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July 6, 2016 |
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Selling your business and retiring are not the same thing. In Josh Latimer’s case he sold his company Birds Beware, a Michigan-based window cleaning business because he wanted to go do something else. Hear his story on this week’s episode.
Have you thought about when you want to sell your company?
A lot of owners think selling equates to retirement, but selling your business and retiring are not the same thing.
Sure, some people sell because they want to play more golf but many others sell because they want to go do something else.
Take Josh Latimer as an example, he started Birds Beware, a Michigan-based window cleaning business. He built his company up to $800,000 in sales and decided to sell it so he could move his family of three young kids (with a fourth on the way) to Costa Rica.
Josh was able to get almost five times EDITDA for his small personal service business because he had set it up with systems that allowed it to run with just five hours per week of Josh’s time. Getting your business set up so it can run without you is something we do in Module 7 of The Value Builder System. It all starts by getting your Value Builder Score.
Joshua left his job as a banker for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to start a cleaning business in Michigan, which he grew and eventually sold to a California-based cleaning conglomerate in 2015. Now he lives in Costa Rica with his wife and four kids, where he helps small business owners from all over the world understand the power of business systems and automation, and the freedom they can bring. Joshua is the founder of AutomateGrowSell.com, an online training platform for small local service businesses, as well as SendJim.com, a follow-up automation tool for busy professionals.
Is Your Best Customer Hurting Your Company’s Value?
In 2002 Chuck Crumpton started Medpoint to help businesses bring medical devices and pharmaceuticals to market. The company quickly took off after Crumpton landed a prominent blue-chip client.
It was a blessing and a curse.
In 2001, Haroon Mokhtarzada and his brothers started Webs.com, which allowed anyone to build a professional website. Eager to grow the company, they decided to raise money from a venture capital firm – a decision Mokhtarzada would later regret.
They ultimately grew Webs.com to over 50 million users and sold it in 2011 to Vistaprint for over 10x revenue, totaling $117.5 million.
Rory Fatt began his entrepreneurial journey running marketing seminars for restauranteurs. After several owners approached Fatt to do their marketing for them, he decided to launch Royalty Rewards in 2005.
The business was a multimedia marketing platform that helped small businesses market their products and services by rewarding loyal customers. The company took off, hitting just over $2 million in revenue in its first year.
Inspired to achieve financial freedom, Fatt began to explore selling his company. In 2022, he accepted an offer from Schianti Partners that would set his family up for life.
Manny Fernandez started HomeBuyingCenter.com in 2007, just as the real estate market started to wobble in the United States. As it turned out, his timing was perfect as his site helped underwater homeowners unload their real estate.
From Start-Up To Exit In Three Years
Peter Shankman started Help A Reporter Out (HARO) to connect experts with journalists. Within three years, Shankman was generating $1.5MM from selling ads on his email blasts. That’s when hi largest advertiser approached him to buy HARO.
Looking Smaller to Make Your Company Bigger
In 2008, Gavin Hammar started Sendible, a platform that allows companies to manage all their social media accounts from one place.
The company grew steadily until 2016, when Hammar hit a sales plateau. Challenged to combat a high churn rate, Hammar took several unique steps to humanize his business.
Becoming a more approachable brand worked. Sales increased by 30% year-over-year and by 2021, Sendible had 47 employees when they were approached by ASG with an acquisition offer Hammar couldn’t refuse.
The Downside Of Being Upfront With Employees
In 2011 Josh Holtzman, the founder and CEO of American Data Company, gathered his employees into a conference room to announce “Fifteen Cubed”, a company-wide initiative to grow to $15 million in revenue by the year 2015.
The Biggest Mistake Co-Founders Make, and 3 Other Lessons
With Built to Sell Radio, you’ve grown accustomed to hearing entrepreneur exit stories from A to Z, but this week’s episode is a little different. We tease out four transferrable lessons from the latest batch of guests.
How to Sell a Service Business Without an Earn-Out
In 2011, Jodie Cook started an eponymously named social media agency, JC Social Media. Over the next nine years, Cook built the business up to 16 employees. Then, she decided to sell at the end of 2020 and thought her company could be worth in the 5-7 times EBITDA range.
3 Reasons Bollé Sunglasses Acquired SPY Optics
The action sports business is fuelled by big brands which is why, when SPY Optics built a style popular with irreverent teens, eyewear bemouth Bollé decided they had to own them.
How To Double An Acquisition Offer For Your Business
Bobby Albert took over the family moving business. Determined to succeed, he transformed his father’s five-person business into a fast growth company, eventually employing 150 people before being approached by a strategic acquirer.
