To Sell or Not to Sell?
November 24, 2015 |
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Would you rather have one million dollars in the bank today or a chance to have ten million a decade from now? It’s a philosophical question that comes down to the time value of money and your tolerance for risk.
In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Cody McLain, the founder of a website hosting company called Pacific Host. McLain decided to sell his business at the ripe old age of 23.
Our guest
Cody McLain is the Founder and CEO of SupportNinja. After starting his first business at 15, he created and sold 4 more companies in just under a decade. Over that time frame he has helped thousands of customers in more than 100 countries worldwide. He’s been featured in Forbes, Mashable, Entrepreneur and others for his achievements and diverse skill set. His first outsourcing company was SupportMonk, aimed primarily at service providers, offering expert system administrative support. With this success he noticed an urgent need for a similar service targeting emerging technology and business. This led to the establishment of SupportNinja. The company maintains a unique structure for systematically helping organizations large and small resolve their outsourcing needs.Boost the Value of Your Business
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Related to this topic
, John Warrillow interviews Phil Carson, the founder of a diabetes testing supply company. Carson wanted out of the business he and his partner had built from the ground up.
Andrew Yang had built Manhattan GMAT into an $11 million business when Kaplan Test Prep, an 800-pound gorilla in the education business, threatened legal action against his company.
How to Package Your Service Into a Product
Michael Spinosa and Scott Greenwell started a digital marketing agency called Unleashed Technologies at the start of the 2007 financial crisis. Spinosa believes the recession helped Unleashed get started because their flexibility and lower fees enabled them to pick up business from larger rivals who were losing customers amid cost-cutting. By 2019, Unleashed had grown to over $6 million in revenue when they were approached by LINC Partners, a private equity-backed group looking to do a role up of digital marketing agencies.
Avoiding The Commoditization Rat Race To The Bottom
Jean-Eric Plamondon was in the scrap metal business where the stereotypical operator is a shady character buying metal by the ton with a blow torch in one hand and a wad of cash in the other.
The External vs. Internal Sale
Barry Wood sold two virtually identical businesses over an 18 year period. The first was external and the second, internal. His exits clearly show the differences in an as close to apples-to-apples comparison as possible. The pros and cons may surprise.
The One Question You Never Answer
, a T-shirt business he quickly scaled from start-up to sale in 18 months.
When selling a business there are too many things that can go wrong, too many egos with the potential to be bruised, and too many zeroes at stake to negotiate on your own behalf. It’s a lesson Alexis Neely learned the hard way in this DIY disaster.