Got, got, need!
If you grew up before the turn of the century, you’ll remember this phrase from the school playground. It was classic football sticker collecting chat, heard when you got down to the serious business of swapping sticker doubles with your friends in an attempt to complete your collection.
This year’s summer of sport got us reminiscing about the heady days of excitedly running to the local newsagents with our pocket money to buy stickers, ripping them open to find out which players we’d got. If there was a ‘shiny’ in there, even better! Those were worth so much more than any squad player.
Nostalgia aside, the art of completing your sticker collection has a few comparisons with business sales and exit planning. Humour us as we take a light-hearted look at collecting football stickers and the stages of selling a business.
Diversification adds commercial value
Physical sticker books have been around since the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, and always produced by Panini. Over the years, they have added new products to attract die-hard collectors, like hardback sticker books and official branded tins to keep your spares in. Earlier this year it was announced that FIFA and Panini would cut ties after the 2030 World Cup. The commercial juggernaut that is FIFA will pursue alternative revenue streams from 2031.
Diversifying your portfolio in business is a sure-fire way to spread risk, explore new markets and attract and retain customers. A balanced product or service offering is highly sought-after by buyers.
Digital first
While paper sticker albums remain in demand, for the 2026 competition there was also an app for that. Collectors could scan a QR code on sticker packets to download a digital sticker album and purchase digital versions of stickers to fill it with. It did lose some of the nostalgia of opening the packet, seeing what you’ve got and carefully peeling off the reverse and sticking them in your album, but proved popular amongst younger audiences.
When the first Panini World Cup sticker album came out in 1970, the conditions for selling a business were very different to today. There were no digital tools, searches or communications to support the sales and marketing process. No mobile phones – not even a fax machine! The whole deal would have been done with paper and pen through word of mouth, newspaper advertising and face-to-face meetings.
These days, digital channels help speed up buying and selling processes, especially due diligence. Online portals provide a secure and easy way for all parties to share and access documents. It is such an efficient way of doing things, it makes us wonder how long a deal would have taken back in the day!
You might not get back what you invest
Scientists have done probability studies on the chances of completing your football sticker album. In 2026, with 48 teams in the competition and a 112-page album with 980 stickers, you would have to spend more than £1,000 so complete your album!
Completed albums from the 2026 FIFA World Cup are selling around the £500 mark. That’s probably more than it cost to buy the stickers to fill them. However, if you hold on to your completed album, there’s a high likelihood it would increase in value.
It’s the same when selling your business. There’s a real possibility that the value of your business won’t meet your initial expectations of what it’s worth. Owners know exactly how much they have invested in building their business and expect to get this back when they sell. Buyers assess businesses with very different set of criteria in mind. They look for things like growth opportunities, recurring income, market share, healthy cash flow, and a secure management team.
The good news is there are ways to build value in your business before you put it up for sale, and for that…
…you need a strategy
Sticker collecting isn’t solely focused on buying packets of stickers. Collectors plan to swap with friends, bulk buy to reduce costs, attend ‘swapsie meet ups’ and, as a last resort, purchase missing stickers online at a cost of 45p each. Having a strategy increases their chances of completion and the time it takes to do this.
The Value Builder System™ is a proven methodology for increasing company value.
The System uses tools to assess personal and financial readiness to exit, and allows us to create an exit plan that anticipates each stage of the sale process. We can benchmark your business against actual sales data of thousands of companies around the world. The results give us an accurate summary of business value and inform the strategy to increase this.
Time is of the essence
The 2026 World Cup tournament lasted 5 weeks, and sticker packs on sale for around 3 to 4 months. With a finite amount of stickers printed, the sooner you start your collection, the higher the probability that you will complete it.
The same applies to building value in your business. If you want to sell your business to retire or move on to something new, the earlier you start planning your exit, the better. Planning ahead could increase the value of your business by more than 70%.
Find a partner you can trust
Having a plan is great, but having someone you can partner with is even better. Those friends who will keep a lookout for the players and special or shiny stickers you need to complete your collection. You can achieve more working as a team.
When selling your business. as a minimum you need a solicitor and an accountant you can trust. Appointing a business exit consultant or business broker is optional, but most of our clients say they couldn’t have done it without us! Read what some of them have to say about their experience of working with us.
We can’t claim to have ever completed a World Cup sticker album, but as business exit consultants we have helped hundreds of business owners to sell their businesses and achieve a realistic sale price. To start planning your business exit strategy, contact us or book a discovery call with one of our team.
