Summary
Listen in as John Denton shares how to get YOUR business ready to sell for maximum profit.
John has had extensive experience with the needs of small and medium businesses through his long time involvement with business associations and business incubators.
John also helps business owners build their businesses and fine tune them “ready for sale” and sell them. He believes that you should build a business as though you are going to keep it forever, but could sell it tomorrow! A business that’s “ready for sale” is well worth keeping.
Resources
-
Business Ready For Sale Mind Map PDF
Podcast
Need some help with your business planning?
CALL 08 9439 2820 NOW OR SIMPLY FILL IN THE FORM BELOW
Video
Transcript
View Transcript
| Peter Butler: | 00:01 | So welcome to another session of Smarter Business Tips at 10. Today's session is how to turn your business into a saleable asset. So I'm with John Denton today. Welcome John. |
| John Denton: | 00:14 | Thank you, Peter. It's good to be this far south without being on holiday. |
| Peter Butler: | 00:17 | It was all downhill, John. So John is a business broker and a business coach specializing in helping people to get a business ready for sale. |
| Peter Butler: | 00:26 | I've actually known John for about 12 years now, we actually ran way back in the day Facebook and LinkedIn workshops for about three years. I've also been a part of John's mentoring group for 10 years now. |
| Peter Butler: | 00:39 | Now this group is actually morphed into My Bob which is actually an acronym for Business Owners Board. And he's partnered up with Alan Nelson in My Bob, now Alan is a very successful entrepreneur and business owner. And having bought many businesses, bought and sold many businesses, and so today he's gonna share with us the essentials of getting your business ready for sale. How to turn your business into a saleable asset. |
| Peter Butler: | 01:09 | So, first question I've got for John is; how did you actually get into business broking? |
| John Denton: | 01:15 | Thank you, Pete. Yes that's a very interesting question. Many years ago I had a training business and took on a partner after seven years of running that business to basically build it up and sell it. And we built it up nicely, we've gotten a lot good advice, made it a really good profitable business. |
| John Denton: | 01:34 | And then with the help of a franchisor, it was part of a franchise, we put a price on it and took it to the market. After five months of trying to sell it, spending early mornings, late nights and getting into a whole lot of detail with people, it never sold. |
| John Denton: | 01:52 | And at that point I was ready to slit my wrists and walk away, and then I got advice from a good friend who referred us to a business broker. We hadn't thought of using a business broker. We went to see the business broker and we went to see one of his competitors. We went with the one that was referred who put an extra 25% onto the price of the business that we just failed to sell it at. |
| John Denton: | 02:16 | And we said, "You can sell it, you happily pay your commission," and we were told it's a process. What sells businesses is finding a process. And so we went through the process, I tried to buck the system a few times and got slapped back into place. And at the end of it all the business got on the market and we got the full price for it. |
| John Denton: | 02:37 | And I learned so much in that process about how little most business owners know about how to value a business and how to go about selling it and prepare it for sale. And so I decided that was my niche that I was going to get into to work with business owners in and yes it's been really, really good. |
| John Denton: | 02:59 | I kept going back to the brokers that had sold our business and saying, "What do you think of this business. How much will this be worth?" And in the end they got fed up with me pestering them all the time and said, "Go and do the course at REIWA, learn how to sell the houses, and then come to us and we'll train you to sell businesses." |
| John Denton: | 03:16 | And that's how I got into it. So I thought well if I'm gonna get business owners, businesses ready for sale, why not be able to sell them as well. |
| Peter Butler: | 03:23 | Yeah, right, okay. And so look, I think the top of my thought for people is, how do you determine the value of a business? And I know just the other day I asked you that very same question. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, folks. But I was really curious, I wanna know, how do you determine a value of a business? |
