Podcasts about website closers

Selling a business is a monumental decision. There's excitement, self-reflection, and yes, uncertainty. For Adam O'Leary, founder of encite branding + marketing + creative, the journey to a successful exit was sparked by a realization - it was time for change.After nearly two decades of growing his full-service marketing agency from a one-man operation to a thriving business, Adam partnered with Website Closers to navigate the selling process. Despite initial doubts about his company's value, Adam discovered a wealth of interest—over 100 inquiries poured in, and multiple serious discussions followed. The end result? A sale that exceeded expectations and opened new doors for his future.In this episode, Adam reflects on his journey, from the entrepreneurial leap that started it all to the challenges that inspired his decision to sell. He shares how Website Closers supported him every step of the way, offering candid advice, patient guidance, and an expertly managed process. For Adam, the experience validated years of hard work and provided a meaningful exit.Tune in to hear Adam's candid story about:The “three B's of exit” and why he decided it was time to sell.How he navigated the broker selection process and why Website Closers stood out.The surprising level of interest his company received and what it felt like to secure his first big business wire.Advice for entrepreneurs considering their own exit strategy.This episode of Deal Closers is hosted by Nate Lind, brought to you by WebsiteClosers.com, and is produced by Earfluence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Building a business is an incredible journey, but what happens when your passion for that business starts to fade? For Ellis Achim, founder of Paddie Nails, success in the D2C e-commerce space wasn't enough—he wanted to build something he truly loved working on every day.After years of growing Paddie Nails into a thriving, profitable brand, Ellis realized that while the business was doing well, he wasn't personally connected to the niche. So he decided to sell, but it wasn't a simple process. After a disappointing experience with another firm, he found Website Closers and worked with broker Paul Volen, who streamlined the process and connected him with over 100 serious buyers, ultimately leading to a successful sale.In this episode, Ellis shares:Why passion matters in long-term business success—and when to move on.The challenges of finding the right business broker (and what to avoid).How Website Closers' buyer network generated 106 NDA signings and 7 serious buyer calls.What it feels like to receive your first big business exit wire.This episode of Deal Closers is hosted by Nate Lind, brought to you by WebsiteClosers.com, and is produced by Earfluence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Selling a business is more than a financial transaction—it's a major life shift, filled with tough decisions, unexpected opportunities, and a lot of reflection. After 20+ years in the connectivity and physical cybersecurity space, Jeff Clark recognized that the industry was evolving faster than he could keep up. His company had pioneered a niche market with physical security locks that prevent insider data breaches, but he knew that in order to scale, it needed new leadership with deep expertise in today's digital marketing and cybersecurity landscape.Here's his story.In this episode, Jeff shares:How an accidental discovery in physical cybersecurity reshaped his business.The moment he realized it was time to sell and why he sought out Website Closers.How his broker, Justin Harris, helped him navigate over 130 buyer inquiries and multiple offers.Why selling his business provided security for his family and peace of mind for the future.This episode of Deal Closers is hosted by Nate Lind, brought to you by WebsiteClosers.com, and is produced by Earfluence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch Here: https://youtu.be/hebyR7iJjdEAbout the Guest(s): Justin Harris is a seasoned M&A expert, specializing in website and e-commerce acquisitions. With diverse experience spanning nonprofit work, a major security firm, and entrepreneurial ventures in software and leadership development, he offers a distinctive blend of business acumen and innovation. Currently with Website Closers, Justin is known for his professional demeanor and keen insights into website market dynamics. He also personally owns niche e-commerce brands, such as scented home products.Summary: In this episode, Ronald Skelton talks with Justin Harris from Website Closers about mergers and acquisitions in the website-based business realm. They delve into Justin's journey from college to becoming a prominent figure in entrepreneurship and M&A. Justin offers insights on buying, scaling, and selling online businesses, emphasizing organized finances, efficient systems, and reducing owner dependence for those planning an exit soon.Key Takeaways:Well-prepared financials are crucial for a successful business sale; they build trust with potential buyers.Systems and processes should be documented clearly to demonstrate a business that won't require significant buyer involvement.Owner dependence is a critical factor; a business that can run with minimal owner input is more attractive to buyers.There's an expected decrease in multiples and buyer activity in today's market, affecting business valuations.Utilizing AI for generating sales copy and content can be a game-changer for small e-commerce businesses--------------------------------------------------Contact Justin onLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-henry-harris/Website: http://websiteclosers.com/--------------------------------------------------How2Exit Joins IT ExchangeNet's Channel Partner Network!-Why IT ExchangeNet?Since 1998, IT ExchangeNet has created $5 billion in value by selling more than 225 IT businesses in 20 countries. IT ExchangeNet works exclusively with IT-enabled businesses generating between $5M and $30M who are ready to be sold, and M&A decision-makers who are ready to buy. For over 25 years IT ExchangeNet has developed industry knowledge that helps them determine whether a seller is a good fit for their buyers before making a match."Out of all of the brokers I've met, this team has the most experience and I believe the best ability to get IT service businesses sold at the best price" - Ron SkeltonThe IT ExchangeNet M&A Marketplace we partnered with has a proprietary database of 50,000+ global buyers seeking IT Services firms, MSPs, MSSPs, Software-as-a-Service platforms, and channel partners in the Microsoft, Oracle, ServiceNow, and Salesforce space.If you are interested in learning more about the process and current market valuations, complete the contact form and we'll respond within one business day. Everything is kept confidential.Are you interested in what your business may be worth? Unlock the value of your IT Services firm, visit https://www.itexchangenet.com/marketplace-how2exit and complete the contact form.Our partnership with IT ExchangeNet focuses on deals above $5M in value.If you are looking to buy or sell a tech business below the $5M mark, we recommend Flippa.--------------------------------------------------

Nate Lind, seasoned entrepreneur and business broker, joins me on an eye-opening journey through the thickets of e-commerce and the artful dance of business exits. Together, we peel back the layers of what it takes to thrive and survive in the competitive world of selling on Amazon, from the volatile whims of affiliate programs to the calculated strategies behind selling unique supplement brands. My own tale weaves through this narrative, sharing lessons learned from bootstrapping a business with credit card-funded inventory to finding success in niche markets like anti-aging and specialized hair care.   The conversation takes a turn to reveal the underbelly of missed opportunities and the adrenaline-fueled world of online business brokerage. As we swap stories, he unveils the evolution of Website Closers and the thriving market for digital marketing agencies, and Nate also shares his invaluable insights on the importance of timing and preparation for those looking to make their exit. The trade secrets from his book "Maximum Exit" come to life as we discuss the nuts and bolts of preparing for a business sale, including a due diligence checklist that's essential for any seller's arsenal.   As we wrap up, the Four Burners Theory comes into play, challenging listeners to consider the balance of health, work, family, and friends in the quest for entrepreneurial success. We explore the complex decision-making behind selling a business, whether it's for personal growth, health, or a new adventure. We talk about candid reflections on the post-exit paths for entrepreneurs, and how, after the dust of a sale settles, the drive to conquer new challenges often ignites anew. Join us for a deep dive into the labyrinth of online business, where strategy, timing, and intuition are your best guides to a successful exit.   In episode 375 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Nate discuss: 04:52 - Control of Money Flow in E-Commerce 09:34 - The Impact of Online Billing Scams  13:08 - Success in Selling Unique Supplement Brands 23:12 - Website Closers and M&A Marketplace Introduction 26:42 - Mastermind and Competitors in Affiliate Marketing 31:35 - Current Trends in Selling Businesses  33:00 - Market for Digital Marketing Agencies 35:26 - Digital Marketing's Role in Selling on Amazon 43:14 - Success in Black Hat Affiliate Marketing 46:38 - Navigating Challenges in International Business Transactions 48:48 - Preparing for a Business Sale 55:33 - Four Burners Theory for Selling Businesses 1:01:01 - Selling Business Strategies and Tips 1:04:30 - Words Of Wisdom Of The Week From Kevin

They call it the Silver Tsunami. Baby boomers are aging out and retiring. Those baby boomers who happened to own companies, sometimes can't pass it on to their kids. Their kids are not interested in their business. That's when they come to a guy like my next guest, Dave Micek, a Broker and Business Advisor with Website Closers.

