Typically, we recommend preparing your Exit Path 2-3 years before exit.
This gives adequate time to significantly increase valuation and sale price.
Also, we need time to clean up your books and make the business optimally appealing to buyers.
That may sound simplistic, but it’s true; you don’t want to sell when it’s a bad time to sell. It’s a bad time to sell when:
The economy is down and the bottom is falling out of the market.
It’s a buyer’s market, and your business will be competing with too many other similar businesses.
You’ll only get a rock bottom price because you’re desperate to sell, or your company is in bad shape to sell.
Identifying A Broker And Paying A Hefty Commission.
You may believe that paying a broker 8-12% is a necessary evil.
Here’s the thing, I saved 10% when I sold my own business—that’s a $1M savings!
What do brokers do for you? They help you find the buyer. They help you navigate the sale.
We Like To Give You—As A Client—Confidence
That You Can Sell Your Own Business
We believe that you can find your own buyer. You’re a businessperson who has done business for years. You can do it!
Branded Seller can coach you through the process, and save you that commission.
Every company is different, and every client’s exit needs are different.
The Exit Path we provide is customized to your situation.
In general, the following describes Branded Seller’s Exit Path.
We start with an in-depth consultation about your exit plan ideas and intended exit date.
We discuss concerns and issues that need to be resolved prior to exit.
We also do a bit of high-level consultation about potential strategies and tactics.
My goal is not to sell you on anything; it’s to help you discover your best exit strategy.
You don’t pay us when we coach you to maximize your exit value.
We’ve been through the business-sale challenge myself—wading through all the options. It’s tough. You don’t want to do it alone.
We maintain a solid list of vetted buyers who are capable of completing a purchase.
We get a commission from our buyers when you sell, so we don’t have to charge you for the Exit Coaching.
When we increase your profit and value, we increase our exit commission from the buyer.
That’s how it works.
There are a lot of factors that determine ideal timing of exit.
And here’s the thing: markets, potential buyers, and the economy change quickly.
You could have an identified ideal time-to-sell, and circumstances can change on a dime.
In our conversation, we lead with your WHY—ready to retire, can’t work anymore, ready for something else.
Every seller has a unique WHY, and that determines the best approach to the exit—for that seller.
What we do next depends on whether you intend to sell quickly or grow the business more before selling it.
The two paths to sale are entirely different.
Before we get into the details of negotiating our contract, we sign a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
We develop a proposal for the right services given your timeline to sale.
We present the proposal and negotiate a final agreement.
Auditing the books has three primary purposes.
We access your Seller Central account to do a deep dive on your current product lineup, performance, and data.
Quantifying the market tells us how much extra juice comes from the squeeze.
We’re looking for specific tactics we can execute to increase your business value.
We focus on the biggest opportunities to increase your market share.
After analysis, are there new products that could be developed to add revenue and increase value?
The core business consists of your best products on your best platform.
We focus on your largest products and largest channel to start.
We’re also looking for other opportunities that dovetail with the core business.
Is The Opportunity Worth The Payoff After Doing The Work?
After analyzing the business, we present you with a Profit Plan.
We discuss the details and collaborate to fine tune the plan.
We determine a target exit date that we’re shooting for.
Target exit date determines the timeline for sequencing all tactics.
This is the really fun part for us—pulling all the growth levers and enjoying seeing your revenue, profit, and market share grow.
We use a lot of different tactics including any on this long list of possibilities.
Note that readiness and timing are not fixed targets.They require a constant calculation and reevaluation.
There is both an art and a science to assessing the current state of the market vs. your current readiness.
We monitor your business valuation over time.
As conditions change, we reconsider both readiness and timing and advise you.
When it comes to selling your ecommerce business, readiness and timing are fluid. There are internal and external factors to consider.
It could be as simple as the fact that you’ve achieved your best month ever, and it feels like time to sell and sit back and enjoy life.
Or you might think about keeping the business and letting Branded Seller continue to grow it for you.
Once we’ve mutually determined that readiness and timing are optimal, it’s time to sell.
One critical step is to validate that buyer interest is in line with your timing.
The market changes quickly and economic, political, geopolitical, and supply chain issues can all affect buyer interest.
We cast a wide net for carefully vetted, capable buyers who are in the market to buy businesses like yours.
Once a buyer expresses interest, we validate their capability to purchase. We look at a lot of factors, including:
Once we’ve determined that the buyer is capable, they get access to review all the company information.
We answer all questions promptly and respond to any requests as needed.
The buyer makes an offer, and we finalize negotiations.
We conclude the sale and all celebrate together!
It’s a fantastic and fun journey to grow a business to sell for increased value. We’re all congratulating ourselves on a job well done.
We Coach You Through The Whole Thing—FOR FREE!
