Tune in and learn how to get started selling a business and what life looked like after selling my side hustle.
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Selling My Food Photography Side Hustle
One year before closing the sale on the business, selling never occurred to me. It wasn’t until the thought of having to downsize in order to pivot did I look into how to get started selling a business.
For three years I grew a successful food photography side hustle. You can read more about this business right here. However, I knew it was time to pivot my business when thinking about becoming a mom and wanting to spend less of my days cooking and photographing “Pinterest-perfect” food.
Through the journey of listing my business for sale, I used a website to privately list the business on www.bizbuysell.com. The process of listing my business, receiving an offer, negotiating, and accepting an offer took about 2 months to complete. Click here to following the entire journey inside your ear buds.
Inside this episode, I go into detail about life post-sale. There was a 6-week off boarding process between myself and the new owner that I walk you through. Plus, I am giving you 5 tips that you can take to start preparing a new or existing business for sale one day.
How To Get Started Selling A Business
If you’re looking for how to get started selling a business, there are a few things you should know. There are many different ways you can sell a business. For example, you can sell a business using a business broker. They handle the major transactions and guide you through the process. You can also sell a business privately, similar to selling a home “by-owner”.
The best place to start is by scheduling meetings with a business broker to review your options. They will likely be able to guide you in the right direction for your business, since each situation requires a different path. They will also be able to appraise your business or give you a contact who can.
This mini series on Side Checks podcast is all about recounting my experience selling my food photography side hustle. However, through my experience I did learn a lot. And I am excited to pass along some tips for how to prepare your business to be sold.
Tips For Selling Your Business:
There are steps you can take for brand new and existing businesses to make it more attractive to sell. Income along isn’t what a buyer looks for. Your business can be very successful. However it may not be a sell-able asset.
Here are a few ways you can either develop your begin to tweak your business to one day be sold.
01. Loosen Up Your Personal Branding
Personal branding assigns you as the official “face” of your business. With strong personal branding incorporated inside your business (via photos, names, messaging, personality, etc), the harder it is for a consumer to see the business separate from you.
Instead they examine the business as an extension of you and vice versa. This makes it hard for a potential buyer to step in, purchase the company, and run it without your face leading the charge.
If you have a strong personal branding, begin to dial it back over time. Remove some personal images and replace them with more stock photos.
02. Pivot Your Business To Become “Offer” Centric
For your business to be seen as a sell-able asset, you should ensure the business itself focuses on the main offer, and again- not yourself. The overall messaging of the business should not be “...I can do this for you…” but instead “…this offer can give you…”.
The difference between these two types of messaging is that one is more “offer-centric”. This means the offer inside the business is truly the focus instead of the person behind the business.
This makes your business seem more like a brand that a new owner can acquire and then place in their own personal messaging. It also shows that your offer alone is enough to bring the company success.
03. Streamline Your Operations
Another way you can make your business more sell-able is by streamlining operations. Your business should run with ease and professionalism.
Utilizing platforms like Dubsado can help automate and streamline the workflows inside your business. Not to mention, save you a lot of time as the business owner.
The more workflows and automations inside your business, the more attractive it can seem to a potential buyer. When selling a business, you don’t want to rely on “tribal-knowledge” needing to be based down. Instead, you want standard operating procedures leading the charge.
Save 20% off your first month or year when you sign up for Dubsado here. You can also use the promo code: amysentme
04. Create Trainings
Creating standard trainings is a great way you can prepare your business to be sold. This is a proactive approach that any potential new owner will appreciate.
Knowing there are already trainings in place for how the company runs, can appear as a great value and time-saver.
I love recording my screen while verbalizing instructions for training purposes. Loom is a great resource for this. Make a list of everything that occurs inside your company that you may need to provide training on and begin the videos.
Example Trainings:
- How to respond to new leads
- How and when to set up reoccurring payments
- Onboarding a new client / Off boarding a new client
- How to run payroll
05. Know Your Numbers
When thinking how to get started selling a business, you can’t go run with understanding your numbers. You will need to have a clear understanding of the true earnings inside your business and the potential earnings.
Numbers to familiarize yourself with are total monthly revenue, monthly overhead (how much it cost to run your business each month), expenses, and profit.
Being able to track and visually see either a profit / loss statement or a balance sheet for every month inside your business will be needed in order to sell your business. These numbers will be heavily reviewed by potential buyers not just from a historical aspect but to gauge future possibilities as well.
Let’s Get Your Business Off The Ground
Are you thinking about starting a business so you can one day sell it? If so, let’s team up! Explore Off The Ground In 12 Weeks to learn how I can create you a step-by-step to do so. Together we can set up your newest venture in a way that leads you to a closing table.
Retirement doesn’t just need to happen once. Instead, how about we create you a profitable exit strategy so you can make your next big entrepreneurial move.
