Alex Champagne, Director of Sales @ Empire Flippers
Main Stage
Ascent Conference 2020
[00:00:03] All right, I just want to make sure I think my video is working, everything should be good to go. Excited to get started here, guys, a bit weird for me. Just not being able to see people’s faces in Zoom or like in an actual conference or a live conference, I should say, being able to see the audience. We’re going to do the best we can and hopefully you’ll get some serious value out of this. So, yeah, the purpose of this presentation is to help you sell your non-uniform business for four millions of dollars. It’s a rather straightforward thesis, but something that can be extremely powerful for for the everyday seller. And that’s something we’ll talk a little bit about. So before we dove into that a little bit about me or why you should trust me, I’m the head of sales here at a company called Empire Flipper’s. My background is it’s fairly varied. It comes primarily from a digital marketing background and that kind of evolved into a conversion rate optimization company that I was able to lead during that time. I got to work with a wide range of different companies, starting from startups all the way to billion dollar oil and gas firms. And during that time, I also got to work with a few notable SAS startups and help them with S.R.O. on their landing pages and then actually optimizing the conversion funnel. Through that point, I was obviously very interested and believed in the online business space, but what really interested me was the M&A side or the actual exit and acquisition side. So that led me to inspire Flipper’s about four years ago. So here’s what you should know about Empire Flipper’s. At its core, we help people buy and sell profitable online businesses. And that’s that’s a key word here is profitable. So we don’t sell you what a VC might fund as far as a business, that’s revenue. That isn’t something that you’re going to find on our marketplace. A little more about us. We’ve been in it five thousand company now for four years in a row. We’ve sold over one hundred and sixty million dollars in deals. And that’s that’s come. That number grows exponentially each year. We started with very small businesses, like fifty thousand dollar acquisitions at the very micro end of the spectrum. And now that’s grown to the seven and eight figure size. So as we grow in deal size, obviously the amount of total deals sold, that number is going to grow. And we’re the number one largest curated marketplace for these online businesses. At any given time, you can expect around 70 or so businesses for sale on our marketplace that have been vetted by us and are looking to be acquired. So with that in mind, let’s let’s kind of get down to the nitty gritty of what we’re we’re focusing on today. So the first thing is we’ll talk about who should care about this talk. I think that’s always important to let those who aren’t going to get a lot of value out of this get out of here early, maybe grab some lunch or something like that. But for those that it will be impactful for, hopefully you’ll stick around and you’ll get that value. Next, we’ll talk about why an everyday SACE business is so attractive to potential buyers. Then we’ll move on and talk about valuations, what goes into valuations, how they work, and we’ll be focusing primarily on the sub fifty million dollar market because that’s where the data we have lies. We sold thousands of businesses and that helps us give a much clearer picture and much better expectations on what what’s going to happen for your sale. And then we’ll talk a little bit more about your SG&A specifically and how you can make it more attractive to buyers. We’ll talk about common pitfalls that people experienced when they are selling an online business, and then we’ll briefly touch on getting ready to sell the actual selling process and we’ll offer some free help here at the end of the talk. So let’s let’s kick it off for you again. Two things you should know. One, you’re going to hear me say it depends a lot today. And the reason for that is we have to speak in generalities because every business is different. You can’t provide a talk like this that’s going to cover all of the aspects or questions that you have specifically, obviously, but we’ll do our best to give you the 80, 20 of what you can focus on. And then if you do have more questions that are more on the outskirts, that’s something you can talk with us about later or just hit me up. And then the other thing here is a lot of the stuff we’re going to cover today is common sense. And I think the big thing here is that doesn’t make it any less valuable. Oftentimes, as you guys know, the simplest things are often the most effective. So just keep that in mind as as we move along.
