E155 | Strategic Advice from Appletree Answers Founder & Scaling Up Coaches CEO, John Ratliff

Today’s guest knows all about scaling up. Not only is John Ratliff CEO of Scaling Up Coaches, he’s also a seasoned entrepreneur himself. 

Having started Appletree Answers, a telephone answering service from his apartment in 1995, John grew the company to 24 US-based locations and more than 600 employees, taking nearly 10 years to get to $1million in revenue, and then six years to get to $30 million, before a fantastic exit well over market value, selling the company to a strategic buyer in 2012. 

This experience gave John a unique perspective into the importance of culture, employee engagement, and the guidance and tools entrepreneurs need to have a successful exit. 

Today John spends the majority of his time defending entrepreneurs against private equity buyers - he says if you’re considering selling your company, you’d be mad not to get representation. 

In this episode, John shares some fantastic tips for owners thinking of selling, the time he turned a potentially $400,000 loss into $7 million of value, and how he really understood employee happiness by changing one NPS question. 

This episode is a little longer than normal, but it’s jam-packed full of useful insights and guidance. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

On today’s podcast:

• Business selling advice for founders
• Why you shouldn’t start from scratch
• Building and selling Appletree Answers
• John’s M&A playbook
• The importance of happy employees

Links:

• LinkedIn – John Ratliff
• Website – stscapital.com, align5.com