| John Denton: | 03:41 | Yeah like you say, it's a big question, and I could spend a couple of hours talking about all the different options and the things involved. But putting it as succinctly as I can, when most small businesses say, under 5 mil, sell, it's actually the assets of the business that sell. And the assets of the business are the plant and equipment, sellable stock, and the good will. |
| John Denton: | 04:05 | And then the next question usually is, so how do we determine the good will? So, with small businesses it's all based on profit. In real estate they talk about location, location, location. In business it's about profit, profit, profit. So what we do is we get the financials of the business, we look at the amount of cash that the business is generating for the owner. |
| John Denton: | 04:30 | So you take on a good accountant, your accountant's job is to minimize your tax. How does he minimize your tax? By minimizing the profit. When you come to sell a business you wanna show them maximum profit. |
| John Denton: | 04:44 | So we undo the things that your accountant's done. We put what's called add backs back into the PNL statement into the profit. Things like depreciation, which is not cash out for the business, it's an allowance that the tax offers, allow you to deduct, to put aside towards renewing your plant and equipment. |
| John Denton: | 05:04 | I've had kind of new business owners that do that but that's another ... So we work out what the adjusted net profit is for the business, and then we look at all the non-financial factors about how attractive the business is, what the spread of clients is, if it's location dependent, what is left on the lease, there's a whole myriad of things. |
| John Denton: | 05:24 | And that's why Alan and I run a half-day workshop on this sorta stuff, because we go through examples and explain it in a lot more detail, so ... |
| Peter Butler: | 05:33 | Okay, so John actually does run half-day workshops on this, so we'll be putting a link in the comments thread so you can have a look, and if you like how it appears you'll be able to join in on that workshop. |
| Peter Butler: | 05:45 | And just by the way if these business tips add value, please give us a thumbs up, that's awesome, love it, spread the word. Help us to share this knowledge. So yeah. |
| Peter Butler: | 05:57 | Okay, so, now the other thing is that, I know that most business owners don't start a business with an exit strategy, and that's where your strength lies, is helping 'em into developing that. But one of things is that I think business owners, if they haven't been strategic in their thinking, they don't have that exit strategy, but we all want to maximize our value of the business. |
| Peter Butler: | 06:24 | So how do you actually increase the value in the business? How do I get as much as I can. I worked the business like for me for 11 years, how do I increase the value? |
| John Denton: | 06:33 | Increase the profit, which is a double whammy because you want the profit anyway. So it starts with the profit. If anything you can do to get the profit up, it's gonna add to the value. |
| John Denton: | 06:44 | And the other thing with that as well is that when the ... so there's the profit, then there's an ROI factor which accountants and some people call a multiplier. So the actual value of the business is a multiplier of the profit. |
| John Denton: | 06:59 | And the thing is that if you increase the amount of profit you also increase the multiplier. So it's a double whammy. So the number one thing to think about is the profit. And with that you can ... you should know the numbers in your business, so you know where the profit's coming from, you know different ways you can tweak the profit. |
| John Denton: | 07:19 | That's the sort of thing we do with Business Owners Board. The members in there, we work with them to get the profitability up. And then you've got to look at the non-financial factors to make it actually saleable. |
| John Denton: | 07:30 | So it doesn't want to be owner dependent, and you need systems in there, you need ... businesses should be able to run without you being there. A lot of times we get asked to sell, I get asked to sell a "business," which turns out not to be a business, it's a practice, they have the business built around the owner. |
