What If 85% of Your Net Worth Were in Coca-Cola?

Imagine 85 percent of everything you own sitting in one stock. Say, Coca-Cola.

You'd know the price every morning. You'd read every earnings release. You'd know what the dividend paid you last year and whether management hit the guidance it gave. And at some point, someone who cares about you would sit you down and ask what the plan was for selling some of it.

Now swap Coca-Cola for the company you own.

For most business owners, that 85 percent isn't hypothetical. It's the business and the building it operates from. Except this holding has no ticker, no daily price, no analysts, and nobody asking about the plan.

Five questions you could answer about Coke

If you held Coca-Cola stock, you could answer these without hesitation:

1.       What is it worth? A price quoted every second.

2.       What did it pay me? Dividends, and a yield you can compare.

3.       Did it do what it said it would? Quarterly results against guidance.

4.       Where is it headed? A published strategy and outlook.

5.       Who's watching it? A board and outside analysts.

Now try them on your business. Most owners get through one, maybe two.

That isn't a failing. Nobody ever asked you to answer them.

Every one has a private version

Public companies answer those questions because they're required to. A board. Quarterly calls. Analyst targets. A readiness process before they list. None of it requires going public. Every piece has a private version, sized for a company like yours.

Fill in the other column

On Wednesday, October 28, I'm hosting my first webinar on the Go Public in Private framework. We'll take those five questions and work through the private-company answer to each one: how to put a value on the business, measure what it actually returns, forecast where it's going, and decide how much of that 85 percent should stay where it is.

Bring your answers, or your blanks. Either works.

Wednesday, October 28 | 2:00 PM CT [REGISTER HERE]

Can't make it live? Register anyway and you'll get the recording.

Coca-Cola is referenced for illustration only (and because my coworker Chris loves the stuff). It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.