Entrepreneurs:
Want to escape a rut, without putting your business at risk?
Your mission over the next month, should you choose to accept it, is to map out your Quantum Leap Blueprint: a plan to deliver those dreams of yours that got lost along the way, while you were building the business (to set you free) that became a prison!
Do you feel that the business you created as your 'getaway car' has turned into a treadmill?
Most entrepreneurs strike off from the beaten path for the sake of freedom: freedom to create something new, different & better; freedom from the shackles of corporate hierarchy & politics; and, of course, financial freedom.
But the irony is that, all too often, the vehicle which was supposed to give you freedom entraps you. The struggle to take off can come to feel like a treadmill. Then, again, success brings its own challenges; growth requires structure and many entrepreneurs dislike dealing with the burden of bureaucracy that comes with organisational growth.
Meanwhile, as you grapple to get the business the way you want it, you relegate personal aspirations. You're an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs are focussed and driven, by nature. So, often, family and friends have to take a back seat too. "Just for the time being", you said to yourself ... but how long have you been saying that now?
Having worked exclusively with Entrepreneurs since I founded Shield in 2001 to defend their interests at Exit, I know first-hand the frustrations we Entrepreneurs can feel as we go on and on sacrificing time and personal aspirations in order to establish the businesses we believe in, notwithstanding economic headwinds and turbulent times.
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"If I can just hang on 'til Exit...!"
Maybe you will achieve an exquisite exit one day, that hits all your targets for money, management and meaning. But how long will it take? What will you lose along the way? And what if you don't get the exit you want, due to all the uncertainties of life - especially these days?
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"It's about time I got something out of this for me!"
You've been putting personal hopes and aspirations on the back-burner for so long that you've begun to wonder whether you'll ever get to them. What if you never do?
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"I've been putting my life and my family on hold for years, waiting for WHAT?"
Maybe your business has done well. But your kids are growing up and won't be around forever. Do you have the work/life balance you (and your family) need?
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"Something's gotta give!"
Is the noise and vibration in your life getting so intense that you wonder how long it's all sustainable? Can you afford to press on until something goes 'bang'?
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"There are other things I want to do in life, beyond my demanding business"
And it's not only fun you're missing out on. You would have liked to make a contribution on some other stage; to have started 'giving back'; to have helped others. When are you going to get around to doing any of that, the way you would have liked?
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"On their deathbed, nobody regretted not spending enough time at work"
We only have one life. Are you living yours the way you want to now? If not, when (& how) will you change course?
At last:
1-month coaching programme to get you moving in the direction of your dreams, with a rut-busting Blueprint for your own
Quantum Leap in life
This 4-week coaching course is designed to deliver you a clear, written plan for escaping the ruts that have been restraining you, into a life where your personal and business dreams are integrated and invigorating.
I guarantee that you will find fresh clarity about the life you long for, both business-wise and personally, and how to move towards it.
Imagine the relief and the energy that will flow from that kind of clarity!
Your mission over the next month, should you choose to accept it, is to map out your Quantum Leap Blueprint: a plan to deliver those dreams of yours that got lost along the way while you were building your business, and to integrate your personal and professional dreams!
David Young, Exit Expert,
Founder & CEO, Shield Corporate Finance Ltd
Life isn't easy for us entrepreneurs, even at the best of times.
We're so driven to make a success of our business that we give our dreams a back seat. Although we set out to find freedom and give life to our longings, ironically, we often find ourselves on a treadmill of our own making.
Even if we're willing to put our dreams on hold until we achieve an exquisite exit, we may pay a hefty price for our heroic single-mindedness - through ill-health, relationship break-down or turbulent times.
That's what happened to me in 2007. My then-wife and I were each pursuing success in our respective businesses, had failed to integrate our dreams and were leading parallel lives. By the time she had appointed divorce lawyers, it was too late to save the family I had worked long & hard to provide for! The Global Financial Crisis came on top, creating a perfect storm that I only narrowly managed to survive.
In the days and years that followed, I threw out the baby (my key to success) with the bitter bathwater of failure.