What's my business worth? What can I do to increase the multiple I will get? These are the questions that business owners are asking, and Nate Lind and I discuss how you can get a Maximum Exit.  Nate sells companies like Realtors sell homes. He is a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology, and E-commerce businesses. Go grab a cocktail, a cigar and strap in for another insightful episode of Sales and Cigars. Get your free copy of Walter Crosby's new book:  https://www.the7criticalmistakes.com/the-7-critical-mistakes-optin Connect with Walter Crosby: E-mail: walter@helixsalesdevelopment.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterlcrosby/ Website: https://helixsalesdevelopment.com/ Calendly: https://calendly.com/walter-helix/15-minute-virtual-cup-of-coffee Connect with Nate Lind: Nate's Free Gift: https://natelind.com/gift Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/natelind YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/natelindonlinebusinessbroker, Facebook: www.facebook.com/mdrnate

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the Broker & Business Advisor of Website Closers, Nate Lind. Nate Lind is not your average broker. He started his career in real estate, transitioned into e-commerce entrepreneurship, and eventually found his calling as a broker and business advisor at Website Closers. His diverse background and wealth of experience make him a valuable resource for entrepreneurs looking to sell their digital businesses.Nate shared his experiences in selling service-based and content businesses. He revealed that Website Closers has built a buyer's network with over 100,000 buyers and has sold over 3,000 companies. According to Nate, digital businesses' appeal lies in their ability to be operated remotely, which significantly broadens the buyer market.Interestingly, Nate mentioned that even institutional investors recognize digital businesses' value, especially in the e-commerce and tech sectors. Despite the current economic climate, digital companies are in high demand. However, valuing these businesses can be complex, with multiples varying wildly depending on growth, earnings, and industry factors.Nate emphasized that selling a business doesn't have to be complicated. He shared his experience of selling a $25 million company with the help of virtual assistants. Nate offers free consultations, including a business valuation and sales plan, for businesses at least two years old and making a quarter million dollars in profit.He stressed the importance of determining the worth of a business before deciding to sell, as it motivates the seller and attracts potential buyers. Nate also mentioned that Website Closers is a leading marketplace for digital companies, selling around 300 businesses per year. Key Points from the Episode:Nate's experiences in selling service-based and content businessesMarket demand for digital businesses and the appeal of operating them remotelyRecognition of the value of digital businesses by institutional investorsValuing digital businesses and factors that affect multiplesNate's own experience of selling a $25 million company with the help of virtual assistantsFree consultations, business valuation, and sales plan offered by NateWebsite Closers as a leading marketplace for digital businessesImportance of confidentiality in the selling process About Nate Lind:Nate Lind is an accomplished American entrepreneur, triathlete, author, and business broker. Inspired by the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad," he aspired for financial freedom and passive income. In 2016, he successfully exited his first venture, an e-commerce technology company that transitioned into a shopping cart platform.Recognizing the benefits of selling a company and reinvesting in passive income, Nate embraced the role of a business broker. Working with Website Closers, the largest marketplace for Internet, Technology, and E-commerce businesses valued between $1 million to $150 million, he adeptly handles transactions akin to how Realtors sell homes.Currently, Website Closers boasts an impressive 103 client businesses for sale, with 167,000 potential buyers actively seeking investment opportunities. Their impressive track record has facilitated over 300 company sales within their private network in the current year. Nate Lind's diverse expertise and experience make him a key figure in entrepreneurship and business brokerage. About Website Closers:Website Closers, LLC operates WebsiteClosers.com, a full-service

Many people think that when a company is looking to make an acquisition, they need to have the cash up front to give the seller or maybe give stock or some combination of stock and equity in their own company. And while some transactions do take place like this, most that I've seen at Website Closers require some amount of financing to get over the finish line.Today we chat with Stephen Speer, whose company EcommerceLending.com has funded over a billion dollars in online acquisition loans. And he's here to tell us about how the financing works when you're looking to buy a business - particularly for larger deals that are over the SBA lending threshold ($5 million loan). So let's figure out how this all works!This episode of Deal Closers is hosted by Izach Porter, brought to you by WebsiteClosers.com, and is produced by Earfluence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you considering selling your company but are confused about where to begin? Maybe you don't get the top of the market. However, you want to be in a position to sell when both the value of your company and your stock are increasing.  Nate Lind is the author of Maximum Exit: The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology-Focused Business Founders and a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of 1 million to $150 million internet technology and E-commerce businesses. Nate supports those looking to buy or sell online businesses in completing a deal without experiencing any difficulties with the listing, due diligence, or closing procedures. In this episode, Nate will talk about the best time to sell your business, the fun of buying and selling a business, the key to winning transactions, the right size business to invest in, the best type of business to focus on, and the importance of having a backup plan. Resources Nate Lind Site   Nate Lind on Facebook  Nate Lind on Linkedin  Maximum Exit: The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology Amazon Book

On episode #179 of The Author Factor Podcast  I am having a conversation with business broker and author, Nate Lind.Nate sells companies like realtors sell homes. He is a business broker at Website Closers, which is the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million Internet, Technology and E-Commerce businesses.Nate is the author of the short, helpful book, Maximum Exit.During our conversation, Nate shares several important tips ALL business owners should consider regardless if they are looking to sell their business or not.Learn more about Nate by visiting NateLind.com.For more details about our short, helpful book publishing program, visit BiteSizedBooks.com.

Get ready for some BIG NEWS in this episode! Ryan chats with returning guest Jimmy Smith about a major announcement and about the power of buying and selling business to create wealth. You don't want to miss this episode!   Links: https://askjimmysmith.com/legends - If you've been wanting to get into the Business Building Legends group, but haven't yet...NOW is the time! Website Closers - https://www.websiteclosers.com/ Acquisitional Wealth Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/6tW2dz0Y92l512emnj61qD

Website Closersにて、あるポッドキャスト番組が売りに出されています。説明によれば、世界的に認知され受賞歴を誇る有名な番組で、現在1.45億回以上の再生数、月間10万ドルを超える純利益を産み出しているというすごい番組とのこと。今回はこのニュースを紹介したいと思います。 【AD】 Audiostartでは、ポッドキャストに音声広告を掲載したい広告主を募集中です。詳細は以下のリンク先をご覧ください。 https://bit.ly/41jPwyu 【AD】 Audiostartでは、音声広告を掲載して広告報酬を受け取りたいポッドキャスターの方を募集しています。法人・個人問いません。詳細は以下のリンク先をご覧ください。 https://bit.ly/3GSVv5P

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Nate Lind about the world of digital businesses, e-commerce, technology, SaaS, and more. Gain valuable insights on positioning and selling your digital business in today's world. What You'll Learn in this Episode: How to position your company to sell. How to predict your cashflow. How long it takes to sell a business. Quotes: "Have a liquidity event, put some money in the bank. Go put some of that into, upcoming slump in real estate. Buy something, multi-family, get some income from an industry that's more likely to be more passive than your operating entity." (07:13) "I like to try to have a little buffer in the asking price of the business so we can concede, some points that I see will come up, and not be such a big deal that it blows up over a hundred thousand dollars worth of salary." (12:35) "You're gonna have to think through those tax incentives. What your tax burden's gonna be. And you just need to remember that whatever cash you're gonna take out of the sale, and you're gonna spend on a new house or a new car, or paying off debt, that's gonna get taxed." (20:24) About Nate Lind: Nate Lind, is an American entrepreneur, triathlete, author and business broker. Reading Rich Dad Poor Dad inspired Lind to dream of financial freedom and passive income. He exited his first company in 2016, which was an e-commerce technology to a shopping cart platform. Lind learned that selling a company and using the proceeds to buy passive income was far easier than trying to run it passively. Nate sells companies like Realtors sell homes. He is a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology and E-commerce businesses. There are 167,000 buyers looking at 103 client businesses for sale right now. This year they will sell over 300 companies to their private network. Learn More Here

In this episode of Chasing the Insights, I talk to business selling guru Nate Lind. Nate talks to us about the mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to selling their businesses Nate Lind sells companies like Realtors sell homes. He is the author of Maximum Exit and a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology and E-commerce businesses. There are 167,000 buyers looking at 103 businesses for sale right now. This year they will sell over 300 companies to their private network.

