The Emotional Side of Selling a Business

Could you sell your business? Would you even want to once it’s optmized enough to make selling an option? Today I’m discussing the practical and emotional considerations of selling an online business with my longtime friendtor, Alexis Grant. 

More about Lexi:  Alexis is the founder and CEO of They Got Acquired, a media company telling the stories of “small” acquisitions. She has sold two companies herself—a digital marketing agency to The Penny Hoarder as a full acqui-hire, and The Write Life to a third party. She lives with her husband and two young kids in Harpers Ferry, WV.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways:

• People are more likely to trust a person over a brand, so it’s okay for you to start as a front-facing part of your business, featured prominently, and then transition to more behind-the-scenes over time. 
• Hire help on a project-basis before a permanent one; testing the waters is valuable on both sides. 
• Create recurring revenue and systems to support that wherever you can in your business. Ensure that it wouldn’t fall apart without you at the helm. 

📝 Permission: Drop the traditional work-week. Establish a schedule that works for you and that makes sense for your season of life.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Take a hard look at the attic (and under the stairs, and maybe in the garage) of your business: What have you been putting off streamlining and systematizing? Pick an issue, and start tidying! Even if you have no plans to sell your business, making it sellable will reduce the stress you carry as the owner.

📘 Books Mentioned:

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business 
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
• Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You
• The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry
• The Art of Selling Your Business: Winning Strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top
• Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top
• Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
• Exit Rich: The 6 P Method to Sell Your Business for Huge Profit
• Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World
• Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, 10th-Anniversary Edition

🔗 Resources Mentioned: 

• Lexi on the web, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
• Podcast: They Got Acquired
• Newsletter: They Got Acquired Newsletter
• Article: A Spotlight on Tech’s Invisible Start-ups, Andrew Wilkinson on Medium
• Business Investors: Tiny
• Startup Parent

Related Podcast Episodes: 

• 051: How to Replace Yourself as CEO with Michael Bungay Stanier
• 061: Scaling Boutique Businesses with Greg Alexander
• 027: Time Management for Mortals with Oliver Burkeman
• Lexi Grant on the acquihire and 6-figure asset sale that led to They Got Acquired
• Can you sell a business based on a personal brand? Lauren Gaggioli did
• From hot dog stand to 8-figure exit: How Sam Parr built and sold The Hustle

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