It was years before I remembered that key to success; the simple, hidden truth that had transformed life for the better once I had been given it and applied it.
Once I started using that key in my daily decision-making, fresh winds arose, my sails filled and I was suddenly moving forward with fresh momentum, and joy again, at last.
These days I help Owner-Managers not only to get remarkable results at Exit, but to integrate their dreams with their life, STARTING NOW!
Paradoxically, this integration of personal- and work-life powers surprising progress all round. All my experience working for decades with Entrepreneurs shows that businesses flourish when their Owner-Managers flourish.
So the good news is that reviving your life dreams does NOT put your business at risk; on the contrary, integrating your dreams for your life and your business will breathe new life into both! That's certainly been my experience.
I'd love to show you how. It's all unfolded in my 'Quantum Leap' coaching for entrepreneurs, which is designed to empower you to get to much greater levels of success and satisfaction in life and in business. You are welcome to jump right in with a monthly subscription.
Or, if you'd like to learn more about my approach to 'life coaching for Entrepreneurs', I run a 1-month 'Quantum Leap Blueprint' course, designed to deliver you a clear plan for weaving what you love into what you do, every day. After that, you can go it alone or have me ride along with you; that's up to you.
Either way, I'm ready when you are. But, for getting started, there's no time like the present!
David Young, Founder & CEO, Shield Corporate Finance Ltd
I will coach you though my 'L.E.A.P.' process to produce your
'Quantum Leap Blueprint' in a month!
Here are the steps we'll be taking to map out your Quantum L.E.A.P. Blueprint:
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1. Look At What You Love, To Point You Towards Your Potential
- We look at your past peak experiences for evidence of your 'motivated abilities'; the gifts you love to use
- We look at your longings (= pointers to your potential)
- We analyse what you find painful (=clues to unmet needs)
- We assess your personality (for contexts where you thrive)
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2. Excavate the Obstacles To Your Growth
- We screen for (& neutralize) limiting beliefs, often adopted subconsciously in childhood and at odds with your conscious beliefs, which can sabotage your success
- We dismantle the barriers you may have erected to block success, sometimes because of the worries success entails for you
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3. Act To Clarify Your Dreams & Sow Their Seeds Into Your Daily Life
- We have a way of testing your dreams to see if they really resonate with you, before you invest in pursuing them
- But then you need to nurture them to fruition, from seed to seedling to full-grown plant! We'll show you how to tackle this, both psychologically & practically
- You need to take the steps you can towards your dreams, not fretting about what you can't yet do. You'll be surprised by the hope & energy this liberates!
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4. Prepare For Your Dreams To Come True
- Allow for change in the direction of your dreams; don't block it
- Stay positive and open
- Encourage those close to you to nurture their dreams too
- Seek to refine and integrate your dreams together
- Log progress & celebrate successes!
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5. Commit Your Blueprint To Paper
You'll want to capture all the precious insights you gain over our month together, so that you have a record to take with you into your future. This will serve to guide your daily practices and to inspire you to develop further dreams as you proceed and see the original ones coming to fruition for you and your loved ones
Each week, we'll have two sessions together:
- A teaching session early on, with an assignment for you to do during the week;
- An end-of week discussion of your assignment and next steps
You'll also have a reading list, to enable you to go deeper if and where you wish.
Plan on spending 3-4 hours a week for the month on your Quantum Leap Blueprint coaching.
This may be the best investment you'll ever make!
Warning: your business is very likely to improve as you start getting your life back!
To reinforce your results from the
'Quantum Leap Blueprint' coaching,
I'm adding 3 special bonuses if you take action ahead of the deadline:
(I want you to be fully equipped for this exciting process, and I want to make your return on your investment in it so good that signing up is the only sensible thing to do!)
BONUS ONE
A 1:1 conversation with me personally, to clarify your motivation for this mini-coaching
My mission is to help each Owner-Manager I work with to discover (or dust-off) and integrate their dreams, in all areas of their lives.
