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August 10, 2018 |
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A service-based company can be a tough sell, so Eric Enge found a buyer while his best asset was still on the table: himself.
Eric Enge founded Stone Temple Consulting in 1997. By the time he sold it in 2018, the marketing services business had almost 70 employees, $9 million in annual revenue, and counted fifteen Fortune 500 level among its client base.
Successfully selling a service-based business can be hard. Enge knew that one of Stone Temple’s key assets was himself. To get the best deal he could, he chose to sell while he was still prepared to stay with the new acquirer as part of an earn out. He also found a buyer who had a strategic need for a company like Stone Temple Consulting. Find out how he got out on his own terms, by staying with the team he built.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Since a service-based business’s biggest assets are its people, earn-outs are common when these businesses sell. Value Builder can help service companies identify growth opportunities that aren’t dependent on any one person. When it’s time to sell, owners who have used Value Builder can negotiate a deal that isn’t as heavily weighted towards earn outs. To find out how, get started for free right now by completing Module 1.
Eric Enge was named 2016 Search Marketer of the Year (Male) at the Landys, and 2016 Search Personality of the Year at the US Search Awards. Enge has been speaking about digital marketing for more than a decade. He keynotes many conferences every year, including Pubcon Las Vegas 2017 in a joint keynote with Google’s Gary Illyes, and State of Search. Enge is co-author of The Art of SEO, and also writes columns in sites such as Search Engine Land, and Moz.
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The company took off.
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In this special episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow reveals the downside of trying to time the market and shares four alternative ways to know when to sell.
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Touraj Parang has experienced the highs and lows of selling a company.
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Parang left Webs.com and joined GoDaddy as a leader in their acquisitions group, where they acquired dozens of companies during his tenure.
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In 2012, Jaclyn Johnson founded Create & Cultivate, a media company that educates and inspires women to succeed in business.
By 2018, Johnson had grown Create & Cultivate to eight employees when an acquirer offered her a staggering $40 million. Unfortunately, the deal was too good to be true. When the acquirer discovered her hands-on management style, they pulled out.
Learning from her mistakes, Johnson implemented a collection of strategies to ensure Create & Cultivate could thrive without her.