Nate Lind sells companies like realtors sell homes. He is a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology and E-commerce businesses. Top 3 Value Bombs: 1. If you don't have financials, get them. Get your income, all of your income itemized and categorized in QuickBooks. Get all your expenses into QuickBooks. Make sure that whatever it is you're thinking about selling, it has its own bank account. 2. It's going to be based on profit. If you want to start to get into the leagues where your sale is going to mean a potentially big windfall, then get yourself up to a quarter of a million dollars a year in profit. 3. Buyers will pay only as much as they feel the business is worth in terms of risk. Read Nate's book for FREE! - Maximum Exit Sponsors: HubSpot: HubSpot CRM's powerful tools will help marketers WOW prospects, sales teams lock in deals, and service teams improve response times and overall service. Get started for free at HubSpot.com! Elite Singles: Busy, successful professional looking for a partner who shares your drive and values? Then Elite Singles is the perfect dating platform for you! Sign up at EliteSingles.com/fire, complete your personality test, and start making meaningful connections today! Liquid I.V.: The category-winning hydration brand fueling your well-being! Grab your Liquid I.V. in bulk nationwide at Costco, or you can get 20% off when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code FIRE at checkout!

Nate Lind sells companies like realtors sell homes. He is a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology and E-commerce businesses. Top 3 Value Bombs: 1. If you don't have financials, get them. Get your income, all of your income itemized and categorized in QuickBooks. Get all your expenses into QuickBooks. Make sure that whatever it is you're thinking about selling, it has its own bank account. 2. It's going to be based on profit. If you want to start to get into the leagues where your sale is going to mean a potentially big windfall, then get yourself up to a quarter of a million dollars a year in profit. 3. Buyers will pay only as much as they feel the business is worth in terms of risk. Read Nate's book for FREE! - Maximum Exit Sponsors: HubSpot: HubSpot CRM's powerful tools will help marketers WOW prospects, sales teams lock in deals, and service teams improve response times and overall service. Get started for free at HubSpot.com! Elite Singles: Busy, successful professional looking for a partner who shares your drive and values? Then Elite Singles is the perfect dating platform for you! Sign up at EliteSingles.com/fire, complete your personality test, and start making meaningful connections today! Liquid I.V.: The category-winning hydration brand fueling your well-being! Grab your Liquid I.V. in bulk nationwide at Costco, or you can get 20% off when you go to LiquidIV.com and use code FIRE at checkout!

In this episode of the Millionaire Mindcast, we have Nate Lind who shares wisdom on his journey of buying businesses and making money online, when is the best and worst time to sell your business, business valuation analyses, and the buyer and seller due diligence! Nate Lind is Tech and Internet eCommerce Business Broker with over 9 Years of product-based eCommerce experience and sells companies like Realtors sell homes, business advisor, and owner of Website Closers, the biggest marketplace selling $1m to $150m dollar online businesses. He also wrote the book, “Maximum Exit”, and helps people interested in buying or selling online businesses get the transactions done without struggling with the listing, due diligence or closing process. Nate has launched 23 supplement and eCommerce brands grossing over a million dollars each since 2011. Nine of which sold over $10m worldwide. One of those brands was the largest beard grooming brand in the world - Beard Czar with over $35m in sales. He also created a reporting program that analyzed the profit of subscription customers and self-sold it to a strategic partner in 2016 who incorporated it into their platform where it became the key selling feature of the CRM. Moreover, he represents both buyers and sellers of Ecommerce Brands, Amazon Brands, Website Properties, Product Manufacturers, App Developers, SAAS, Subscription Based, SEO/PPC/Paid Media Marketing Agencies, and Portfolio Brands. He started with a small business in the lower middle market and got successful in his e-commerce, tech, digital, games, and apps businesses with very small competitors. Nate loves networking with people, working with entrepreneurs and helping them with their journey. His world is selling online businesses while crafting and curating the lifestyle he wants!   Some Questions I Ask: Why did you guys decide to focus in the online world and really where do you see the opportunities in that space? How have you guys really separated yourself from all the other platforms that are out there? What do you see most of the opportunities right now and are you in the game or why not? What are the most passive businesses you see come across your plate that have strong operating cash flow, and labor-intensive ones that you see? How should buyers and sellers be thinking of valuing their business? With a buyer and their due diligence, what are some of the things that they should be digging into, and for the seller to understand where the value is or how to build it? What are some of the traditional ways and outside of the box and creative ways that you're seeing that could be structured in a purchase? What is the overall landscape in your perspective based on the trajectory of the economy, where interest rates are at, and in general from the buyers and sellers' perspective? How do the buyers discern good and bad debts in the Balance Sheet, and how do you coach buyers through that? If you're given $1 million bucks today, where does Nate go and invest that money?   In This Episode, You Will Learn: The opportunities in selling, buying, and brokerage sides. The three levels of business evaluation. Financing small businesses in domestic and international lower middle markets..   Quotes: “The best time to sell is when you don't need to, the worst time to sell is when the businesses are declining.” ‘Cashflow is a king.”   Resources Mentioned: Flippa Microacquire Empireflippers Boopos Connect with Nate Lind on:  natelind.com Maximum Exit book websiteclosers.com   Sponsor Links: GoBundance  - Text: "MILLIONAIRE" to 844.447.1555 Indochino: Get 10% off of any purchase on $399 or more with the promo code: MINDCAST BetterHelp: Click the link to get 10% off your first month or use the promo code: MINDCAST Factor75: Use the code MINDCAST50 to get 50% off your FIRST box!   Accredited Investor List - Text "DEALS" to 844.447.1555 Free Financial Audit: Text "XRAY" to 844.447.1555 Upcoming Events: Text "Events" to 844.447.1555 Millionaire Notes: Text "Notes" to 844.447.1555 Connect with Matty A. and Text me to 844.447.1555    Show Brought To You By: www.MillionaireMindcast.com Questions? Comments? Do you have a success story you would like to share on the show?  Send us an email to: Questions@MillionaireMindcast.com  

Marcia talks with best selling author of Maximum Exit and owner of Website Closers, a business brokerage, Nate Lind as he shares how small businesses are being sold for more than you'd expect. Nate shares that there is a great marketplace with 1000s of businesses that are selling quickly for 2-10X multiples. Nate sells 100s of them every year! He shares that even a business with 500k or 1M in revenue are still marketable with a large number of buyers bidding on it. Nate says buyers want a business that has a cash flow and they are ready to pay for it. Grab Nate's book Maximum Exit @ www.NateLind.com/gift along with other helpful tools. If you have any questions, just reach out at Nate@WebsitecClosers.com   ================   Want a 45% boost to your net profit?.Join Marcia's new training the "30-day Profit Booster". Just by following a simple 3-step method that doesn't require chasing more customers. This quick & easy profit boosting strategy can be done without spending more on marketing, hiring additional staff, or working longer hours. Go check out www.30dayprofitbooster.com for this free training and valuable information.   =================   Please subscribe & ring the bell for reminders about next week's show.   =================   About Marcia: She is a business growth strategist helps business owners to double and triple their revenue, profit and the value of their company. In fact, she is able to show prospective clients a clear ROI to working with here before hiring her firm. Through her proven strategies, she gets results. Marcia is the CEO of Infinite Profit Consulting & can be found at www.InfiniteProfitConsulting.com   Curious or have questions. Text Marcia at 949-229-2112    

Nate Lind, is the author of Maximum Exit - The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology Focused Business Founders and a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology and E-commerce businesses.Reading Rich Dad Poor Dad inspired Lind to dream of financial freedom and passive income. He exited his first company in 2016, which was an e-commerce technology to a shopping cart platform. Lind learned that selling a company and using the proceeds to buy passive income was far easier than trying to run it passively.Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/ONcLM6Vo9EM--------------------------------------------------Contact Nate onLinkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/natelindWebsite: http://www.natelind.com/gift--------------------------------------------------How2Exit Joins ITX's Channel Partner Network!-Why ITX?Since 1998, ITX has created $5 billion in value by selling more than 225 IT businesses in 20 countries. ITX works exclusively with IT-enabled businesses generating between $5M and $30M who are ready to be sold, and M&A decision-makers who are ready to buy. For over 25 years ITX has developed industry knowledge that helps them determine whether a seller is a good fit for their buyers before making a match."Out of all of the brokers I've met, this team has the most experience and I believe the best ability to get IT service businesses sold at the best price" - Ron SkeltonThe ITX M&A Marketplace we partnered with has a proprietary database of 50,000+ global buyers seeking IT Services firms, MSPs, MSSPs, Software-as-a-Service platforms, and channel partners in the Microsoft, Oracle, ServiceNow, and Salesforce space.If you are interested in learning more about the process and current market valuations, complete the contact form and we'll respond within one business day. Everything is kept confidential.Are you interested in what your business may be worth? Unlock the value of your IT Services firm, visit https://www.itexchangenet.com/marketplace-how2exit and complete the contact form.Our partnership with ITX focuses on deals above $5M in value. If you are looking to buy or sell a tech business below the $5M mark, we recommend Flippa.Flippa - Real Buyers, Real Sellers - Where the Real Deals Are MadeVisit Flippa - https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100721038-15233003--------------------------------------------------