| Peter Butler: | 07:53 | Yes, yeah, I remember you sort of mentioning this in some of the workshops that we've done, 'cause I've been a part of My Bob for, it's nine or 10 years now, and seen the growth. And for me it's always been the gems. A lot of people, I don't know, they're looking for the epiphanies when they join a group like that, and epiphanies are great. |
| Peter Butler: | 08:10 | However, if the one little gem you get makes a difference and moves your business forward, that in itself is just massive value. But I remember you bringing that distinction between a practice and a business, and I've seen business owners have that epiphany, just in that recognition of that. |
| John Denton: | 08:26 | Yeah, and, so a practice is built around an expert, a business is built around systems. So a business will run without the owner having to be there. A practice, if you're a brain surgeon or you're practicing cryogenics or something like that, if you're not there, if you take a holiday, and then the business stops, that cash flow stops. |
| John Denton: | 08:47 | Having said that, you can turn a practice into a business, but it needs to be a conscious decision and you need to be prepared to let go of stuff as well. So ... |
| Peter Butler: | 08:58 | And you would see that a lot with tradespeople. You've seen the flip-side of that with tradies who are running ... it's dependent on them, and they're the ones who have grown their business. I've seen that with a few electricians, plumbers, and so forth, where their business is no longer dependent on them. They're still active in the business, of course, but that's their choice, but they've managed to get it to that stage. |
| John Denton: | 09:21 | Yeah, it's ... again, no business owner is an expert in all things that make a business work. And if you're the person that's delivering the service like a tradie, then it's difficult to let go of that and start thinking about the business as a business. |
| Peter Butler: | 09:37 | Yes, yes. Yeah, there was a book delivered to me, the mechanic, famous author, hate that awkward moment on screen ... it'll come back to me. The guy who wrote about, he was using the pastry cook, the cake shop owner as an example ... |
| John Denton: | 09:59 | Oh you're talking about Tommy Tolle ? |
| Peter Butler: | 09:59 | No. |
| John Denton: | 10:01 | No, okay. Move on then. |
| Peter Butler: | 10:02 | Okay, moving along. Okay so and you just mentioned in there about systems. Now I'm a systems freak, I systemize everything right down to making coffee in the morning, which does my wife's head in. |
| Peter Butler: | 10:15 | But yeah, it's fascinating and because of the work I do, because when we take on doing website digital marketing for people, we find out a lot about the business owner and their strengths and weaknesses, whatever, and I see that shortfall for many businesses with just not having the systems in place, which it makes it difficult to let go. |
| John Denton: | 10:36 | Right. Systems is an acronym for Save Yourself Trying Energy Money and Stress. So, if you've got good systems in place you save all those things. |
| Peter Butler: | 10:46 | Right. Say that again. |
| John Denton: | 10:48 | Save Yourself Trying Energy Money and Stress. |
| Peter Butler: | 10:52 | Love it. |
| John Denton: | 10:53 | That's what systems do in a business. But when a buyer's looking to buy a business, after they've looked at the financials which always comes first, they look at the systems, and say, "Well, could I walk into this business and the business will run." |
| John Denton: | 11:08 | If the business owner's doing everything then I'm gonna have to do what the outgoing business owner's doing. So yeah, I know you're big on systems and you have to be, and that's essential. |
| Peter Butler: | 11:18 | Yeah, yeah, 'cause I mean it does two things doesn't it? It frees me up from having to do certain aspects, and it also minimizes the cracks. As we scale our business and get busier, if you don't have those systems, mistakes, cracks appear. |
| John Denton: | 11:35 | Yeah, good systems ensure the quality of what you're delivering, that things don't fall through the cracks, you don't end up doing rework and having to fix things up, which is all time and money. |
| John Denton: | 11:43 | Ray Kroc who took the McDonald's business and made it into what it is today, I mean he said if you have intelligent systems you don't need intelligent people. |
| Peter Butler: | 11:54 | Nice line. |
| John Denton: | 11:55 | Well, you know. But the point is very clear. |
| Peter Butler: | 11:59 | Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Okay. Biggest mistakes business owners make? |