[00:04:54] So who is this not going to help right off the bat if you’re looking to build the next Twitter or Uber or looking for that type of a unicorn valuation? This isn’t going to be very helpful. And I’m not the guy you should be listening to, so just keep that in mind. Now, who this is going to be more targeted towards and hopefully more beneficial for is an everyday SACE owner. So what’s an everyday says? That’s a company that’s making a profit, which I know that’s a crazy idea, but you’re a profitable company. You have a bit of a track record. It’s not a sexy business necessarily. It doesn’t have to be focused on hypergrowth. Oftentimes these are companies that are solving a problem for a very niche audience and doing it very well. And that’s really what the bulk of the sex industry is made up of. And I think oftentimes it’s a bit overlooked, but hopefully that’s something you can relate to and something that we can kind of use as a stepping stone to where this conversation is going. So the next thing here is why does almost everyone one of my assessments, and so the entire Flipper’s this year, we’ve done around forty thousand dials and had a lot of conversations with buyers. And what I can tell you is the people that are newer to the market and just kind of want to get their feet in almost always want to focus on SACE. And the reason for that is is pretty obvious. And I should put a caveat there. There’s obviously very experienced buyers who are looking for SACE as well. It’s just speaks to to the the truth that everyone sees the value that is in this business and what that is. And why start businesses get higher valuations than something like an e-commerce business is because of the following. So usually there’s a recurring revenue model, whether that’s annual, monthly, quarterly, it’s all attractive. Right. It’s great to be able to purchase a business that allows you to forecast out. And if your churn if you understand your life cycle, then you should be able to, as an investor or a buyer, be able to have a much better idea of what you’re getting yourself into. And that’s huge. Next is there’s an inherent moat in this business that doesn’t exist for most eCom businesses, at least it’s a wider moat. And the things that kind of go into that obviously are the actual software that you’ve built. Now, if you’ve kind of skin a CRM or something like that and that’s your primary offering, you know, that can be great, too. But obviously, that’s not going to have as big of a moat as someone who’s invested a lot of time, resources and energy into building out a software platform that’s going to be incredibly timely and resource costly for a competitor to to to go against.
[00:07:39] On top of that, there’s a clear funnel, which is which is huge. And it’s something that typically every facet is going to have a different model for how they acquire customer, whether you’re focusing on be to see whether your folks are going to be to be whether you’re focused on enterprise. There can be iterations to that actual acquisition funnel, but the funnel itself is still a clear picture that can be optimized in different stages, which is very attractive. And at the bottom line, I just want to for those of you who may be thinking, well, my business doesn’t really qualify in terms of having a very clear product, maybe I don’t understand my funnel enough or maybe it doesn’t have that big of a moat.
[00:08:23] The fact of the matter is, no business is perfect and there’s a buyer for typically almost every business. So even if your business is struggling right now, that doesn’t mean that you’re not able to sell it. So let let’s talk a little bit about actual valuation. So.
[00:08:41] Before we begin again, I feel like a little bit of a broken record here, but some hard truth for for those of you out there you can expect and statistically speaking, your business is going to fall within this range of four to six times annual EBITA for what it’s going to sell for. Yes, there are ways to get higher within that range. Yes, there are businesses that go outside of that range. But now when we get outside of this range, we’re talking about outlier companies that have something truly kind of special about them. So we’re going to be focusing on on this range of kind of businesses that fit within these trends, throughout this is talk. So let’s talk about a little more detail of what goes into the valuation. And the formula is very simple. It’s an I should make a note here. So Empire Flipper’s, we use monthly net profit and a monthly multiple. So if you go into our website and you see a business that’s listed and it’s got a multiple of forty eight X, it’s not forty eight times annual earnings, that would be amazing. We would all be very wealthy and some business owners would be extremely happy with us if we were able to do it at an annual rate. But that’s a monthly multiple. And the reason we use that is because it allows us to give a more targeted valuation. So instead of having to use something that’s just like three and a half years, we’re able to really nail that down and get to a more specific number. So what is included in your monthly net profit? So how do we get to that? So the way you should should get to that number is, is that’s your either EBITA or your your bottom line number, things that go into that or anything that goes into your cost of acquisition, any ongoing development work, any ongoing contractors that need to come with the business. The way you want to think about this is anything that the business owner is going to need to continue to see. The same results from the business should be included in your expenses. And that’ll be a line item now where you get your monthly net profit. And then we’ll talk a little bit about multiple in a second here. But I think one thing is, you know, a lot of people have questions around advocates and what doesn’t constitute a unnecessary expense. That’s something you’re going to want to talk with, with a broker about or a specialist do some research there. What I would say is always try to disclose as much as possible. Obviously, if you get to the stage where people are reviewing tax returns and that kind of thing, they’ll expect you to take some some liberties there that’s fully expected. But the actual PNL that the valuation is going to be worked on should be accurate and it should include, like I said, just those necessary expenses. So let’s talk about multiple, because this is usually where people are very interested here.