This week on the show we are joined by Nate Lind - E-commerce Entrepreneur, Author, and Business Broker.Nate is a business broker at Website Closers, and before that was a Vitamin and Supplement e-commerce entrepreneur for nearly a decade and sold his first business in 2016 for $35 million dollars. Nate shares his experiences building, scaling and selling Shopify businesses. Nick and Nate also discuss affiliate marketing, the importance of customer feedback for marketing, interacting with customers effectively and how you can grow your business through prioritising customer service.If you want to give Tidio a go, all Winning With Shopify listeners can give Tidio a try for FREE or get a 20% discount on all the premium features here - https://www.tidio.com/wwsWebsite Closers - https://www.websiteclosers.com/Website: https://winningwithshopify.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winning_with_shopify/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winningwithshopifyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@winningwithshopifySpec: https://spec.digital/Support the show

Nate Lind is a Broker and Business Advisor at Website Closers, a full-service business brokerage company. He started in the real estate industry before becoming a Fortune 100 business consultant and transitioning to e-commerce. He exited his first company in 2016, selling more than $100 million of products online across his businesses. Nate is also the author of Maximum Exit: The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology-Focused Business Founders where he helps entrepreneurs to sell their online businesses. In this episode... Although the financial health of a business is an essential measurement, customer satisfaction levels are one of the best ways to evaluate a company's worth. Building trust with customers increases a brand's credibility and helps with longevity.  Investors expect a good deal with a high return on investment when evaluating a company to buy. So what strategies can you use to increase your company's value? How can you increase your credibility while protecting your brand? In this episode of the Innovations and Breakthroughs Podcast, Rich Goldstein is joined by Nate Lind, a Broker and Business Advisor at Website Closers, to discuss strategies for increasing company valuation. They talk about common mistakes entrepreneurs make when selling their businesses, the best time to sell, and current market trends in business sales.

Hello friend, It has been some time. A lot has been going on in my world, as I'm sure it has yours, which has kept me away from the microphone and keyboard and having lots of day naps. In this episode, I'm sharing an exciting update with you. I sold my eCommerce business! And then I fell into a complete, exhausted heap. Today I talk about both of these things, the good and the bad, with a little oversharing too (sorry in advance). But this is life as a business owner and I'm not one to sugarcoat things. So let's go and get stuck into it. Listen to the whole conversation below, or if you don't care about the burnout stuff, read the overview below covering tips and things to consider when you plan to sell your business. Selling a business is equal parts scary and exciting, and in this episode, I share with you my experience and tips that might help you when the time's right to sell your business. And if you are feeling tired and stressed, perhaps there are a few helpful lessons in today's episode too. See you next week! Jodie xo Links: Link to this podcast episode: https://jodieminto.com/26-selling-my-7-figure-ecommerce-business-burnout/ Flippa - https://flippa.com/ Website Closers - https://www.websiteclosers.com/ Iland co. - https://www.ilandco.com/ Kate Toon - https://www.katetoon.com/ A Podcast episode on Burnout - The Lise & Sarah Show with Chelsea Thomas from I HEART Bargains My beautiful Kinesiologist - https://www.thebloomcollective.live/ Find out more about working with me here

In this episode of The Agent of Wealth Podcast, host Marc Bautis is joined by Nate Lind, an entrepreneur, the author of Maximum Exit: The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology-Focused Business Founders, and a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar internet, technology and e-commerce businesses.In this episode, you will learn:The primary three reasons why business owners decide to sell their company.How to calculate what your business is worth, and strategies you can use to increase the value.The types of business buyers.How to determine the best time to sell your business.The different types of deal structures.And more!Resources:Episode Transcript & Blog | nate@websiteclosers.com | Website Closers | Maximum Exit: The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology-Focused Business Founders | Schedule an Introductory Call | Bautis Financial: 7 N Mountain Ave Montclair, New Jersey 07042 (862) 205-5000

One of the most crucial stages of entrepreneurship is having a clear exit strategy in place once your business is booming. Synonymous with the way you'd use a realtor to help sell your house, a business broker is just as effective when it comes to selling your business! Joining us today is entrepreneur extraordinaire and business broker on WebsiteClosers.com, Joseph Pergolizzi. After telling us what holds him back from starting his days with tequila, Joseph gives us his personal account of how he grew up, how BMX Plus! Magazine changed his life, and how he began his entrepreneurial journey. We examine the paradox of starting a business and losing your passion for it, why Joseph believes in karma, and how this outlook has made him successful, as well as how you can tell when it's time to plan for your company's acquisition. After sharing the three-step process he uses to help his clients, Joseph explains why he loves his work and offers some advice for savvy entrepreneurs who also want a chance at cutting a six-figure deal. We also end with a quick analysis of the incredible influence that the skateboarding industry has had on modern culture. There is so much to learn in this truly fascinating conversation. Tune in and enjoy the ride!   Key Points From This Episode:   •   Introducing serial entrepreneur and marketing guru, Joseph Pergolizzi. •   Why having work to do is the only thing preventing Joseph from starting his days with tequila. •   Joseph's personal story: his childhood, BMX Plus!, and how he got into entrepreneurship. •   Why he'll never forget the 16th of November, 1994. •   How the obligations of starting a business can douse your initial passion for it. •   Joseph's belief in karma and how it helped shape his success. •   Why he started working with WebsiteClosers.com and how it works for his clients. •   How you can tell when it's time to develop an exit strategy for your business. •   The three-step process that Joseph uses to help his clients sell their businesses. •   Why Joseph loves the work that he does. •   His $90 million deal and some advice for budding entrepreneurs.  •   The rise of the skateboarding industry and how it has influenced modern culture.   Tweetables:   “You have to walk through open doors. Don't try and force something good to happen. As long as you're active, as long as you're in the game, there are going to be open doors.” — @Joeperg [0:07:18]   “When I first opened [my store], I had no idea I was going to fall in love with snowboarding. I just had this vision that I wanted to create a cool place for kids to go and hang out after school. I wanted to create a sense of community.” — @Joeperg [0:14:22]   “If you are truly aligned with doing good work in the world, things will pay off. I undoubtedly believe that. It's an unshakable truth of mine.” — @Joeperg [0:15:04]   “When you work so hard at something, you have a sense of dignity. That can't ever be shaken.” — @Joeperg [0:35:31]   “If you're a hard-working entrepreneur, and you know how to build relationships and value resources, and you are humble and curious, you'll be successful. You don't need to go to business school to crush it.” — @Joeperg [0:37:30]   Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:   Joseph Pergolizzi Joseph Pergolizzi on LinkedIn Joseph Pergolizzi on Twitter Joseph Pergolizzi Email WebsiteClosers.com BMX Plus! on Instagram Small Business Origins Beefy Marketing John Kelley on Instagram John Kelley on TikTok John Kelley Email

Even though you are focused on building your company, you need to be thinking about successfully exiting the business when the time comes. Josh Dittrich is a former Amazon seller with multiple successful exits, the author of Aggregator Navigator, and the Founder of Branded Seller.com. Josh shares how to have a long-term view of your Amazon Brand, how to maximize your brand's profit and valuation, and how to navigate the process of selling your company. Takeaways: When you build a business on Amazon, you need to have the exit in mind and work backward from there. While you can't undo mistakes in the past, you can plan for the future.You may not be looking to sell for another 5 years, but if you professionalize every aspect of your business, from accounting to operations, you're bringing yourself closer to having better records and analytics when it is time to sell.As you build your business, you need to remove yourself from the day-to-day operations completely. When you get the business to the point where you are totally irrelevant to the operations, then the business has value. When you are preparing to sell your Amazon brand, you need to be cognizant of every expense because every $1 you spend takes $1 away from your profit, which will actually cost you $4-$6 per extra dollar spent when you sell the brand.Use an ecommerce marketplace, like The FBA Broker, Flippa, or Website Closers, to monitor and track your business' value every 3 months. This way you will have a pulse on the market if someone reaches out with an offer.Start planning for the future by switching from cash-based accounting to accrual and inventory accounting. This will give you a better view of the profitability of your business. While you can't fix last year's financials, you can switch and fix your books for this year. Most of the people interested in buying your Amazon brand will be professional buyers with very specific numbers for your valuation. You need to have accurate numbers for your business so that you can make an informed decision on their offer. Quote of the Show:“I challenge every business owner to explore the process of improving their valuation as they're building their business” - Josh DittrichLinks:LinkedInCompany websiteBookShout Outs:Traction by Gino WickmanWays to Tune In:Apple Podcast (Leave a Review)iHeart RadioPodchaser (Leave a Review)Amazon MusicAudibleSpotifyGoogle PodcastYouTubeAmazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. Learn moreAmazon Legends is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts.