| John Denton: | 12:07 | Yes, putting stuff through their financials which they shouldn't. So the first thing with our business owners is get your financials cleaned up. Now this can take three years. It's why business owners need to be thinking about getting their business ready for sale all the time. And if it's ready for sale it's well worth keeping. |
| John Denton: | 12:27 | Be able to say you're gonna keep it forever but could sell it tomorrow. And it starts with the financials, get them cleaned up, don't put any personal stuff through, don't take cash out of the business, things like that because a, you're reducing the attractiveness of the business, and it's illegal anyway. So, get the financials structured as well so that they send a good message to a buyer. So it's gotta be clean. |
| John Denton: | 12:52 | The other thing is, building the business around themselves, which we just talked about. So it needs to be systemized, they need to extract themselves from the business and they don't, they won't let go of things. It makes it difficult to sell. |
| John Denton: | 13:05 | So they're the big ones, really. |
| Peter Butler: | 13:07 | Okay, okay. And I mean, I would sort of applied that in a small way in looking at the time in the day, where my time goes. Going back a few years, I was spending a lot of time with support. And it's like, okay, how do I free myself. |
| Peter Butler: | 13:20 | So what I did was I changed things incrementally, so I identified that that was an area where I was losing a lot of time. So we set up a support portal, I've got us support staff, two staff now. And so I've actually freed myself, totally, from that. It runs itself. |
| Peter Butler: | 13:37 | And the next stage was admin tasks. So I'm in the process of freeing myself from that. So and I see what you're saying about it taking three years, because some of these changes are incremental. You can't change them overnight, and they won't be perfect, but making it incremental, you're perfecting the process. |
| John Denton: | 13:53 | That's right, yeah, it's not a one-off thing, it's a continuous improvement process. |
| Peter Butler: | 13:59 | Absolutely, cool. So you've given me this incredible mind map. You might be able to see it, people, but there it is. So this is John breaking everything down, so he's also a systems freak. |
| John Denton: | 14:12 | I love mind maps. |
| Peter Butler: | 14:13 | Yeah, we're both software geeks by the way, so we're always hearing software tools online that help us to improve running our businesses, mind mapping software, and process software, and communication platforms and all that sort of thing. So we suffer serious shiny objects syndrome. |
| John Denton: | 14:35 | The great thing is there's so many applications and things around these days, and so many ways you can automate things in the business. |
| Peter Butler: | 14:42 | Yes. |
| John Denton: | 14:44 | If you know about them and if you consciously want to do that. |
| Peter Butler: | 14:48 | Yeah, yeah. So, does anybody have any questions that they wanted to pop into the chat feed? 'Cause we're online, let's get some conversation running. Well thanks David Kavner, we look good. You should have said look sexy rather. |
| Peter Butler: | 15:01 | But look, again, if you think this is adding value, if you could give us a thumbs up, share it, that's awesome, love it, spread the word. But questions, please, if you've got any questions at all about getting your business ready for sale, how to turn it into a saleable asset, shout out now, or forever hold your peace. |
| John Denton: | 15:21 | Otherwise we'll keep talking. |
| Peter Butler: | 15:23 | Yes, we'll keep talking, yes. And look, John does have these workshops available, we'll actually put some links in the comments thread. |
| John Denton: | 15:33 | I would if I had a comments thread. |
| Peter Butler: | 15:34 | Oh you don't have a comments thread, that guy ... might a technical issue. After this Facebook live, John will put some links in the comments thread. |
| John Denton: | 15:43 | Yeah. |
| Peter Butler: | 15:44 | Just refresh, just hit refresh. |
| John Denton: | 15:48 | This is why we stopped doing a Facebook and LinkedIn workshops. |
| Peter Butler: | 15:52 | Yeah that got laborious, we- |
| Speaker 3: | 15:53 | -answer the question from David? |
| Peter Butler: | 15:56 | David, oh, David Kavner. Funny you should ask that, David. Just before we went live I made the comment that this was a Microsoft ad. And now we're listening to ourself. |
