A lot of owners think selling equates to retirement, but selling your business and retiring are not the same thing. In Josh Latimer’s case he sold his company Birds Beware, a Michigan-based window cleaning business because he wanted to go do something else. Hear his story on this week’s episode.
Have you thought about when you want to sell your company?
A lot of owners think selling equates to retirement, but selling your business and retiring are not the same thing.
Sure, some people sell because they want to play more golf but many others sell because they want to go do something else.
Take Josh Latimer as an example, he started Birds Beware, a Michigan-based window cleaning business. He built his company up to $800,000 in sales and decided to sell it so he could move his family of three young kids (with a fourth on the way) to Costa Rica.
Josh was able to get almost five times EDITDA for his small personal service business because he had set it up with systems that allowed it to run with just five hours per week of Josh’s time. Getting your business set up so it can run without you is something we do in Module 7 of The Value Builder System. It all starts by getting your Value Builder Score.
About Josh Latimer
Joshua left his job as a banker for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to start a cleaning business in Michigan, which he grew and eventually sold to a California-based cleaning conglomerate in 2015. Now he lives in Costa Rica with his wife and four kids, where he helps small business owners from all over the world understand the power of business systems and automation, and the freedom they can bring.
Joshua is the founder of AutomateGrowSell.com, an online training platform for small local service businesses, as well as SendJim.com, a follow-up automation tool for busy professionals.
Click to Tweet: Is this your training wheels business? Why you shouldn’t move the yardstick when it comes to your #sellprice.
Some Highlights Of The Show
Business: Birds Beware
2:18: “I actually left a job working for JPMorgan Chase & Co. as banker at 25 years old to start a window-cleaning business.”
2:45: “It’s a repeat service, it’s a niche service, and it has high margins.”
4:14: “We didn’t make it about the dirt on the glass; we made it about pampering you.”
4:49: “The first year I had this company I only did $24,000 in revenue. We almost starved to death – it was awful.”
5:18: A bachelor’s degree in pain and a master’s degree in suffering.
6:13: Click to Tweet: Are the current systems in your business serving you well? @automatejosh’s secret to selling for a higher price.
7:25: “We did just under a $1M the year that we sold it.”
8:39: “We didn’t do contracts… When you have a real relationship with people, they are not going to shop, they are going to come back to you.”
9:10: Focusing on lifetime value.
10:00: “My business was not for sale … and I got a call… It was a strategic location.”
10:40: “At first I didn’t know if it was real or not.”
11:49: Skeptically optimistic.
13:52: “We wanted to get [a multiple of] 5 … and he wanted 2, 2.5.”
14:25: Click to Tweet: Today’s tip: Calculating earnings is subjective. “There are as many opinions as there are people.”
16:18: Normalizing EBITA: talking capital expenses, personal salary and time.
19:21: “I felt like I could walk away in the beginning… After really thinking about it, I wanted it more.”
20:43: Click to Tweet: Don’t make this #critical #mistake. Pay attention, have you attorney dig in & read it seven times over!
21:23: The structure of the deal.
23:00: “With everything going on, I was out the day we sold.”
24:00: Click to Tweet: “Having location freedom and true time freedom absolutely does it for me.” @automatejosh on #selling his #business.
26:39: “I wish I would have invested more in the General Manager of the business… I don’t think he was well prepared for the [leadership side] of it… In hindsight there was a major deterioration in that area.”
29:38: “Someday if I just get here, then…”
29:55: SendJim.com | AutomateGrowSell.com | TheGrowthVault.com
31:20: “There is no wrong ‘why?’… Isn’t [happiness] really the point?”
33:45: “Financial education is critical.”
The Value Builder System™
Built to Sell Radio is brought to you by The Value Builder System™, a 12 step methodology for helping your clients improve the value of their business based on the book, Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You.
Are you interested in coaching your clients on the Built to Sell methodology for improving company value?
With more than 20,000 users, our methodology has been statistically proven to increase the value of your client’s business by up to 71%. You’ll also get an entire suite of marketing resources to help build your practice and win new clients.
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For additional information regarding Florida business sales, acquisitions and valuations, please contact Eric J. Gall at Eric@EdisonAvenue.com or 239.738.6227. Also, visit our Edison Avenue website at www.EdisonAvenue.com or my personal website at www.BuySellFLbiz.com.
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