Hello friend,

It has been a while.

A lot has been going on in my world, as I’m sure it has yours, which has kept me away from the microphone and keyboard and having lots of day naps.  Excuses, excuses, I know. I’m SORRY!

In this episode, I’m sharing an exciting update with you. 

I sold my eCommerce business! And then promptly fell into a complete state of exhaustion and burnout.

Today I talk about both of these things, the good and the bad, with a little oversharing too (sorry in advance). 

But this is life as a business owner and I’m not one to sugarcoat things.

Listen to the whole conversation below, or if you don’t care about the burnout stuff, read the overview below covering tips and things to consider when you plan to sell your business.  But if you are feeling a little (or a lot) tired, I encourage you to listen to the full conversation.

OR TUNE IN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PLAY

---

Selling a business is equal parts scary and exciting, and in this episode, I share with you my experience and tips that might help you when the time’s right to sell your business.

And if you are feeling tired and stressed, perhaps there are a few helpful lessons in today’s episode too. 

See you next week!

Jodie

xo

---

Thanks for tuning in. Remember if you like what you hear, I’d love it if you could leave me a review in Apple Podcasts.

I’d be super grateful!

Links:

Flippa – https://flippa.com/

Website Closers – https://www.websiteclosers.com/

Iland co. – https://www.ilandco.com/

Kate Toon – https://www.katetoon.com/

A Podcast episode on Burnout – The Lise & Sarah Show with Chelsea Thomas from I HEART Bargains

My beautiful Kinesiologist – https://www.thebloomcollective.live/

Find out more about working with me here:

https://jodieminto.com/digital-marketing-courses

https://courses.jodieminto.com/eComm-Ads-Academy

Let’s be friends: https://www.instagram.com/iamjodieminto/

---

Overview of the episode.

Welcome to this episode of Online Store Success, my first for 2023. I’m thrilled to be sharing with you that I’ve officially sold my e-commerce store, iland co., and today I will be sharing the ins and out’s of building a business to sell and the lessons I’ve learned during the process.

I’ve not been shy about the fact that a great deal of my business success is due to Facebook and Instagram ads, specifically learning the skills needed to manage these myself.  I’ve managed over half a million dollars of my OWN money over the last 5 years or so, and know a thing or two about ensuring the best bang for my buck with my advertising dollars, especially as a fully self-funded business.

If you would like to upskill your meta-marketing skills, be sure to join the waitlist for the next round of eComm Ads Academy, kicking off after the Easter School holidays, on 24th April.   Numbers are strictly limited as this is a done-with-you program where you add me to your Facebook Ads account and I’m your second set of eyes for 10 weeks.

Head over to the show notes to take a look at the program and put your name on the waitlist today.

Ok, today I’m sharing with you my journey of selling my online store that I started from scratch 8+ years ago.

It’s been a rather bumpy journey to get here, and if you listened to previous episodes where I actually made the decision to close my store, before being convinced by business brokers to reopen it to sell (which I did!), it’s been anything but a straight line to get here.   Have a listen to episodes 22 and 23 to hear more of the chaotic path that leads me here.  Burnout has been an underlying problem for a while now which I will talk more about in upcoming episodes while I continue to recover.  It’s a common problem for small business owners who are wearing ALL of the hats, juggling all of the responsibilities and pressures, mostly on their own.  Anyway, more on that later. 

#1: Profit matters the most when determining your asking price.  

•  Your annual net profit is the biggest factor in determining the sale price and desirability. I sold my business for a multiple of annual net profit. 
• If you are building your business to sell, keep this in mind always. Keep costs down, and run a lean, scrappy business in order to have the biggest possible net profit margin. 

#2 After your net profit, Revenue trends and opportunities will affect the multiple you can expect:

• Is your business revenue on an upturn or is it declining?  If it’s declining, you would need to explain why (for example, you ran out of product due to manufacturing delays), and hopefully it is something a new owner can overcome
• My business was on a downturn, like many eComm stores post-COVID, however, I was able to explain this (scaled back operations and advertising spend, environmental and economic factors) but I was also able to share where there is lots of untapped opportunities for expansion, such as wholesale. 

#3: Selling your business is a lot of work.  

• You need to allow time and head space to pull all of your assets together, create your listing, go through numbers, and then spend time in negotiations.  There will also be a handover period too, in my case 14 business days of training post-sale.
• You will spend a lot of time responding to emails, filtering through serious offers, and having calls with potential buyers who want more information.  So make sure you have space for this as you want to ensure you can fully engage and get the best possible outcome.  
• Things to consider when you are selling your business are which email addresses, subscriptions, and cloud storage you may still need. I’ve used the same iland co. email as my main email address for 9 years.  It’s my login for everything from my personal banking to Netflix accounts, to school contact.  Having to transfer/change / and update my details is an ongoing process I’m still working through, as well as transferring over all of my coaching business files from one workspace to another.  It’s tedious, and it’s something I never thought about ahead of time.

#4: You never know who is waiting in the background ready to buy your business! You will be surprised how many prospective buyers are waiting on the sidelines – from customers to suppliers, your business will be highly desirable to someone that’s already in your circle

• I often thought, ‘who’ would want to buy my business after speaking to lots of other people who have sold their businesses, you will be surprised who might just be interested.  I ended up selling to one of my suppliers – my 3pl company bought iland co.! And I had tons of interest from both iland co customers and clients from my coaching business.  When you are ready to list your business for sale, it might just be one email to your list taking expressions of interest that helps find your perfect buyer.
• I did first list my business on a US site called Flippa.com where I got lots of tire kickers, and a couple of offers, from investment groups, but nothing concrete.  What the platform did help me do, however, was figure out my asking price and put together my sales document.  I paid extra for a person to help me with my listing and advise me on a realistic price and how to build my proposal which I found really helpful, despite not selling there.  It also helped give me leverage with private buyers as I could share the fact that there was lots of interest and a couple of offers on the table.  In the end, I probably sold for less than I could have if I’d held out longer, but I really connected with the couple that ended up buying the business, and knowing there would be a handover period where we worked closely together, the fact they were in Australia and they are good humans and didn’t buy the business just for the list or social media accounts, was important to me. 

In summary, if you are planning on selling your business in the future, it’s wise to prepare now. 

Net Profit matters – keep this in mind in the years leading up to listing your business for sale.  If that means running a very lean, scrappy business with minimal overheads, do it! It will pay you dividends later in your sale price.

Future growth opportunities are really important.  No one wants a business with nowhere else to go.  Think about your business’s potential to expand into new markets, countries, and platforms, and include this in your sales deck.

Having a few offers on the table will help drive up your sale price.  Consider listing on a platform like Flippa as well as advertising your business to your audience.  Just make sure if you sign any contracts with business brokers that you aren’t agreeing to pay them commission even if you sell it privately.  I had one business broker I wanted to also list with, but this was part of their contract and I was already in talks with my eventual buyer, and I would have had to pay the broker 10-15% of the sale price despite them not being involved in the deal at all. 

Next week I’m sharing the 12 things I’d do very differently in my next eCommerce business.  Be sure to subscribe in order to get notified as soon as the episode is live – you don’t want to miss this one!