For the past 25 years Joseph Pergolizzi with Website Closers has been an entrepreneur. He solely started three businesses, all bootstrapped, and exited each of them. From brick and mortar business, ecomm business (Amazon) to a 400 franchisee business that spanned over across 5 countries. Joseph has done strategic work for Airbnb and Burton. All […]

This episode of the Passage to Profit Show features Gene Sower from Samson Media, Paul Volen from Website Closers, Adonica Shaw from Wingwomen and Brent Johnson from Clarus R+D. Gene Sower & Paul Volen are sharing the featured guest speaker spot in this episode to discuss selling a business. Gene Sower is the President of Samson Media, a web design and Internet marketing company, serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2006. Services include website design, search engine marketing, SEO, social media, content marketing, email marketing and more. Paul Volen is a Business Broker and Advisor with Website Closers, a full-service brokerage service. Website Closers represents sellers of online businesses (eCommerce, Amazon, etc.) and acts as the negotiator, allowing businesses to get the best price and terms when buying or selling a business. Paul worked with Gene to sell Samson Media, and created a consulting arrangement with buyer so that Gene can still work for Samson Media as a consultant and while maintaining his title of being the President of the company. Read more at: https://samsonmedia.net/ and at https://www.websiteclosers.com Visit the Entrepreneur Presenters for February 20, 2022 at their Websites:Adonica Shaw is an author, speaker, trainer, women's health and wellness advocate and founder of Wingwomen, a health-focused social media network for women. The platform is currently in Beta, but provide access to peer support, advocates, health coaches, and concierge medical professionals through our private social media platform and easy-to-use directory. The Wingwomen platform provides access to individuals and professionals who are interested in providing potentially life-saving information to its users in an effort to improve women’s wellness outcomes. Read more at: https://www.mywingwomen.comBrent Johnson is the Co-Founder of Clarus R+D, a technology-driven solution for claiming the R&D tax credit through a combination of software and experts. The R&D Tax Credit stands for the Research and Experimentation (R&E) tax credit - a federal benefit that provides companies dollar-for-dollar cash savings for performing activities related to the development, design, or improvement of products, processes, formulas, or software. Businesses often understate their credit or overpay for their study but Clarus makes it easy for companies to maximize their benefit and reduce overall cost. Read more at: https://clarusrd.com Visit https://passagetoprofitshow.com/ for the latest updates and episodes.

This episode of the Passage to Profit Show features Gene Sower from Samson Media, Paul Volen from Website Closers, Adonica Shaw from Wingwomen and Brent Johnson from Clarus R+D. Gene Sower & Paul Volen are sharing the featured guest speaker spot in this episode to discuss selling a business. Gene Sower is the President of Samson Media, a web design and Internet marketing company, serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2006. Services include website design, search engine marketing, SEO, social media, content marketing, email marketing and more. Paul Volen is a Business Broker and Advisor with Website Closers, a full-service brokerage service. Website Closers represents sellers of online businesses (eCommerce, Amazon, etc.) and acts as the negotiator, allowing businesses to get the best price and terms when buying or selling a business. Paul worked with Gene to sell Samson Media, and created a consulting arrangement with buyer so that Gene can still work for Samson Media as a consultant and while maintaining his title of being the President of the company. Read more at: https://samsonmedia.net/ and at https://www.websiteclosers.com Visit the Entrepreneur Presenters for February 20, 2022 at their Websites:Adonica Shaw is an author, speaker, trainer, women's health and wellness advocate and founder of Wingwomen, a health-focused social media network for women. The platform is currently in Beta, but provide access to peer support, advocates, health coaches, and concierge medical professionals through our private social media platform and easy-to-use directory. The Wingwomen platform provides access to individuals and professionals who are interested in providing potentially life-saving information to its users in an effort to improve women’s wellness outcomes. Read more at: https://www.mywingwomen.comBrent Johnson is the Co-Founder of Clarus R+D, a technology-driven solution for claiming the R&D tax credit through a combination of software and experts. The R&D Tax Credit stands for the Research and Experimentation (R&E) tax credit - a federal benefit that provides companies dollar-for-dollar cash savings for performing activities related to the development, design, or improvement of products, processes, formulas, or software. Businesses often understate their credit or overpay for their study but Clarus makes it easy for companies to maximize their benefit and reduce overall cost. Read more at: https://clarusrd.com Visit https://passagetoprofitshow.com/ for the latest updates and episodes.

Here's the problem we see at Website Closers. A company gets the big exit it's looking for, and all of a sudden they have more in their bank account than they've ever had before. They're not just paper rich, they're actually wealthy. Except when you make a lot of money, Uncle Sam wants his cut as well. So how can you prep your company so that you don't see the unexpected tax bill?Today, tax prep expert Richard Ehrlich gives us his tips.Richard (Linkedin) is the CEO of International Liquid Capital and managing partner of the Secure Wealth Planning Group. Deal Closers is hosted by Izach Porter and is produced by Earfluence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nate Lind, business broker at Website Closers, is a master of data analytics and selling eight-figure companies. He has launched 23 supplement brands grossing over a million dollars each since 2011, nine of which sold over $10m worldwide. One of those brands was the largest beard grooming brand in the world - Beard Czar with over $35m in sales. Nate is a data junkie, and invented a reporting platform that analyzed the profit of subscription customers, which he sold to a large CRM in 2016.