[00:11:29] So we talked a bit about what goes in to the actual profit number and we’ll talk a little bit more about how to get that multiple up, but just something to keep in mind. Ideally, we’re going to use a 12 month average to determine that that monthly net profit. That’s going to give us the largest picture that we need in order to get a true idea of how your business is performing. Also, that’s going to be what most buyers are going to want to use for a typical business. So there are times when we’ll use a three to six month pricing period. When we do that, it should be reflected that something is fundamentally changed within the business and that new revenue threshold or earnings threshold is going to become the standard moving forward. We talked already about a little bit of what, where and how we define profits. All kind of move past that and kind of focus more on the actual multiple here. So.
[00:12:28] The the multiple range that you can expect for a businesses is somewhere in that 48 X to 60 X range.
[00:12:37] What gets you to that larger multiple at the foundational level? It’s it’s the the aspects of a solid business.
[00:12:45] So we’re going to be able to use a longer track record here. Maybe the business has been in operation for six or seven years. You have a steady trend of growth throughout that process or throughout that time frame. Oftentimes, these are going to be larger businesses as businesses get into the eight figure range, the seven figure range, they’re going to have more risk diversification. Nine times out of ten, then a smaller business that’s maybe generating 20 or 30 thousand a monthly net profit. Another big factor here is growth, right? So if your business is seeing continued growth of 30 percent, 40 percent year over year, that’s going to put you higher on that spectrum of of multiple. So when do we use a smaller multiple or about a business has just less value off of the net profit. So that’s going to happen when we have to use a shorter track record. So let’s say it’s it’s only a two year old company.
[00:13:45] Buyers aren’t going to have a lot to work with there. They’re going to have to make some forecasting estimates. And the model, although proven and profitable, may not have the the resiliency that would allow the market to purchase it at a higher price. Oftentimes, if we’re using a shorter pricing period, we’re going to have to use a lower multiple to kind of counteract that.
[00:14:05] And that’s something that we’ll we’ll work with the seller on and we’ll have open conversations on what makes the sense makes the most sense and what’s going to give your business the most accurate picture of smaller businesses where they talk about the big thing here is declining businesses. So if your business is declining and that’s a consistent trend that we’re seeing, that’s going to require a smaller multiple. And even if it’s not getting into the category of a distressed asset, it can be something that is is a factor for the majority of buyers. A stable business is a good business and a great business.
[00:14:41] And it’s going to get, you know, an average multiple, I would say, be somewhere in the middle there. So let’s hopefully you have a better understanding of what goes into the actual valuation. Now, let’s talk a little bit about making your specific business more valuable. And again, these are going to be high level tips, things you probably already know, but hopefully hearing them again and kind of.