| Peter Butler: | 16:16 | So, yes. Tracey Lau- ... So does that answer your question, David? And Tracey, "What are the easiest ... " There's John, listening to me, well that's on the Facebook live. Tracey Loubser, "What are the easiest businesses to sell now." I'm just gonna shut John's thing off. Hit mute, go down to sound. |
| John Denton: | 16:33 | Oh! Tell you what I'll do. |
| Peter Butler: | 16:51 | Okay, so not a technical issue. So Tracey, getting back to your question. Her question is, "What are the easiest businesses to sell now. What are the hardest businesses to sell." Good question. |
| John Denton: | 16:56 | What are the hardest businesses to sell? Retail, video hire businesses. Just because there's no demand for these sort of businesses. And retail businesses are struggling out a little bit, just shell out profit. |
| John Denton: | 17:17 | But businesses where it's based around the owner. Businesses where there isn't a good spread of clients, and this is a thing we didn't talk about in the profit and the valuing. When we're valuing a business we look at the profit, but we look at all the non-financial factors as well, and then it becomes a what's the risk to that profit. |
| John Denton: | 17:38 | Well if the business is based around the owner, that's a big risk. But also if the business is based around one or two bigger clients, then that's a risk as well. Obviously because if one client goes away you've lost your business. |
| John Denton: | 17:52 | So, yeah, having a really good spread of clients ... and again, suppliers or ... depends on the business, there's a lot of different permutations. |
| Peter Butler: | 18:04 | What about, I can remember having conversations with you years ago about manufacturing, industrial, commercial work. Is there any breakdown in that particular area or not or what? |
| John Denton: | 18:16 | Again it comes to the profitability and what a business is manufacturing. Good businesses, but always, sort of generalization, but always sell well are things like wholesale businesses, because they're simple businesses to run. I sold a beautiful wholesale business some years ago in the cleaning products business, so they're consumables. |
| John Denton: | 18:40 | So there's a continuous demand for them. The business ran on one ... on the owner. He went in from like 7:30 to get deliveries out, he had a contract truck driver. He took orders off the computer, and off the fax machine, and put them into the system, and the system basically ran the business. |
| John Denton: | 19:02 | He owned the premises of one. |
| Peter Butler: | 19:03 | Oh, beautiful. |
| John Denton: | 19:05 | Which was absolutely rich, they had a warehouse. And then by midday he went home, converted the phones to his mobile and that was it, five days a week. And he was netting over 300,000 a year. |
| Peter Butler: | 19:18 | Fantastic. |
| John Denton: | 19:19 | So we gotta really good ... that sold really, really well. |
| Peter Butler: | 19:21 | Yeah, right. |
| John Denton: | 19:22 | So businesses that are simple, preferably five days a week, so they're not demanding on the owner's time. |
| Peter Butler: | 19:29 | Yep, we have more questions. So we have Aaron Malick. Hello Aaron, "A client, a real estate agent's the owner, is thinking of selling his practice. Any tips and advice on how to best prepare for that?" |
| John Denton: | 19:43 | To sell a real estate business? |
| Peter Butler: | 19:45 | Yeah, it's an agency and a real estate agency owner. |
| John Denton: | 19:48 | A real estate agency. Again, tough one. The only people that are gonna buy a real estate agency are probably real estate agencies. And the thing with real state agencies, the value in those is in rent rolls and property management, because it's low risk continuous income, whereas real estate is based on the next sale, where is the next sale coming from? So very difficult to sell. |
| Peter Butler: | 20:15 | Yeah. Actually Aaron's actually started another question, "By the way, he is a property management biz, not a home seller." Oh my god. Well so that answers your question then, Aaron, that he has a rent roll and that's where the value is. |
| John Denton: | 20:28 | Exactly, and that's what you're selling. It'll be a multiplier of what the rent roll income is per year. |
| Peter Butler: | 20:36 | Okay, okay, cool. |
| John Denton: | 20:36 | And then it just depends on what kind of rentals they are, whether they're short term, long term, and so on. So there's a few factors come in that determine the multiplier. |