So I'm offering to commit one hour to each Action-Taker who commits to this "Quantum Leap Blueprint" live coaching course. Whether by Zoom or by phone, as you prefer, let's discuss your current situation. This session is a gift to action-takers, worth £500!
BONUS TWO
'Secrets of Business Sale Success', my signature video course, worth £2,000, free!
In this powerful training, I distil the secrets of success in selling a business from my 35 years of professional experience in Mergers & Acquisitions, seeing some ghastly failures as well as many stunning successes. Gold dust!
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What potential buyers really want and actually fear
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How to succeed by offering potential buyers a good, reliable return on their investment.
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Case studies to show you how much is possible for small businesses that have good potential growth and/or strategic value for strong acquirors!
BONUS THREE
A free copy of my book 'Increase & Extract the Value of Your Business'
This jargon-busting booklet, co-written with a business leader and a motivational mentor, is designed to encourage you to get to grips with the levers of value in YOUR business by de-mystifying financial mumbo-jumbo so that you can pursue and defend the value of your business confidently! RRP £19
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You can read its 40 pages in a weekend. (I'll give you the £27 audio version too!)
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Your clarity and confidence in goal-setting for your business will surge
Now let's put this in perspective:
What's the cost of failing to integrate your personal and professional dreams?
What's it worth to eliminate the risk that something gives, before you ever get to your exquisite exit?
The pain resulting from a seriously unbalanced life can be immense; it can even involve health- or relationship-breakdown, apart from the effects on your business of you, its leader, feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.
I have seen so many cases, over the years, of hard-working Entrepreneurs suffering from a lack of balance and integration in their lives that I felt compelled to do something about it.
This life-coaching for Entrepreneurs is the result. I'm extending a hand of help. Now it's over to you: will you take it?
Total Package Value: £4,543
Action-Taker Price: £1,997
(Before the Timer Hits Zero)
100% Privacy. We Will Never Spam You!
You Are Protected By My
Personal Guarantee
"By the end of this program, I guarantee that you will have a Quantum Leap Blueprint, or I'll work with you 1:1 to craft it!"
David Young
Founder & CEO, Shield Corporate Finance Limited
Questions?
We welcome questions! (And we have one or two answers)
1. "Is this for me?" FAQs
I'm flat out with my business already. Can I really afford to add to my To-Do List?
You're in good company; many entrepreneurs think they should tackle their dreams sequentially. "Let me get the business sorted first; then I'll be able to turn to other aspects of life."
But it tends to take much longer to "get the business sorted" than you first thought. It's a bit like climbing a mountain; you reach a ridge, only to find many more stretching out ahead.
During my two decades running Shield, I've seen many dedicated entrepreneurs getting so frustrated along the way that the business suffers and their motivation sinks. It even happened to me, at one point. I wish I knew then what I have learned myself the hard way.
The thing is, it's dangerous to repress parts of what we need, and to relegate some things we love while ruthlessly prioritising others. We wouldn't defer sleeping or eating for months or years on end. Yet entrepreneurs can drive themselves (and their loved ones) into states of severe deprivation that have ways of back-firing on them.
So the real question is: "can you afford not to pursue your goals in an integrated way?"
You can still set priorities, but the sheer fact that you've included everything you want in your dream-weaving framework is liberating and energising in itself!
I've decided to Exit (sell, or hand over to management). Why not do that first?
Before you bite the bullet on Exit, are you sure you're doing it for the right reasons? What is driving your Exit thinking? Is it the value-maximising thing to do right now? Or have you just had enough and want to move on?
This coaching course will help you see what is motivating you (& frustrating you) and explore ways of dealing with the things that bother you about the business, so that there is no danger of you getting out for the wrong reasons or at a sub-optimal time.
I've sold my business already. So what's the point of a Quantum Leap Blueprint?
Congratulations on the sale! But as an entrepreneur, I doubt you'll be hanging up your boots just yet!
Before you get too deeply immersed in new projects, this is a great time to take stock of what your really want to get out of life, for you and your family.