[00:15:08] Either motivates you to take action on this or at least kind of give yourself a framework to work from. So here’s some realistic strategies for increasing the value of your business. The first thing here is you need to know your numbers. Yesterday, I gave a roundtable talk and a gentleman on the call voiced and he said he’s in private equity. And he he kind of reiterated something I said earlier in the call it and mentioned you wouldn’t believe how many times we talked to buyers who don’t have any books. And these are for businesses that are generating millions of dollars and they have no clear picture of of the actual financial health of the business. This is detrimental not only to being able to sell your business, but also to being able to optimize and run your business, because in our talks with sellers who who operate from this perspective, oftentimes once we help them create a profit and loss statement, we help them work through and get their books in order. The actual bottom line number is very different than what they anticipated. Maybe their their cost of acquisition was a lot higher than they initially thought. And that changes things. And you’re not able to improve something if you’re not able to first measure it correctly. So it sounds super simple. And for for those of you who have this already awesome job, for those of you who are hearing this and like and I really don’t feel like doing that, numbers are a pain in the ass.
[00:16:35] It’s a worthwhile investment and something you’re absolutely going to need to do if you’re going to sell your business. The next thing you need to do is you need to be honest with yourself. You need to know how long you’re willing to commit to improving this business. If you’re only wanting to to stick around for another six months, don’t do something that’s going to take 24 months to test out. Don’t implement experimental marketing right before you go to sell because you’re going to drive up costs and you’re not going to get any of those benefits that would have came later down the line. And that that kind of goes in in line with what we’re talking about here is.
[00:17:13] You need to know your mission, your vision and your secret sauce, again, super simple stuff here. This is stuff you read all the time, but it’s especially true when you’re going into conversations with potential buyers. They’re not just reviewing your business. Most of these. These.
[00:17:30] These buyers are going to have a business of acquisition and then they’re going to be talking with a lot of different people, they may be talking with your competitors. So if you don’t have a clear understanding of what it is that you do where you want to take this company or what the next step forward is for this company, even if you are not going to be the one that’s doing it, it’s going to be difficult to have these conversations. And then the secret sauce is really just knowing what differentiates you in the market. This doesn’t need to be sexy, but it does need to be something that you can clearly and articulately speak to.
[00:18:06] So actually.
[00:18:09] Getting to more action, we’ll talk topics, let’s talk about what you should do to improve your business.
[00:18:17] And since we’re not having a direct conversation about your specific business, the first thing you want to do is you want to do an analysis of of what you do best and focus on your lowest hanging fruits that are related to that. So you may be excellent at marketing, but have been so focused on product improvement or tech development over the last 18 months that you haven’t spent the time optimizing and improving your your actual acquisition strategy.
[00:18:48] So so this is another keep it simple, stupid kind of point, but focus on the things that you can do best. If if when I brought this up and you heard the word lowest hanging fruit, if there was a project that popped into your mind that you haven’t been doing, that’s probably what you should be focusing on. Again, it kind of goes back to the to the books. Right. Like to actually getting your books done.
[00:19:10] Oftentimes the the the things that aren’t sexy are going to be the easiest things for you to knock off. So maybe you know that you’re overpaying with one of your your solution providers and you have to renegotiate contracts there and a long time look to do that. Those small changes are going to build up and increase that profit. And ultimately, the way a business is going to be more valuable is going to be. Increasing that bottom line, because no matter what the multiple is, the higher the actual bottom line is, the more the business is going to sell for. So talking about focusing on bottom line improvements.
[00:19:51] This is going to be so specific to your business that there’s not a lot of kind of.
[00:19:59] Pinpointed strategies that I’m going to be able to provide, but what I will say is focusing on reduction first and wasted spend is usually the easiest. So maybe that’s identifying your processes and seeing if there’s any areas where you’re able to cut costs on either manpower or you’re able to implement automation, that’s going to make it more efficient. And it is ultimately going to boost those bottom line revenues. If you are going to focus on growth, like we talked about earlier, make sure that you have a clear strategy of when you’re wanting to sell and you have at least, let’s say, three to six months of a track record for any additional changes that you’ve made to the company, because when a buyer comes in to purchase it, they want to see, you know, the last few months of steady kind of non change trends so that when they take the company over, they can expect that to continue forward.
[00:20:55] You know?
