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February 22, 2017 |
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Most sellers want to be paid all of their money up front, and most buyers want to avoid paying anything up front. For example, when Eric Weiner wanted out of All Occasion Transportation he found a buyer and agreed to accept half of his money in a five-year consulting contract, which sounded great in theory.
Most sellers want to be paid all of their money up front, and most buyers want to avoid paying anything up front. Deals usually get done somewhere in the middle, where the seller agrees to accept some cash and to be paid some of their proceeds over time.
Eric Weiner, for example, started All Occasion Transportation in college and by the time he turned 35, his company was grossing more than $3MM a year. That’s when Weiner decided he wanted out.
Weiner found a buyer and agreed to accept half of his money in a five-year consulting contract, which sounded great in theory but ended up becoming hard to enforce. In this cautionary episode, you’ll learn:
How to get an all-cash offer
During the interview, Weiner also reveals his principal mistake in selling: not running his business like a company that could be acquired. Maximize the cash you get at closing by creating a business that would be attractive to a buyer. See how an acquirer would evaluate your business by getting your Value Builder Score now.
Eric loves being at the intersection of small business, logistics, and great food! He has been accused of being a serial entrepreneur since he started a lemonade stand in front of his childhood home in New Jersey at 10 years old. During the summer of 1990 he started a small limousine and corporate transportation company while in college in Providence RI. He built the business over 20 years and was named the RI Small Business Person of the Year in 2008. In 2010 he sold the business. Over the past few years Eric has been energized and focused by the mobile food industry. As the founder of www.FoodTrucksIn.com he is committed to helping people locate food trucks from coast to coast and border to border, and has built tools to help food trucks better communicate where they are Serving Now.
Punching Above Your Weight When It's Time to Sell
Mehul Sheth started VMS Aircraft in 1995 with a plan to sell spare parts to airlines. Sheth had just $25,000 to invest in inventory, so VMS got off to a modest start. However, by 2016 Sheth had crested $8 million in revenue. VMS counted some of the largest airlines in the world as customers.
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.
The Biggest Mistake Most Owners Make When Selling Their Company
Mike McCarron sold MSM Transportation to the Wheels Group for $18.6 million. After receiving the letter of intent (LOI) he signed it immediately. If McCarron had the opportunity to do it all again, he’d handle this request differently.
Sandy Hansen-Wolff was a newlywed when her husband of only a few months, Randy Hansen, was diagnosed with leukemia. The doctors told Randy that one in four patients in his position succumbed to the disease. The couple scrambled to deal with the diagnosis and what would happen to Randy’s feed business, which was generating revenue of around $1 million, if he were to pass.
Randy died a few months later, leaving Sandy with little more than a handwritten list of his assets, including a heavily leveraged business.
A Scar Deep Enough To Make You Want To Sell
Kevin Sullivan was riding high running one of Seattle’s largest printing companies when the 2008 recession hit.
Warren Buffett’s Advice On Creating A Valuable Business
Turning business down can be tough for an entrepreneur, but Mitch Durfee learned the hard way that saying ‘yes’ can lead to disaster.
From $15 In His Pocket To A $3.2M Exit
Chemco Industries’ customers included Walmart, eBay, and Amazon, which is one reason they were so irresistible to an acquirer.
How Indian Motorcycle & Chris-Craft Were Built to Sell
Stephen Heese buys fallen iconic brands and brings them back to life. Found out how he turns big personal risk into great rewards.
A Good Acquisition Offer Goes Horribly Wrong
Ross Hoek built Impres Engineering into a $2.5 million company and got a fair acquisition offer. Little did he know, it was too good to be true.
