Business Exit Planning: What You Need to Know

Are you thinking about selling your business now or sometime in the distant future? This podcast is a great introduction to business exiting. From a brief overview of the selling process to a checklist to help you prepare, this podcast has it all.

Elaine Eason explains how to prepare for business exiting

In this episode, Christina and Corinne discuss the process of selling a business with Elaine Eason from Quiet Light. Elaine has a background in building and selling businesses from both the business owner side and the advisor side. After selling four of her own businesses through Quiet Light, she decided to join their team and help others through the process.

Elaine explains that even if you are not looking to sell right now, starting the selling process as early as possible can be a huge help in the future. If you are unsure about how to brand your business or keep track of SOPs, using the tools in this podcast will help you organize your business and simultaneously prepare for exiting. Quiet Light advisors are great reasources to help guide you through this process.

Episode 098: Business Exit Planning: What You Need to Know

About Elaine Eason

Elaine is an advisor at Quiet Light where she helps online-based businesses exit. She has a background in e-commerce and a track record of success in online business. She started her first profitable eCommerce business on Etsy in 2009 and has built 3 more businesses since, including a content site, an online subscription service, and a fitness eCommerce brand that she exited through Quiet Light before joining their team as an advisor.

Website: www.quietlight.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quietlightb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuietLightAdvisors

What Makes A Business Valuable and Easy to Sell

There are four pillars of value to keep in mind when building and preparing to sell your business. The risk factors, the growth trends, how transferable the business is, and documentation are the four things that can add or detract value from your business.

Keeping a record of standard operating proceedures in an organized way allows for a new person to step into your role smoothly once you sell, which is attractive to potential buyers.
Having clean financials in one of the major accounting softwares can add credibility to your business.
Outsourcing is key for transferability.
Be careful when adding your personal story to your business. It can hurt your transferability.
Your viewers and email list add more value than social media due to the constantly changing algorithm and personal content.
Sometimes a few months of growth in your trailing twelve can show that your business does have potential to buyers.
Besides the four pillars, the broader market is also a factor to consider when looking to sell your business.
The primary driver to sell should be your personal goals.

“Building the business now in a way that you’re able to sell it in the future can be well worth your while.” -Elaine Eason

An Overview of the Buying and Selling Process

It is normal for this process to be stressful!
Have an open mind going into the process.
The entire process typically takes three to four months on average. For a larger business, this process could get slightly longer.
The proccess starts with preparing the business for sale, listing it on the market, and talking with interested buyers.
Once you accept an offer, you go into the due diligence period. This is a time where the buyer can verify that they were presented with accurate information in the sale.
The buyer would have to sign an NDA or agree not to use the information elsewhere to go through financials.
After the information is verified, the sale is closed.
The process may be longer if a transition period is neccessary.
Trust between buyer and seller can make or break the sale!
Having an advisor to keep the sale on track, find multiple buyers, and mediate the sharing of information can be a huge help.

“You have to put yourself out there to sell the site.” -Elaine Eason

A Checklist for Preparing to Sell

Check your documentation.
Check your defensibilities. For example, register your trademark, update contracts, etc.
Focus on diversifying your traffic sources.
Look to outsource if your business does have personal branding.
Utilize the SOP Guide for Bloggers and the Legacy Organizer to organize your standard operating proceedures and other data.

“The more organized you can be, it really takes the stress off of your loved ones if unfortunately they would find themselves [having to sell your business].” -Elaine Eason

What’s Next

Make sure you grab your FREE download >> SOP Guide for Bloggers

You can connect with Elaine Eason on email at [email protected].

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