The EXITPreneur’s Playbook, Joe Valley

Wes Schaeffer | March 15, 2022

How to maximize the value of your online business to sell it

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Entrepreneurial Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast...

He used to focus on the money
Now he focuses on how many people he can help
Now he makes more money
Self-employed since 1997
Was a media buyer back then

We present good information and let people make a decision."

In 2005 he launched his first online business
Came out the other end tired and woke up and just decided to sell his business
His advisor told him to hold on for another six months because the market was turning around in his opinion
He put together some SOPs and sold in 2010, took a year off, and joined the Quiet Light Brokerage then (a team of two)
Last year they did $250 million in transactions

Tom Hopkins is on The Sales Podcast

Grown 55% a year on average the last four years
They represent the sellers
They don't "sell."
Considers himself an educator
When you're desperate you can't give it away
He was a typical entrepreneur
He ran his business and got sick of it and wanted to move onto the next venture, but he wasn't prepared for it
Most entrepreneurs don't have accounting in place
Most entrepreneurs don't have accrual accounting
He didn't outsource his accounting
Outsource your e-commerce accounting
Set a goal to sell and reverse engineer your business
You need to know your exit goal in dollars to know if it's a pipedream or a reality
Buyers are looking for four things
- Risk
  - Is it a single-channel vs. multi-channel?
  - Is it a young business?
  - Buy a bigger business with more history
- Growth
- Transferability
- Documentation
Gets 300-400 leads a month
The valuation call is free
Buying with an SBA loan is fantastic
But SBA loans are tough for online businesses since they might be too young or they co-mingled their finances
You need to qualify as a business and a buyer for an SBA loan
E-Commerce Lending in Florida is a great SBA broker/lender
His median transaction size was $1.8 million and 90% were all-cash
SBA deals are usually more stable and more likely to close, but they take longer
It's emotional
It's hard to find a buy-side broker
He has to help the buyer as much as the seller
He creates a detailed P&L
He asks all of the tough questions upfront
There are lots of reasons to sell a business
Entrepreneurs get shiny-object syndrome and want to move on
In the vast majority of businesses, the bulk of the money is made when the business is sold, i.e., when Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos "sold" by going public
Most people don't take a lot of money out in the early years
In 2021, about 30% of buyers were FBA Aggregators—Fulfilled By Amazon
This is new in the last five years, Thrace.io is the biggest
The other 70% are private equity firms (20%) and smaller entities buying for themselves (50%)