with people who aren't
Speaker:ready to buy or qualified to buy. So we optimize
Speaker:qualification, then let's optimize
Speaker:onboarding. Onboarding is so
Speaker:critical to repeat buyers and
Speaker:reducing churn. Let's spend some time and
Speaker:some of the cash we just generated on improving the
Speaker:onboarding experience. Then delivery, then review and
Speaker:referral, reflow, then renewals and database
Speaker:reactivations. AI lets you optimize
Speaker:one piece at a time based upon real time, good
Speaker:data and feedback so that you're not
Speaker:guessing and the changes you make are
Speaker:based upon really good chances that you're going to make
Speaker:an improved decision because you used data.
Speaker:You don't need a huge team to do this. You need a
Speaker:system that works and tells you what to fix
Speaker:next.
Speaker:So here's what buyers are actually looking for and I want you to
Speaker:hear this loud and clear. Buyers aren't
Speaker:looking for a Rescue project. That's why only
Speaker:one in five businesses sell. They want a solid
Speaker:business with room to grow. It does not have to be perfect,
Speaker:but it cannot be a total rescue turnaround
Speaker:project. I was a turnaround CEO for most
Speaker:of my career. They're not looking for turnarounds.
Speaker:When they see something that needs a complete
Speaker:turnaround, they just move on. When they see a solid
Speaker:business with room to grow, they see you've automated the
Speaker:boring stuff. You've, you've optimized
Speaker:the core processes. You're tracking what matters and
Speaker:doing something with it and the machine runs without you.
Speaker:They lean in because they see where they
Speaker:can plug in their team, their talent, their
Speaker:resources and scale it even further.
Speaker:Remember, in a sale, the buyer is
Speaker:buying future cash flows and
Speaker:certainty about those future cash flows. So
Speaker:when you're looking to say who would want to
Speaker:acquire me, you're ideally building a business that will
Speaker:fit well into the buyer's business.
Speaker:Because they're going to say, with all these resources we
Speaker:have, how could we make this thing go faster,
Speaker:scale bigger? Right? So you can't be just
Speaker:totally broken. The key is having done the
Speaker:work no one wants to do, that makes you more valuable.
Speaker:It also helps with seller financing and earn outs.
Speaker:Here's why those things happen. Let's talk about the money. You
Speaker:know those deals where the founder sells, but they're still
Speaker:showing up every day, stuck in the earn out,
Speaker:chasing their own money. The cash
Speaker:flow from the existing business is now paying them a
Speaker:paycheck as an employee. It's because the buyer
Speaker:didn't trust the business to run without the founder.
Speaker:And there is a whole army of young buyers being
Speaker:trained how to buy your
Speaker:business with no money down. Seller financing
Speaker:keep you in three to five years to run the business and train
Speaker:everybody that they need to bring on. Why is that?
Speaker:Why don't they trust the business? Why do they need to keep you around?
Speaker:Because the systems weren't consistent, the data wasn't there, the
Speaker:process wasn't proven, it was too dependent on you. So the buyer
Speaker:says, we'll give you some money now and the rest later. If
Speaker:this actually works. It doesn't always work. Which means
Speaker:that second bite of the apple, that second payout,
Speaker:it often doesn't come like it's described in the beginning.
Speaker:That's not what most founders want. In fact,
Speaker:less than 27% of founders make
Speaker:it through their earn out period. They give up, they can't
Speaker:do it. They can't make the changes that the buyer
Speaker:needs made. So they're gone so that second piece of the
Speaker:pie doesn't come. Buyers want a, clean
Speaker:sale. They want to be able to know
Speaker:with certainty that cash is going to come later. And they
Speaker:want to know that they have process in a team that's going to stay
Speaker:and people who are committed and all of those things. What founders
Speaker:want a clean sale, cash at close and
Speaker:the freedom they built this thing for in the first place.
Speaker:There aren't very many founders who want toa stay five more
Speaker:years as an employee with no control over the
Speaker:decisions now will optimizing everything
Speaker:guaranteed no earn out all cash deal all
Speaker:upfront? Of course not. But it definitely
Speaker:increases your leverage because it
Speaker:lowers their risk. And that's
Speaker:what buyers are paying for. Cash with
Speaker:certainty.
Speaker:Due diligence in momentum matter as well, because you know what
Speaker:else makes buyer and nervous? Silence.
Speaker:So when due diligence takes place and it
Speaker:starts going slower and taking forever and questions aren't getting
Speaker:answered quickly, just like the
Speaker:buyers, your potential clients, they want
Speaker:answers. 90% of them want answers in under 10
Speaker:minutes. Due diligence is a lot like that. They
Speaker:assume the worst if you're being quiet or taking
Speaker:time to put things together. But if you've got AI and
Speaker:automation in place for a while, you've got clean
Speaker:reports, you've got clear answers, you've got
Speaker:documentation, you've got momentum, you
Speaker:have data you can explain, oh, we did this, we did that,
Speaker:and improved in this way. And so we put a little ad
Speaker:money on, we scaled that faster. And because you have data
Speaker:stored in the computer and ideally in your due diligence
Speaker:deal room, I have a podcast about that. Go listen to that.
Speaker:It's ready to go. And it increases their
Speaker:certainty that what they're looking at buying is
Speaker:this dog is really going to hunt. So momentum keeps the
Speaker:deal alive. Now here is the power of finishing what
Speaker:you started. Optimization isn't about
Speaker:perfection. It never gets to perfection because the market
Speaker:changes, people change. So we're always
Speaker:optimizing. It's about completing something, just
Speaker:one piece, and then stacking on the next.
Speaker:And when each piece is consistent, documented
Speaker:and automated, you've got something that can scale,
Speaker:something that can sell, something that doesn't depend on you
Speaker:being there to babysit it every day, which makes
Speaker:your family happy.
Speaker:So if you're ready to stop half building your
Speaker:business and actually finish optimizing,
Speaker:here are some steps I'd like you to download the free guide,
Speaker:the seven ways to incorporate AI into your business. Today you'll
Speaker:learn exactly how you can start automating on a
Speaker:small scale that's not too scary and see
Speaker:where to begin optimizing and even listen to a
Speaker:real AI call in action so you can verify that
Speaker:AI's voice is not robotic anymore. You can also
Speaker:take the changes assessment which will help you
Speaker:pinpoint the most stuck part of your system.
Speaker:This assessment will tell you exactly what buyers
Speaker:are going to see when they come to peel back the curtains. It
Speaker:was written by me and I used to do acquisitions in
Speaker:due diligence so's I know how this stuff
Speaker:gets used against you in a sale and it will
Speaker:show you how to start to get moving. Both links are in the show
Speaker:notes and in closing I'd like to say you don't need to
Speaker:optimize everything, you just need to finish
Speaker:optimizing something and start closest to
Speaker:cash. That will have a big impact. Buyers don't
Speaker:expect perfect, but they won't pay for chaos
Speaker:either. Thank you for tuning in today. As always, I'd
Speaker:love for you to subscribe and to share this episode with somebody who
Speaker:needs to hear it. Thanks so much for joining M.