| Peter Butler: | 20:45 | Okay. Aaron, you might want to get this guy to give John a shout out after the fact and do an intro. We'll be putting up a link to the workshop, it's a half-day workshop. It might be well worth this guy connecting up with John and just maximizing ... 'cause the bottom line is, look, we all work really hard, we bust our guts and sometimes I wonder about the sanity of owning your own business, but ... |
| John Denton: | 21:13 | Businessownersboard.com.au, click on the "contact us" tab. |
| Peter Butler: | 21:16 | Yeah, so, alternatively, short circuit that: mybob.com.au. |
| John Denton: | 21:21 | As well. |
| Peter Butler: | 21:22 | So mybob, M, Y, B, O, B, .com, .au. And you can find out all about the workshops, the events are there. There's some events that have got a line through them, a broken link, but there is a working link in the bottom, we didn't get that fixed before this event. |
| Peter Butler: | 21:38 | So, hopefully that answers your question. Let's just go on. David, David Kavner's definitely off topic. Our Surface Pros rock, by the way, Macs, tss-tss. But anyway. |
| Peter Butler: | 21:53 | Aaron has asked again, "So any specific tips?" I would recommend you definitely go to the website, show this guy the web shot, share this Facebook live with this guy, so he can see the conversation, it's probably a really good idea, Aaron, getting him to hook up. |
| Peter Butler: | 22:11 | So Tracey Laubscher has a question, but I'm just gonna make sure I scroll back up. |
| Peter Butler: | 22:15 | Ah, Steven Wilkinson asked a question, "How do you value a business." Well, we did actually cover that. He goes, "From my understanding, is it three times the annual profit plus stock?" |
| John Denton: | 22:27 | No, there is no rule of thumb. There is no standard multiplier, it all depends on all those risk factors to the business under profit. And that's why it takes a half a day workshop to explain all of that. There are so many different factors involved that determine the multiplier. There's no rule of thumb. |
| Peter Butler: | 22:48 | Yep, yep, and ... I'm sorry, go on. |
| John Denton: | 22:51 | There was something else to the question? |
| Peter Butler: | 22:53 | No, so, "How do you value a business ... understanding three times ... " No, that's it for Steven's question. So doe that answer that question? If not, pop another comment in the thread there, Steven. |
| Peter Butler: | 23:06 | Now, we'll just scroll down ... what are we looking for? Tracey Laubscher asks, "What are the things to consider for gyms, personal trainer businesses. I have a friend who has a long-term plan to sell." So gyms and personal trainer businesses. |
| John Denton: | 23:23 | Again, it comes back to the profit and things like the profit, how long the business has been going, what does the owner do in the business. Is the owner the personal trainer? Because if he is, when you take the owner out, it's like a practice, you're taking the expert out, you're taking the point of difference out. |
| John Denton: | 23:43 | So, it needs to be ... the owner needs to separate himself from the business. And, again, I mean, gyms can be good in that you've got regular monthly income. Like my membership that I'm paying. It's not costing the gym anything. |
| Peter Butler: | 23:59 | 'Cause you don't actually go. Right. |
| John Denton: | 24:03 | And I'm going to quit because I haven't lost any weight being a member. |
| Peter Butler: | 24:07 | Right. |
| John Denton: | 24:09 | But anyway. Yes, they can be pretty good businesses. Again it comes back to let's have a look at the financials, let's have a look at the non-financials in terms of all those other things I mentioned. So, but happy to have a look at it. Yeah, contact me through the website. |
| Peter Butler: | 24:23 | Yep, yep, right, excellent. And Aaron, E-Myth, thank you very much. Michael Gerber, that was the book I was referring to. So yeah, thanks for that, Aaron, really appreciate that. |
| John Denton: | 24:34 | Fantastic book, everybody, every business owner should read that. |
| Peter Butler: | 24:39 | Oh absolutely. It's the starting point I think for personal developing business. And I see it all the time, because we work with startup businesses, as well as businesses we've been in for years, and we see the growth and obviously that's our job is to online help them grow their business. |
| Peter Butler: | 24:56 | And some people just aren't seeing those fundamentals and don't get that, and you have to have that epiphany, you really do. |