[00:20:56] If your software stack is is kind of just Frankenstein together and that’s something you’ve been avoiding, not only could you be increasing your bottom line, you’re also going to be improving your actual ability to transfer the asset. And that’s kind of one of the next things you can focus on here is obviously, if you know the vehicle to to grow your business and you’re not doing it or you’re not wanting to commit the funds, but you’re wanting to sell it at a certain price. And the only way you’re going to be able to do that is through increasing your net profit. If you’re willing to stick with the business and you have the heart to continue forward, put that plan in place and make that actionable while you’re doing that. Be sure to always keep in mind that you need to make this this asset actually transferable so you don’t want to have things spread out to where you’re the only person on Earth that knows how this business is going to operate.
[00:21:46] That’s extremely difficult. And it’s something that we do see fairly often with with kind of single single one man band type of SAS businesses that can be generating a lot of capital. Maybe they have a few contractors, but it was so bootstrapped and the owner never kind of went back and put the processes in place that that it can be difficult. And oftentimes when you are reviewing those processes, you’re going to see areas of improvement that are going to just make the business stronger in general. So I know if I was on this call and I was looking for a strategy to to grow my business, I would be looking for some actionable, some actionable kind of feedback to take away here.
[00:22:29] There’s so many other speakers here that are getting those targeted type of speeches, and you’re going to be able to use that material to improve this. Hopefully this is Pates, again, that framework for you to work from. So let’s talk about some common pitfalls that new sellers have when when entering the market. So the first thing here is working with the wrong buyer. We have a saying here that we hold we hold very firmly to here at Empire Flippers and Nuts that we don’t work with assholes now doesn’t mean we don’t work with difficult people.
[00:23:00] That doesn’t mean that we we don’t work with people who are aggressive or anything like that.
[00:23:09] You know what an asshole is for yourself and pardon my French omnes, but that’s really a key Shati that’s going to avoid a lot of headache because you’re going to have to work with this buyer no matter what after the transition process. So it should be someone you like working with. The next thing is, don’t be the asshole.
[00:23:26] Don’t come into the selling process, whether it be nerves. Well, or whether it be you not wanting to to open up and share the information with a potential buyer. Don’t make the process so difficult and don’t be so combative that it turns off potential buyers because again, these buyers are reviewing multiple different businesses. Part of what they’re buying is their relationship with you as a seller. So you doing a good job and coming across as a good human is going to be helpful. Next is and we already talked about this starting experimental marketing and projects to close to the sale date. Just don’t do that. If things are running well and you’ve got a clear path forward and you’re happy with with the the earnings that you’re currently generating, don’t do anything experimental. Another thing is setting a sale. No, based on nothing. So a lot of times we’ll talk with sellers who just have a specific number in mind. I want to sell for twenty million dollars. We’ll work with them. Maybe we’ll be working with them for twelve months or something like that. We’ll have conversations quarterly as we get closer. They’ll kind of get to the monthly stage and they’ve grown their business. They’ve they’ve done everything they need to do. But the business is at sixteen million or fifty million on the high end. Don’t set yourself up to fail by just having an artificial number in the sky. A lot of times people will be like, well, my friend sold for this, but they don’t know the details of the actual sale and that can just be problematic from the start.
[00:24:50] Next is not documenting your code or processes, so you need to have clear sops for your key, your key functions in your company.
