How One Key Hire Helped Dimple Up Their Value By 500% in 2.5 Years
April 6, 2018 |
Want to increase the value of your business by up to 71%?
Take the 13-minute survey and get your Value Builder Score
About this episode
Subscribe:
Teetering on the brink of liquidation, a key hire at Dimple led to a dramatic turnaround that resulted in a $13.4M exit.
Damien James started Dimple in 1997 to help people living in aged-care facilities by visiting them and offering podiatry (foot care) services.
He built the company to $200k EBITDA when he realized his company might need a different kind of executive in order to keep growing.
James hired a new CEO, and together they grew the company to $11M in revenue and $2.4M EBITDA in just over two years. That’s when Zenitas Healthcare acquired Dimple for $13.4M.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- The signs that someone on your management team may be a “bad apple”
- Clues to spotting a rain-maker during the hiring process
- How strategic acquirers position themselves for purchase
- Options for structuring an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)
- A clever tactic to avoid an earn out
- Pitfalls to avoid after the sale
James scaled his business by offering a unique service to old age homes, which made Dimple attractive to a strategic buyer who wanted to offer other services through the same channel. Module 2 of The Value Builder System™ helps you identify a unique service of your own with the most potential to scale up the fastest. Get started for free right now by completing Module 1.
About Our Guest
Damien lives in Melbourne – the official sporting capital of the world – and loves the ‘Mighty Tiges’ who finally won their first AFL Premiership in 37 years last September. 4 weeks earlier Damien sold his business for $13.4 million, which was valued at a $2.54 million just 2.5 years earlier. Damien is enormously grateful to have experienced this special sequence of events and describes it as the best 3 months of his life.
Related to this topic
Business Exit Lessons Learned After Interviewing Hundreds of Entrepreneurs
Listen now to hear the lessons Bo Burlingham has learned after interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs regarding their business exit.
Are you stacking a few Benjamins?
, a personal finance podcast. Sehy’s journey was unusual: he started as a financial advisor, building a firm with $65MM in assets under management until he received a letter prompting him to sell.
The Kevin Harrington Way to Structure the Sale of Your Business
Mark Timm built Cottage Garden, a company selling decorative music boxes, to $8 million in revenue and around $1 million in EBITDA when he decided to sell it.
Timm sold the business for around 4.5 times EBITDA. He got half of his cash upfront, with the other half paid over a five-year earn-out. Timm not only stayed for his earn-out but when the acquirer decided to move the offices of Cottage Garden, Timm agreed to repurchase the business, only to sell it two years later, for a second time.
Nathaniel Broughton grew Spread Effect to a $4 million company in only four years — so why would he sell for a rock bottom multiple?
The Surprising Story Behind PetSmart’s Acquisition of AllPaws
Back in 2013, on the heels of building a successful online dating application, Darrell Lerner decided to apply his experience in the dating industry to pet adoption. He built a website and mobile app called AllPaws which allows users to find a pet based on a variety of criteria important to people considering adopting an animal.
Peach New Media was launched in 2001 and sold in 2015 by Dave Will. Will had built his software company up to 40 employees when he received an offer from the private equity group Accel-KKR that he simply could not refuse.
Why The Fine Print In Your Acquisition Offer Matters
Before the pandemic, fancy salad bars were popping up in major cities across the US, making the category one of the fastest-growing sectors of the restaurant industry. Despite their popularity in major cities, when Ana Chaud moved to Portland, Oregon, she was surprised to see a shortage of good salad options.
Lessons From a A £20 Million Exit
Have you ever stayed in a fancy hotel and wondered how much they pay Aveda for those little bottles of shampoo? Turns out, there is a company called Pacific Direct that acts as a middleman between the hotel chain and the company supplying the shampoo.
Nick Huber was a track star at Cornell when he fielded a call from a parent that would change his life. A fellow student needed to store their stuff over the summer, and Huber was offered money to pick up his classmate’s stuff and keep it until the fall. Huber realized that other students who lived out-of-state might need a similar service, and Storage Squad was born.
The Backstory Behind Dream Water's $34.5M Exit
David Lekach started Dream Water; a natural sleep aid bottled in a 5 oz shot similar to the famous 5-Hour Energy Drink.
Lekach built Dream Water up to almost $10 million in annual revenue before selling it to Harvest One, a cannabis company, for $34.5 million in cash and Harvest One stock.
Exit Like a Tycoon Without Losing Your Soul
In 1995, with just $5,000 in start-up capital, Ashok Vasudevan launched Tasty Bite offering ready-to-eat Indian entrees to American consumers.
Twenty-five years later, Tasty Bite is America’s largest brand of prepared Indian food sold everywhere, from Walmart to Whole Foods. In 2017, Vasudevan announced he had sold the company to Mars, which has a portfolio of beloved brands including everything from Uncle Ben’s to Skittles.
How Matchmaking By Microsoft Led To One Of 2018’s Biggest Technology Deals
Mergers can be painful. But when Mitchell Feldman was approached by Microsoft about merging with another company, the result was a match not even HPE could resist.