| John Denton: | 25:02 | That's the bible of business. Just before I forget, I want to mention franchises. We haven't had a question about franchises. But if you're a franchisee, sometimes I get people phoning me up and say, "I'm thinking of buying a business," it's a whatever, franchise in a shopping center or something. |
| John Denton: | 25:21 | And I go to lengths to explain that if you're getting into a franchise, you don't own a business, you're not a business owner. You are basically a franchisee, you're managing a business for the franchisor, and you're paying them for the privilege to do that. |
| John Denton: | 25:37 | And if it's in a shopping center, I would really, really look at that very carefully, because you're probably going to be working seven days a week, or paying penalty rates for people to work in the business. You're going to have to open, according to what the shopping center wants. And some shopping centers, believe it or not, if your profit or turnover goes over a certain amount they put your rent up. |
| John Denton: | 25:59 | And you're paying a percentage to the franchisor and ... but you don't actually own anything. The franchisor owns the brand, owns the systems, the products. And even where you've got, like we were in a training franchise. Very, very good franchisor in our case. |
| John Denton: | 26:17 | But even the database that we built, which is where the value is in a training business. If you're selling a training business you're selling the client base. But the franchisor actually owns the client base, we don't. And so you don't actually own anything in a franchise, you're managing a business for someone else for a period of time, for the term. |
| John Denton: | 26:38 | And if you don't perform to their criteria, they can kick you out. So, yeah, I hate it when I hear these ... sorry, but this a bit of a-[crosstalk 00:26:48] |
| Peter Butler: | 26:48 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard you say- |
| John Denton: | 26:51 | You hear franchisors advertising their franchises, and they talk about you becoming a business owner and owning your own business. You don't, you own nothing. |
| Peter Butler: | 27:01 | Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tracey's made the supporting comment there, "Totally agree about franchises. You're at the mercy of the franchisors." |
| Peter Butler: | 27:08 | And as you mentioned, you actually had a group franchisor, and there are good franchisors, but- |
| John Denton: | 27:14 | There are. |
| Peter Butler: | 27:14 | -I suppose the summary of that is, do your due diligence, know your full costs, and your limitations. |
| John Denton: | 27:20 | Absolutely, and talk to other franchisees. You've got a 14 day calling up period where you can do all these checks and talk to the franchisees that are in the business. They're the best people to tell you what the franchisor's like. |
| Peter Butler: | 27:34 | Yeah 'cause there won't be any gloss. |
| John Denton: | 27:35 | And there are good ones and there are some very profitable ones and they can be sold, but you need to do your homework. |
| Peter Butler: | 27:40 | Yep, yep. So David Kavner has made a comment, I'll just read through that, "Good, valid points, the same as when T.R. Vecker sold his business. If the business needs the main guy to be there, it's bigger ... " Yeah, no, absolutely valid, the business owner doesn't come with it when it's sold. |
| Peter Butler: | 27:58 | Okay, so we got any more questions? Please, take advantage of this, I'll just scroll through and ... thanks Sam, appreciate your faith back there. |
| John Denton: | 28:10 | Just check my notes. |
| Peter Butler: | 28:11 | Yep, do that, I'm just scrolling through. Note to self, add to notes, preparatory nights, get guest speakers sound turned off, so you can read the notes as well. |
| John Denton: | 28:24 | So do people want to copy that mind map? |
| Peter Butler: | 28:26 | Yep. |
| John Denton: | 28:27 | Which is basically everything you need to be thinking about in business on one sheet of paper. That's why I love mind maps. |
| Peter Butler: | 28:32 | Yeah right. |
| John Denton: | 28:33 | Then again just contact us through the website and ask for the mind map, and give me some means to send it to ya. |
| Peter Butler: | 28:40 | Yep, yep. So yeah, so this mind map is pretty intense, it's not the right word, but detailed. So you get lots of information and it's some really good thought prompters on there for you to drill down into and consider. |