[00:25:02] If you don’t have those, it’s going to be very difficult to transfer it over to a new buyer. It’s going to make the amount of time that you spend transferring the asset over and retraining the buyer a lot longer. And it’s going to turn off some buyers that are looking for more of a turnkey type of operation. So when possible, make sure you document another thing here. And we’ve talked a little bit about kind of timeline and how long you’re willing to stick around with the business. Don’t don’t wait until the business is bleeding. I know this from first hand from from my marketing agency that I ran like I was out of that business two years before I was actually out of it. And it was continuing to kind of get customers and perform. OK, but I should have exited earlier on when it was humming, when I was so passionate and instead I kind of just let it drift through. I focused on other projects and just took my eye off a. All there, so like we talked about earlier. Be honest with yourself and if you want to sell, sell next is what we’ve talked about kind of the transfer process and making your asset transferable. One of the biggest pitfalls that we’ll see is working with a payment processor that actually can’t transfer. So PayPal is is a pretty good example of this. If you’re using PayPal, I would I would work to switch to another provider, maybe run two systems for a short amount of time, because whenever you go to transfer users to a new processor, like you all know, you’re going to lose a lot of of of customers that way. So that’s a big one to avoid. And then the last one here that’s kind of brief is you want to avoid personal branding, if at all possible, if it’s too late in the game for you and you’ve kind of already built a SaaS business off your personal brand. Just be prepared for the future, Biard, to continue to use your image and perhaps produce content under your name, so that can be difficult. Oftentimes you can pivot. It’s not going to be as dangerous as you can, and it’s much better if you control that process before you sell. So that’s some of the actual pitfalls that we see sellers encounter. So let’s talk a little bit about the selling process and what you can expect. So Empire Flipper’s is a little bit different than most brokerages. We actually have a full team approach to getting these assets sold and helping you reach your goals. So we have a dedicated vetting department that’s going to work with you to verify all of your numbers, build out your profit and loss statement and kind of build the foundations of the listing before we go to market. And that’s going to make sure that the numbers are accurate. So when buyers do start coming in and reviewing the business, we’re not having to adjust things. Different buyers aren’t valuing things differently that are just factual. In a in the actual sales process, once you’ve built out the listing and you have that, you’re going to move to being live on the marketplace. Again, I’m speaking from empire figures. There are other brokerages that do off market deals. They’ve kind of just sell you specifically to strategic buyers. One note on strategic buyers. If you know of a company in your space and you’re thinking about selling, there’s no harm in just reaching out and seeing if they’re interested in an acquisition. You’ll need to be careful with exposing your books and all of your your your information to a competitor. And that’s something that can be helpful with a broker to kind of guard against that. But a strategic buyer is going to pay a premium for a business that a typical buyer wouldn’t be willing to do. When you’re on the the actual marketplace or you’re listing his life for sale, one thing to be aware of is tire kickers. Right. There’s a lot of people that want to see under the hood of these businesses, whether it’s to try to gather information that they can implement into their own business or whether it’s just because they’re just kind of. Thinking they’re going to buy, but they’re never going to pull the trigger, so one of the things that’s unique about Empire Flipper’s is we require financial, institutional level KYC and then on top of that, we also require verified liquidity. And you only are able to view listings that your liquidity proves that you’re able to purchase the business. So this is actual cash in the bank ready to move. So that limits our amount of tire kickers dramatically. So keep that in mind as you’re on the market, you don’t want to waste a lot of time talking to people who really can’t purchase your business. If you get to the to the stage or when you get to the stage where you start discussing deal structures, this is another thing where it can be a bit of a hard check if you’ve got a business that’s going to sell for, you know, 20 or 30 million dollars. Ninety nine percent of the time, it’s going to have some sort of seller financing attached to that payment. So what that might look like is it might be 60 or 70 percent of the sales price up front. So you get a big chunk of cash and then the remainder is going to be tied to either performance or it’s going to have some hold back payments or it’s going to be based off you continuing to stay with the business for six to 12 months. So just be prepared that those offers are going to come in and there’s going to be additional structure. That’s not just a cash only sale. That’s something that’s very specific and something that is going to be dependent on the buyer and dependent on the business on what that looks like, but that’s something that your broker should be able to work with you and kind of talk through. The other thing is, and I know this sounds crazy, don’t don’t expect to not have to negotiate. Don’t be offended. If someone throws out an offer that you don’t think is reasonable, take it from there. Explain why you don’t agree with it. And and your broker should be selling on your behalf as well to to find that that point where it makes sense for everyone. That’s ultimately what a successful transaction should look like.
[00:30:56] After you you accept an offer, typically, you’re going to go into some sort of exclusive due diligence period, you verify that the buyer’s legitimate, you guys have talked and agreed to an actual sales price.