As long as we have life, we have longings. It's never too late to learn how to cultivate your current crop of dreams!
Having sold one business, you have the luxury of being well placed to invest in the next phase of your life. Why not stack the odds of future success in your favour by getting yourself a Quantum Leap Blueprint?
2. Support FAQs
So what happens, week by week?
The coaching is very much a live, real-life experience! You'll have weekly live video conference calls led by David Young, to explain and discuss the weekly training materials released earlier in the week.
Those training sessions early in the week will also be live, and may include some pre-recorded videos, as well as PDF's and Worksheets for your weekly assignments to build your Blueprint.
You have unlimited email interaction with your coach, David Young, on course assignments and any and all questions arising.
So the course is highly interactive, stimulating and fun!
How much help and interaction do I get?
My goal is to get you a Quantum Leap Blueprint in one month.
So this is highly interactive! The twice-weekly live video coaching sessions, coupled with unlimited email interaction on the weekly assignments, will give you all the support you need to succeed.
What if I can't attend all the sessions?
This coaching is tailored for you. So we'll have to figure out how to adjust our schedule to work around your constraints.
Some training materials are recorded, so you can absorb those in your own time. But the main weekly discussion sessions need to be live. I'm willing to be flexible to accommodate you, devoting evening and/or weekend time to your progress, if that helps us maintain momentum!
3. Billing FAQs
Are you sure this is tax-deductible?
Yes. I am a coach and consultant on Exit Planning and Business Value Maximisation for Owner-Managers. Usually I invoice the business for management consulting, so the cost is a tax-deductible expense of the business.
Incidentally, where VAT is payable (eg by UK clients), that is fully recoverable through the business.
You're not offering a payment plan?
Well, this is a one-month coaching programme, remember. Let's keep things simple!
Can I pay with Paypal, as well as with a credit card?
Yes, you can pay with either.
Or both ;-)
What do our clients say?
I've been assisting entrepreneurs on the journey to Exit since I founded Shield in 2001, to defend Owner-Managers in a world of financial advice biased in favour of buyers (who are obviously the repeat clients of the big banks and their lawyers). From an initial focus on sale transactions alone, I have progressively moved upstream as well, into value-building, Exit Planning and now integrated dream-weaving for Owner-Managers.
"Given the turbulent economic times, I called David for him to assess Rubicon’s valuation alongside his professional opinion on suitable ‘Exit’ and ‘De-Risking’ options. That turned out to be one of the best “instructions” I’ve made in my business career as we’ve now completed a sale that’s: • achieved a multi-million pound sale that exceeded expectations • left Rubicon’s staff even more motivated and engaged • been much cheaper to administer than a trade sale • retained my control of the business for the foreseeable future • granted additional earn-outs • provided the freedom to issue shares to myself and key managers down the line and • been completely free of tax liabilities. In essence this has been a massive “win/win” for me, my business partner, the staff and the business as a going concern. David is the man to consult if you're serious about preparing for your 'exit'."
Lloyd Banks
Founder & Managing Director, Rubicon People Partnership
"They were superb, guiding us through a very demanding sale process, very innovative, attentive and refreshingly straightforward to deal with. It was very reassuring to have Shield by our side.
I cannot commend them highly enough."
Eduardo Loigorri
Founder & Former Managing Director, Exchequer Software Limited
"Hiring Shield was probably one of the best decisions we ever made. Having built a business for thirteen years, in the last three months we managed to triple its value"
Joe Zammit Lucia
Founder, Former President and CEO, Cambridge Pharma Consultancy
Susan Achmatowicz
Founder, Country Lanes Limited
"Shield helped me reshape my company's strategy (away from package tourism and towards cycle hire operations at strategic tourist destinations) in a way that made it more attractive. They found buyers when all the obvious candidates had withdrawn. And they maintained competitive tension. As an ex-banker myself, I can safely say that I have never seen such great value delivered in a corporate finance transaction before. Shield was able to bring investment banking expertise to a much smaller transaction size than the investment banks would look at."
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