| Peter Butler: | 28:56 | 'Cause you know as business owners like you said earlier, we don't know everything. Most people are good at their skillset, whatever that is, and we have to learn the admin, the marketing, the sales, or whatever it is, there's so many things to consider. But having that available as a starting point for checklists is absolute gold. |
| Peter Butler: | 29:15 | So do make a comment or a like, or a share or whatever to be able to request that, or you could go to mybob.com.au. |
| Peter Butler: | 29:25 | Okay so, are there any more questions? |
| John Denton: | 29:28 | So come along to one of our half- day events and we'll go through a lot of case studies, and Alan will talk about a lot of his experiences in selling businesses, his businesses. |
| Peter Butler: | 29:38 | We haven't really spoken about Alan. So Alan Nelson of ... well, I don't know the name of the business ... I know a couple of the names of the businesses he's owned, I don't know if he'd want us to mention them here, but I know he's in rail industry. |
| John Denton: | 29:50 | Yes, his passion is playing with trains. |
| Peter Butler: | 29:52 | Yeah, big ones. |
| John Denton: | 29:52 | I don't think he a train set as a kid, but yeah. So at one time he had four rail businesses, one of which was the Spirit of the West, the restaurant train, and lost him a lotta money, but it was his passion. |
| John Denton: | 30:05 | He fell in love with the business, and one of his mantras is never fall in love with the asset, because he stuck with it longer than he should have done, and it wasn't making him money. |
| John Denton: | 30:16 | But yes, he's been in the rail game, he's been in the truffle business, limousines, it just, travel- |
| Peter Butler: | 30:23 | The building industry, and the recycling products and so forth, yeah. |
| Peter Butler: | 30:29 | So, please, if you haven't considered what to do to get your business ready for sale, get into that workshop for your best interests. If you need help in any way in getting your business ready for sale, be at the workshop or contact John direct through My Bob, and as John mentioned, he runs a group called Business Owners Board which is a fascinating model and really helping businesses to create a business. |
| Peter Butler: | 30:53 | As I said, I've been a part of that for either nine or ten years now, that has morphed into My Bob, and I've got massive value, still a current member |
| John Denton: | 31:03 | So we've got a couple of different levels and it's about working on your business and getting help from other business owners, you know the value of that. But also experts that we bring in to give new ideas and help, so, and you get one-on-one coaching as well, so, yep. |
| Peter Butler: | 31:22 | Okay, hi[Pete Godfrey, how you're doing? Bye Pete Godfrey, we're about to bow out. |
| Peter Butler: | 31:29 | So, just in wrapping up, if there's any more questions, please post them now, otherwise, we hope this has added value and made a difference for you. If you want to join our group, Smart Tank Mastermind, I'll put that link in the threads once we're done. So you can join that group, and that way you can stay up to date. |
| Peter Butler: | 31:49 | If you think a friend or colleague will benefit from this, please do give us a thumbs up, that's awesome, love it, spread the word, we'd really appreciate that. I also want to get these videos transcribed, and I load them up to my website, so you could just go to smarterwebsites.com.au, smarterwebsites.com.au. |
| Peter Butler: | 32:08 | And this interview series, I've decided to call this The Smarter Interview Series. You see what I'm doing there, yeah. |
| John Denton: | 32:15 | Funny that. |
| Peter Butler: | 32:17 | Anybody that knows me well knows everything's smart or smarter. |
| John Denton: | 32:20 | You show a distinct lack of imagination. |
| Peter Butler: | 32:24 | And you can go to my website and check out this and hundreds of other blog posts. So, is there any final questions. |
| John Denton: | 32:32 | Under BOB website, by the way, is the smarter websites, website. |
| Peter Butler: | 32:37 | Thank you, good on ya, funny that. |
| Peter Butler: | 32:39 | So we hope this helps. If you need any help, you can either give myself a shout out, or John a shout out. So that's Peter Butler from Smarter Websites here, and John Denton from ... |
| John Denton: | 32:49 | Mybob.com.au |
| Peter Butler: | 32:50 | And we ask ... he is a legend, and our catchphrase, go and work smarter. |