[00:31:11] Now they’re going to dig in and make sure that everything is as it seems. And this is typically the time when code review happens. So it can be difficult, I know, for for sellers to want to expose that information, but you have to be able to trust that buyer. And that’s why we talked about earlier, why it’s important that you work with someone that you like and someone that you can trust, because this is a very intimate process. There is a ton of trust that is required on both sides in order to transfer a business. So keep that in mind. One thing I will say is unique about empire flippers, and this definitely isn’t true across the board is don’t go into an LLC or a letter of intent to early make sure that they’ve done enough due diligence, that the actual offer that they’re presenting is based off of verification during due diligence and not based on the idea that your sale list price for your business. And it sounds so great when it starts at the lower than they do 60 days in due diligence, they kind of beat up the business. They find holes in the business, and then the offer drops dramatically at the end of that process. And then at that point, you’ve been off the marketplace for for 50 or 60 days. Competition for the actual market has has gone down a lot. You feel like you’ve spent a lot of emotional and time resources into getting this business sold. Maybe you’ve spent lawyer costs at this point. And that’s a way that some buyers can pick up deals for cheaper than they should. That’s something we protect against him are very. It’s something we coach on on both sides that we don’t want buyers coming into eyes and then trying to walk out with with a different sales price, and that’s something that we’ve been able to to hold both sides accountable for and something our sellers really appreciate. And then once you actually have the agreed date, are the agreed deal size or deal price, you’re going to move to actually transferring the asset over. Don’t transfer anything until the funds are in escrow. That’s a again, obvious, but we’ve seen it happen before and it can go bad once it’s in an escrow. You can typically expect the migration and transfer to take anywhere from two to four weeks for the initial kind of transfer of actual corporate structure and then pass. That is going to be depending on the buyer and what you agreed to during your actual deal structure of how long you stick around. So the last thing they kind of keep in mind here is whether or not you want to do this yourself or you want to use your broker. It’s a pretty straightforward proposition here. If you are able to do it yourself, you’ve got to be aware of some of the things we talked about earlier, and that’s tire kickers finding buyers showing too much information to two strategic partners, strategic acquisitions and competitors.
[00:34:00] And then it can just be a daunting process, not being able to know how to negotiate a business. All of these things can lead to you selling your deal for far less than it should have been. Oftentimes what happens is it actually leads to the deal not actually going through. And you’ve wasted all of these resources and pulled your eye away from your business. And things typically just don’t go well in a scenario where a deal falls apart. The pro of that of the DIY is obviously that you don’t have to pay a commission. So any brokerage is going to charge a commission that’s going to range fairly widely. Ours goes down all the way to two percent for four larger deals. So it’s not a high premium to pay in order to to sell your business efficiently and effectively. And I mean, just last month, we sold a 12 million dollar deal that had been approached multiple times by one of the biggest acquisition or buyers in our space. And they had been thrown out offers that they were unwilling to accept, fortunately. Well, unfortunately, the buyer did try to go forward with one of those. It kind of fell apart. They were ultimately not happy with the sales price. Then they came to us and we sold for significantly more than he would have sold for privately.
[00:35:18] And the the amount of commission that we’re taking is far less than the additional income that the seller is going to be receiving from the sales price. So it’s something to have an open, honest conversation about, and it’s something that you should consider when you’re moving into this part of the process of getting your business sold. So the last thing here is this is just for for all of you who are on here. If you’d like to talk more about this, get a valuation on your business. If you go to Empire, Flipper’s dotcom fluid’s forward essent. There’s no cost associated with this. It’ll give you an idea of what your business is worth. And it also allow you to talk with one of our business analysts about getting your business sold and kind of what steps you should specifically take to to sell your Sask. I hope that you guys found this valuable. Donagh, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We we we truly do believe in the industry as a whole. And it’s something that we we want to just grow the pie for. So reach out and hopefully we’ll we’ll hear from some of you soon.
[00:36:23] Thanks.