Learning to sell
When I think back more than 40 years ago, and the very first business that I started, and later sold, little did I realize that I would go on to start and sell over 40 businesses and help hundreds of others do the same.
My first business was delivering sandwiches to customers in a Calgary industrial area. As my confidence and knowledge grew (I was fresh out of high school) my business started to flourish and at the time selling my business had never crossed my mind. Therefore, I was very surprised when a young lady approached me wanting to purchase my business. Since I had no experience in selling a business, I was not sure on how to go about doing so. Luckily neither did the buyer and after working together and a little negotiating, we came up with a few conditions and a selling price that worked well for both of us.
Even though I received 2,500.00 (over 40 years ago this was a good amount of money) for my business, I can still remember some of the emotions and uncertainty that I felt during and after the sale. In the end, the sale worked well for both of us. She purchased a business that provided stability, financial security, and training.. I got paid and moved on to another possibility
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Over the next 30 years, I started many more businesses and with each sale, I gained more insight behind why buyers wanted to become business owners and in some cases why they did not want to buy my business. Initially, I was very defensive when buyers made negative comments about my business but soon realized that by listening to what buyers were telling me, it made my future business sales easier and easier.
After my first 5 sales, and a lot of wasted time dealing with unserious buyers I started a simple qualifying process. Though my process was very rudimentary, I started to notice a trend. I was spending less time with unserious buyers and more time with people who had the capacity to buy my businesses.
Statistics show only 5% of the inquiries regarding business sales are of a serious nature.
As I sold more and more businesses, my vetting process evolved. I discovered that the vetting process could be more than just a means of finding out if a buyer had the necessary funds to buy my business. It could also provide me with an opportunity to discover what was behind the buyer’s decision in becoming a business owner.
This information shaped the 2 Step Vetting process I now use today which helps starts the process for both the business buyer and seller to work towards a common goal.
In 2007 I started a Business Brokerage Service that helped small business owners sell their businesses. In 2015 I sold my business and retired.
In 2019 I was approached by a business owner who needed help with the sale of his business and finding a buyer. This experience started me on the road to developing a system that I could help business owners virtually manage the sale of their businesses themselves.