$11M Exit- Viki Winterton, Expert Insights Publishing

Viki Winterton is the founder of Expert Insights Publishing, home of best-selling and award-winning books and magazines, where visionaries and those on the rise come together to create immediate impact. 

Viki is also a multiple #1 International Best-Selling Author and Award-Winning Publisher, founder of Bestselling Authors International Organization, Write Now! Broadcast and Write Away, Write  Now!, the global community where writers find everything they need at each stage of their journey

How involved was Viki in the firm? (2:41)

• When Viki hit her 20s, she started working part-time for an ad agency between her modelling gigs.
• There was a fierce desire to be more in control of life.
• Modelling is somewhat manipulated by a lot of different factors.
• When you get to the age of 24 it is time to retire, for a lot of models, which Viki decided to pursue.
• A lot of recruitment and general advertising was done during the time that there was a bad recession.

Who were Viki’s partners at that current point? (5:06)

• She acquired a number of other smaller agencies and then approached a full-service agency about sharing a space and sharing their creative department.
• Three years later the owner of that department was interested in Viki’s part and made her an offer to acquire her portion of the agency.
• He ended up buying her portion of the agency for the big sum of $12M.

How her business grew and what Viki would’ve done differently (7:12)

• Since she was so young, all of Viki’s energy was going into billing and getting bigger numbers.
• As they grew, they had to take contracts several times, which almost doubled their size. This meant that they also needed to nearly double their headcount.
• In her mature years, she could see people planning for growth without planning how to grow.
• If she would have had any regrets, it would probably be that she tampered with their growth to be a little less dramatic.
• When they acquired two businesses, she would have changed that, some of the people would also change along with the business, because it would’ve resulted in the way that the business was run.
• When Viki initially worked in the business, she loved it, but as it got bigger she realized that she preferred a more entrepreneurial background or environment.
• In this day and age, it would be wonderful to talk about profitability as there is a movement behind that. Those in bigger businesses or those starting out should be looking at profitability.

Viki’s advice for entrepreneurs? (32:44)

• First and foremost you must follow your bliss. If you do what you love, everything comes naturally.
• All information is free on the internet and people have access to this information to make their business successful. But one thing they can’t replace is passion and the bliss that they find by doing what they are passionate about.

Expert Insights Publishing

Expert Insights Publishing has helped more than 100 companies, experts, writers, and entrepreneurs to successfully define their dreams and their businesses to achieve success for over 30 years. They are a 23-time #1 International Bestseller and award-winning publisher.

Resources

Connect with Viki: LinkedIn

Expert Insights Publishing: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

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