Rochelle Friedman was a corporate lawyer representing some of the top products and brands in the world. A few years ago she jumped ship and started the Walk Law Firm. Now more than 50% of her business is representing both buyers and sellers in transactions that involved the transfer of an Amazon Seller Account. Because of her specialty and expertise, I wanted to have her on the Podcast to share her approach, and what she sees other brokerage firms in the industry doing. In today's Podcast she covers the risks and pitfalls of transferring an account through an asset sale, and talks about the different types of transactions she sees occur. Rochell also delves into the two big “stomach ache” clauses in a typical asset purchase agreement, and how to address them up front so the due diligence and negotiation process is successful. As you've heard us often say…”don't decide to sell, plan to sell”. The same holds true with legal matters. Make sure you are properly incorporated, that your trademarks and copyrights are up to date and transferrable. All of these are part of the assets of your business, and hiring a firm like Walk Law Firm to review them in advance of a sale is advisable. Episode Highlights: Learn Rochell's approach to transferring an Amazon account. Hint…it is the same as ours. Transferring non-US accounts is the same process. Both buyers and sellers need to be happy at closing, or a deal falls apart. Having a qualified contract attorney truly matters. The same attorney will fight differently if their client is the seller vs. the buyer. There are TWO MAJOR stomach clauses in every APA. Address them early on in negotiations. Transcription: Mark: Joe how are you? Joe: I'm doing good Mark. How are you doing today? Mark: You know ever since you got back from Italy you are kicking my butt again when it comes to the number of interviews you're doing for the podcast. I think like three to one, four to one as far as the ratio is concerned and I'm sure our listeners are ecstatic. Joe: I don't know. I actually have the easy part. I just do the interviews you do all of the stuff in the background so thank you and I appreciate it. I just do the interview. And this time for this show I don't … falsely, folks, I talked to an attorney and it was actually a really good call and here's why I had; her name is Rochelle Friedman, she's from Walk Law Firm and you know look with physical products businesses and the transfer of an Amazon Seller Account everybody has questions about how to go about doing it, whether it's a US based account or one that's international. And I came across Rochelle through some other folks that I worked with and I had a call with her. And I just picked up the phone and I called her and chatted with her. Look she does close transactions for Quiet Light Brokerage, for Empire Flippers, for Website Closers and you guys know who they are so it's okay to mention them right? And I know she does that so I wanted to confirm with her what processes, what she does and shockingly Mark it's the same way that we do it believe it or not. And she goes into detail about it, and she goes into great detail about it. Not only that she talks about contracts in general, she represents both buyers and sellers. She's a contract attorney that came from the corporate world representing businesses, every day household businesses, she was their attorney a very good one in the corporate world last went out on her own and now represents both buyers and sellers in transactions. And I think it's worth listening to. I think it's really really important as you and I have talked about how important planning is. Don't wake up and decide to sell but plan to sell, same thing should be said for an attorney; talk to one. Get your ducks in a row and make sure that you're doing the right thing as you go into your transactions you can do it with confidence. Mark: I'm gonna put you on the spot because you said we're going to address in this podcast episode how do you transfer an Amazon business and how are people doing it pretty much across the board. But for anyone that already knows how to do that or has done that what else do we cover in this episode? Joe: She covers the two big stomach ache clauses in contract negotiations. That being the non-compete and the indemnification clause. I think the indemnification clause is the bigger of the two because we do a pretty good job up front addressing the non-compete. And so if you do that work up front in the client interview and work with the seller on that to make sure they understand what a non-compete is and make sure there aren't going to be any issue is never really a problem. The hard one to wrap your brain around, your hands around is the indemnification clause and what that is from a seller's standpoint. You sell your business you think you're done, you get 100,000 200,000 a million dollars in your bank account and you move on about your merry way. You sleep really well at night because you got a bunch of money in your account. Well, your buyer's attorney is going to have something in there that is going to have them reach back into your bank account and take some money out if you lied or cheated or stole or did anything fraudulent in anyway. Now you should sleep well if everything was done right but if there's anything that wasn't they're going to put that in there. And they're gonna put that in there anyway and the big question is how long is that grace period for? Is it six months or 12 months or 18, and then how much is it for? And Rochelle you know towards the end of the podcast she laughs and she chuckles and she talks about how … well she has one standard when she's representing the buyer and she has a completely other standard when she's representing the seller so it's good to hear from both sides for sure. But the stomach ache clauses are really important in there as well. Mark: That's fantastic. And those are easily interest almost guaranteed at it every time we send out a purchase agreement on those two clauses. Joe: Guaranteed. Mark: You always see stuff. All right let's get in to see what she has to say about all of this including in the indemnification stuff. Let's get to it. Joe: Hey folks it's Joe from Quiet Light Brokerage and today I've got Rochelle Walk from Walk Law Firm on the line with me today. How are you doing Rochelle? Rochelle:     I'm doing great Joe, how are you today? Joe: I'm doing well. I have a sister in law name Richelle so if I mispronounce your name during the podcast at all today that's the reason why. I'm apologizing in advance. Rochelle:     Not a problem at all. Joe: As we talked about a little bit before recording we don't do fancy introductions so if you could just give the audience a little bit of background on yourself. Tell them about who you are and the work you do that'd be great. Rochelle:     Sure. Thanks, Joe. First off all thanks for having me on, I appreciate the opportunity. My background is actually a little bit complicated because I have been practicing law for 33 years but unlike a lot of other lawyers, most of my practice has been as a general counsel or as the chief administrative officer of very large public companies. So most of my time spent as a lawyer has actually been as a business person. And I like to explain myself as a business person who happens to also be a good lawyer. Joe: Excellent. Rochelle:     And when I started this firm I was at the point where I was leaving a major public company, decided I wanted to do something different, and decided I wanted to use the same skills I garnered as a business person and lawyer for really large public companies and turn it into something that would work well for small to mid-size companies. So during my years in my big company world, I worked heavily in consumer products. I was head of license brands for Sherwin-Williams, brands like Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, I worked with Dutch Boy, I worked with Thompson-Minwax, Krylon, very famous brands. And then I left there and I was at a company called Oglebay Norton it was mining and minerals. We had clients and customers like Home Depot but we also had heavy industry as clients and lots of engineers. And then ultimately I went to a company called Anchor Glass and it was consumer glass, some of your favorite beverages, as a matter of fact, would be bottled in the glass containers whether you know beer, wine, Maker's Mark you know some famous brands. So my career has always been around famous brands and lots of retail. So when I looked at what I could do seven years ago when I started this practice, I thought about it and said I can really understand consumer brands. I really understand branding. I really understand intellectual property but it's a new world and we need to be able to do it online. And I dove into e-commerce understanding how Amazon works, how eBay works, how Jet works, of course, some of those came later, how Walmart.com as a marketplace work … Walmart used to be my customer at Sherwin-Williams and now here at Walmart.com it's a completely different animal and I dove into that. My practice has always been heavily mergers and acquisitions so about 50% of our practice is the mergers and acquisitions of businesses. And seven years later that has become a huge footprint of Amazon sellers, online sellers, e-commerce businesses that are seeking to flip. Entrepreneurs who have created … you know they have created great brands but in order to take them, to exploit them to the next level they need a lot more bandwidth. And it's, therefore, their time to move out of that business. Having spent a lot of years buying and selling Mom & Pop tank stores for Sherwin-Williams and Mom & Pop paint brands and Sundry brands it's no different, it's just now we're doing it through e-commerce instead of bricks and mortar. Joe: Okay. So about 50% of your business is the M & A side, the other side is what; working with people on intellectual property, branding, things of that nature? Rochelle:     We're like their outsourced general counsel. It can be everything from intellectual property and branding to possibly contracts, employee issues, independent contractor issues, tax issues- Joe: Okay. Rochelle:     Really almost anything they need. Leases, fire agreements, everything you might imagine a general counsel doing. Joe: I got you. So for folks listening, the reason I have Rochelle on the line today is because a lot of you have asked during the buy or sell process if Quiet Light can recommend an attorney. We have several that we work with; Shawn Hussain at the Ecom Law Group is terrific. We work with him often and Rochelle knows him and came across Rochelle and we were talking about the transfer process of an Amazon business. And I know now that you've worked with all of the website business broker firms that are at a high level like Quiet Light and you've been on both sides of the transaction. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: Do you prefer or do you most often work with the buyer of a business, representing the buyer in contract negotiations or do you find yourself on the seller's side more often? Rochelle:     It's really about equal and we don't really have a preference. We're perfectly prepared to work with both buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers have different needs and one of the things that I think we're pretty good at and just so you know we're a firm of three full time lawyers. We are about to affiliate with a bigger national firm who also does quite a bit in e-commerce and emerging business and we can … I'm not prepared to tell you who and the details of that but that's coming down the pike so we'll have a lot more bandwidth. But what's important about us as we understand the difference between what a buyer needs, what a seller needs, financing it; if both you're a buyer and a seller how it's being financed matters, and understanding how this Amazon accounts transfer. Sometimes transferring the account actually isn't in your best interest or the buyer, sometimes it's the only solution for the buyer and- Joe: Let's talk about that- Rochelle:     You have to assess that. Joe: You know that the listener's ears just perked up because we're talking about the transfer of an Amazon account. Rochelle:     Yeah. Joe: You and I both know as does everyone who has an Amazon account that the Terms of Service says that the Amazon account is not transferrable and that- Rochelle:     Generally. Joe: Right there's a bracket in there that says generally. To me logically it never made sense that you could build an amazing brand on Amazon and never be able to sell that. And I've had experience direct with Amazon and they've proven that they do in fact allow the transfer of accounts but- Rochelle:     Of course. Joe: Tell us, tell the audience, tell me how have you seen an Amazon account most often transferred with the different transactions that you've done with the top websites and business brokerage firms. Rochelle:     Sure you know a lot of times it's very much behind the scenes. If you are actually selling the ownership interest in the business you're not really transferring the Amazon account. Although Amazon may disagree with that but you're really not transferring the Amazon account, you're transferring the ownership interest in your business. And the only thing you're doing with the Amazon account is actually maybe changing an EIN if … depending on what you're buying and if you're getting the EIN of the new business and probably changing where you want the banking to go. I've even had situations where we haven't had to change the banking at all. If you're buying the assets however and you're leaving the ownership interest of the business behind by getting all of the assets of the business you're going to need to go in and possibly change the name of the owner of the account, change the … certainly, the EIN or the Employer ID Number, change the bank account number, and there may be some other things you're going to change as well. But there are some things that we recommend sellers do and frankly, it's better for buyers to help ease the pain of that process. First of all, we've never had Amazon stand in the way. As a matter of fact, if you text Amazon they'll even tell you how to go on and do it. So as much as they say it's generally not transferrable they actually don't get in the way as long as what you're doing is not disruptive. So where will they get in the way? If the IP address of the person making the change is different than the IP address of the person who has been running the account Amazon is going to have a big flag for fraud and they will get in the way and they may shut down the account. What they usually will do is let the sales continue. However, you can't access your account until somebody verifies that it was an intentional change. And they use to give you a couple of weeks to do that verification although my clients are typically through that verification process within a couple of hours. It may take Amazon a few hours to flag you but watch for the flag it's usually going to come to the seller. One of the great ways to avoid any of those issues, if you're using a VPN to access your account in the first place then you transfer the account with the VPN it has all locked in. You're not changing the IP address and that way when you do this transition there is no issue of the buyer or the seller plugging in the information as long as they're all going through the same VPN. Similarly, let the seller make the changes. Generally, the seller makes the changes. If it's a big enough account Amazon may flag it for fraud anyway but within a couple of hours the seller will get that email or will get contact from his or her account rep and that pain will be immediately fixed. We do it all the time and we haven't had an issue. Joe: So do you end up having to have a contact yourself with Amazon if there's an issue or is it just something that the seller contacts them and it's resolved eventually? Rochelle:     So my rule of thumb, leave your lawyers out of Amazon at all times. We may be in the background helping draft the e-mails, helping respond to the emails, they always come from our client who has the most contact with their Amazon rep. Joe: That's the sellers. Rochelle:     We want- Joe: That's the owner of the seller account. Rochelle:     Exactly. We want the least amount of disruption in the communications. Amazon really doesn't need to hear from your lawyers. You just need to work directly with Amazon and frankly, it's a fraud detection problem. Amazon doesn't want to be caught where somebody somehow hacked into your system changed your accounts and you later come back and accuse Amazon of having changed your accounts or having diverted your money. So you can't blame Amazon for what they're doing. You just have to be able to work with them and be prepared for maybe a day or two of disruption. But typically we haven't seen it disrupt sales. Joe: Okay. Rochelle:     We've seen product takedowns disrupt sales but we have not seen that transfer of the account disrupt sales. Joe: Excellent. Okay. Well let's take a few things, we talked about you're seeing the most method text and then we talked about the VPN and then you talked about … well, I want to talk about different Amazon countries so- Rochelle:     Okay. Joe: What I've seen in the transfer process is the same. You know we wrote the 10 steps to transfer an Amazon account in 2016 I think and the process that we see is actual phone calls to seller central saying “Hey look I'm transferring the business, one of the assets of my business to the Amazon Seller Account. How do I transfer control to the new owner?” and they do the same thing you just talked about in Texas- Rochelle:     Right. Joe: They give you written instructions and they'd sent it via email. Rochelle:     Exactly. Joe: Our clients tell us that sometimes they get lucky; in the 1st call it works and sometimes it takes 10 calls. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: At 1st hold on you can't do that and then on 10th oh yeah exactly I know what you're talking about, they do it. I've had some chats with Amazon chats do the same thing but you said text. Now do you mean email, do you mean the chats, what do you mean by text? Rochelle:     I mean the chats. Joe: You mean the chats, okay. Rochelle:     And it's usually the Seller Central chat system and we even have videos and screenshots of the chats that some of our clients have had. Joe: Okay. Rochelle:     Remember with Amazon Seller Central you are dealing with … I'll describe this way my husband describes pizza. It's only as good as the 16 year old making it; when you order a pizza from a pizza parlor the quality control is a little bit lax. Well with Amazon it's not a quality control problem but the experience of a customer service rep is only what that person has had as experience. And depending on how specific you are, on how clear you are on what you're trying to ask them will depend on how good they are at getting it to the Amazon separate instructions and pulling back and telling you what to do. The more experienced reps are very good at telling you exactly how to go into Seller Central and make the changes. Joe: I like that. I wonder if on the chats that the more experienced reps answer the chats versus the phone calls. DO you know if there's any data behind that or is that just an assumption? Rochelle:     No, I have no idea. Joe: Okay. Rochelle:     I have not seen that and I really don't know and remember the chats are being answered by people all over the world. Joe: Okay same as phone call side too. Rochelle:     Exactly. Joe: Okay, good. So just to back up a little bit of what you are saying I've had many many Amazon … Quiet Light Brokerage has many Amazon transactions transfer just that very same way. I personally have a situation for folks listening who or had an Amazon account that had a gold status, I don't know if that exists anymore but it was called a gold status and that meant that. It was old enough and large enough where they had an Amazon representative assigned to their account. So they had somebody they could always reach out to and during that process, they reached out to that person and said “Hey look transfer selling the business one of the assets of the business is my account how do we take care of this?” And that individual went to Amazon legal and said hey look this is what we're doing and Amazon Legal provided a form- Rochelle:     Right. Joe: And all they wanted to know was the name of the buyer. And it's always been a theory that Amazon wants to make sure that those that have been banned are permanently banned so they wanted to know the name of the buyer so to do that search to see if they've been banned. That's all they did was check the name of the buyer and the transfer went through with no problem at all. So just backing up what you said there. The VPN, I had Norman Farrar on the podcast, Norm is an expert in SOP's and marketing Amazon. He guested on many many podcasts. Norm recommended the same thing and for those that are listening that do a lot of traveling to different events and whatnot, you're all at mastermind groups and you're getting advice if everyone is using the local VPN and there's a hundred people that get it sitting in listen to an expert and they get a great idea they'll all log on to their Amazon account using that IP address in the local wireless, local hotel, or whatever it might be- Rochelle:     Right. Joe: The Amazon bots are gonna go crazy and you're all going to get shut down. Rochelle:     Exactly. Joe: So Norm does that. Norm recommends VPNs. Rob Green who does the same thing, high level seller, a lot of podcasts, a lot of speaking all that events. He's got three or four different seller accounts, different VPN for each one so he goes even to a further level. Rochelle:     All of my biggest clients are using VPNs. It is the smoothest, simplest way … as you said it's not just a matter of selling your business and having the VPN set up, it's actually an operational benefit. Because what it also means as you get bigger it's not just one person who needs to get into that account. You may have a team of people who have to go in and do different things at different times. They could be all over the world. But everybody coming in through the same VPN there's no confusion to Amazon bot. And frankly, it's a lot more secure. Joe: I agree. And it's you $10, $15 a month. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: You should be doing- Rochelle:     Absolutely. Joe: Okay. Let's talk countries, you haven't talked about countries yet. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: You haven't said Amazon.com eu whatever it might be. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: Are you finding the same transfer process to be successful for Amazon.com, UK, Germany, France, Italy, etcetera or are you doing something a little different depending upon the country? Rochelle:     So generally we are using the same transfer process. Now one thing that I have to pull out when you are dealing with other countries you may have a V-A-T or VAT or Ad Valorem tax issue and generally that is not transferable. So you are going to need … the new company is going to need to set up their own tax ID in those countries. And there may be a change that has to be made and it may lag a little bit. Typically we use the same process. Most of our clients are driving their business through Amazon.com in the United States. It's a much smaller amount of traffic and a much smaller amount of sales going through the other countries. Although it's starting to pick up, it's starting to get a lot bigger. But we haven't focused as much on those international accounts but we haven't any trouble transferring them either. We just use the same process. There's been no disruption except for making sure that we have the Ad Valorem tax information necessary for those businesses. Joe: Got you. Rochelle:     And it's been pretty seamless. Joe: Got you. Okay, we've experienced the same thing. In regards to the value added taxes for people listening we did a podcast with Alex Lyon- Rochelle:     Excellent. Joe: From AVASK Tax Advisors three weeks ago depending from when this is launched is it. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: Let's put it this way, it launched 1st of June or so. Great detail on how to set it up, what the pitfalls are in trying to do it on your own and the cost associated with it. And we also addressed the transfer of a seller account when to set that up and what comes first. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: And she sort of detangled everything and it's not all that complicated. Rochelle:     Perfect. Joe: Have you had a situation where the seller wanted to keep their seller account but transfer the brand out to a new owner and if yes tell us about it, please? Rochelle:     We have. Actually, we've had it both ways where the seller wanted to keep their account because maybe their seller account had multiple brands, multiple A Sense and they were only selling one set of their product lines, maybe one brand. And if that happens it has to be up front at the beginning of the deal. Everyone needs to understand at the beginning of the deal whether or not the account is going to transfer. And the buyer needs to appreciate that they may not be getting the seller account and frankly sometimes it's not the worst thing. For instance if the buyer is already an active Amazon Seller, the buyer may be very happy to have its current Amazon account just take over the A sense and that is a very smooth transition and it's literally a relisting of the A sense moved over and then the seller account just delist those; takes them off their registry. Joe: The only challenge with it, you know it just piped it's … is the inventory. The inventory in the FBA account, Amazon will not transfer it from one FBA account to another. So you've got to time it so that new inventory is coming into that new seller account. You might leave the older account open, it still sells through that inventory but the new owner gets the revenue or the profit. Rochelle:     And the seller, if they sell through the existing inventory, may do it for the benefit of the buyer. Joe: Yeah. Rochelle:     So that the money still transfers and all of that inventory and we just do an accounting. Joe: Exactly. Rochelle:     You're exactly right Joe that is what happens. Let me give you another scenario and I actually have this scenario right now. I have a seller I represent who has multiple seller accounts and he … they have multiple brands in their seller account and they're about to sell that business. That particular seller account is poorly rated. It has had lots of negatives for a whole variety of reasons part of it's because it's very old and part of it is because of mistakes that were made early on. But the nature of that particular business, the products they sell makes a lot of money but the seller account itself is not great. And the buyer is actually going through the process right now and determining if they would be better off just starting a brand new seller account and not taking that history because again, you're picking up the history of something that isn't really great. Joe: Yeah I guess it's better to have no history if the old history is very poor. But the challenge is let's back up and start with for those listening buyers or sellers if you have multiple brands in one seller account think about that transfer process. Someday you may wake up and say you know what I'm tired. I want to just unload something and put some money in the bank, set something aside so I can see something for the worth that I've done. The best way to do that is to have a clean transaction; you know separate LLC, clean documents, clean financials, and a separate seller account. Rochelle:     Separate VPN. Joe: Separate VPN, exactly. You can have multiple seller accounts, I've talked to people that have six seven different seller accounts. You just have to get permission from Amazon and they will grant it again like Rochelle said at the beginning you just have to talk to the right person at Amazon. Rochelle:     Or … and you have to do it right, you have to keep those businesses as separate businesses with separate seller accounts. They're not going to let one business have multiple seller accounts. Joe: Okay that's good information and it's hard for people when they bootstrap things and they test and certain things take off and they think this is great. Selling a business is more of a challenge and you got to have those things as separate as possible. I can tell you right now if you're going to spend a thousand dollars setting up a separate LLC and an extra thousand a year doing the accounting for it; you know $600 a year for separate Quick Books account you will get that money back tenfold in the sale [inaudible 00:28:26.9] your account so it's absolutely worth it to do it. So in terms of transferring the brand out of an account here's the drawbacks is that your buyer has to have another Amazon account with good or better ratings than the one that you have. Otherwise, your buyer pull is going to shrink and when your buyer pull shrinks the potential value for business shrinks as well. Rochelle:     That's right. Joe: I've talked to many experts and I've named a few whom here that I have talked to about the transfer of a brand into a brand new Seller Account and they all think that's crazy. If it's got … if a good brand is in a good Seller Account you're transferring that to a brand new Seller Account they don't know anything about it- Rochelle:     It makes no sense. Joe: And it's just risky. Rochelle:     Exactly. Joe: I have a transaction that's going on now where the buyer had just purchased an Amazon Seller Account, it happens to be in a different country than the US and has got a great seller rating and they're going to buy another brand and move it into that same seller account into that same country versus taking over their Seller Account. Because the seller feels that there's a risk there that he doesn't want to take on. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: So there's a lot of different ways to do these transactions and I hope that people can hear Rochelle through your communications that you're an attorney that actually thinks a little bit outside the box and understands that there's always two parties that are coming to the table and both have to be happy and satisfied in order to close a transaction. And you agree? Rochelle:     I absolutely agree and you know Joe one of the things that I'd like to talk to people about is, remember it is the Seller Account you're selling and very often that's what's driving the value. But also keep in mind there may be other things you're selling such as techniques or technology that you've invented to support your Seller Account that helps to drive the business to that account. Or possibly even your own know how and they may need you as part of the transition team. There may be issues with a non-compete especially if you're running multiple brands and you're selling one channel or one brand. So as you're getting ready to sell your business you really have to think about what it is you're selling. It's the Seller Account, it's the brand, what else is being sold and can you really sell the things that the buyer wants? Joe: Yeah all of that should be done up front. What … the worst thing to do folks is to wake up and go okay I'm tired I want to sell my business so I'm going to call a broker. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: That's the worst thing that … the best thing to do is to do what Rochelle is talking about and plan it in advance. Think … okay, maybe someday I'm going to sell my business let me just sort of get my ducks in a row. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: Maybe I never will and maybe I'll pass it on to my kids but in the event, I get tired and want to move on I want to be prepared. And you want to think about all those things in advance and have those sort of all those ducks in a row. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: In any contract negotiation let's touch on this briefly, both buyers and sellers you see both sides of the transactions all the time. What other stomach ache clauses that you see in an asset purchase agreement and how do you rectify them? Give me a couple of examples. Rochelle:     So I can tell you the top two are always the non-compete and the indemnification provisions. Those are always numbers one and two sometimes you know in whichever order you want to put them in. But those are the two things that are almost always the most concerning. So the non-compete; the non-compete sounds easy. I agree I'm going to sell my business that sells paint brushes and I promise not to compete in paint brushes. Well, the buyer may be looking at it a little differently. The buyer may say, I don't want you to compete in anything that has anything to do with paint or anything that has anything to do with art or possibly anything that has anything to do with home or other kinds of activities. Very often they're going to look at Amazon categories and they're going to say I don't want you to compete in the category in which the product you sold is in. I've even had a buyer say I don't want you to be a … will compete in any category on Amazon or in any category in which I, the buyer may be in now or in the future. Joe: Definitely nuts because I would tell them they're nuts. Rochelle:     Well, of course, we say as politely as we can. We don't like to queer deals but those are always fight issues. And my suggestion although I know people don't like to deal with difficult issues up front when you're in the dating period but my suggestion is that you understand the non-compete from the start of the transaction and the LOI point. Joe: Absolutely. We put all of that in our client interviews in depth, we ask about the non-compete, we talk to our sellers in detail about it because that is an important part of it from the seller's side. Look if this … the person selling the business is selling class fishing poles and they want to sell that business but still sell fishing poles it's too close and I'll tell them right up front as will any broker at Quiet Light Brokerage it's not going to work. Buyers are going to have a problem with that. I've never had a situation though I got to tell you, Rochelle, where a buyer has made an offer and said that we don't want you to sell anything on Amazon. That's simply too [inaudible 00:34:05.0]. I've never had anybody narrow it down to the category either because if you think about Home and Garden it's just too broad. It's usually been specific to the product and sometimes you know a little bit around that product. Let's say that if it's pick one that is not an actual- Rochelle:     We can talk about your fishing poles. Joe: Sure. Rochelle:     Some people will say nothing in marine so does that mean I can't sell a boat? A boat is really different than a fishing pole. Does that mean we can't sell a [inaudible 00:34:38.9]? Joe: Fishing tackle or things of that nature. I would say that it's … you can you can dance beyond that specific product a little bit but you can't go okay fishing pole and maybe lures but you can't go to boats, right? Rochelle:     Right. And the reason I bring it up is I have had and I will tell you where it is the … a lot of the buyers today are private equity firms. Joe: True. Rochelle:     And they're doing roll ups, and those private equity firms feel like they're buying the expertise of the person, not just the product and they are all over the idea that the expertise of the person could be used to teach or develop somebody else to sell against them. And as these private equity firms are rolling up multiple brands, multiple areas and their diversifying they have gotten very aggressive on this non-compete language. So we actually have seen … this may affect, I saw a language that was so broad that I said we absolutely can't have our client sign it because she couldn't even work at the makeup counter in Macy's. Because Macy's has an online site and even though she'd be working at the store it would be technically a violation. Joe: Right. Rochelle:     And the private equity guy said to me well we didn't mean that. I said well that's your language says though. And he said I see where you're coming from. We were able to bring it back and this is really where the skills of your lawyer and your broker come in. Because the combination of the two helps bring people back to reality but it's important that conversation happens up front. Joe: I couldn't agree more. I find the vast majority of deals go off the rails at some point and the difference between a good lawyer and a good broker and a great lawyer and a great broker is pulling that back on the rails. I think the ability to have open communications and occasionally you know maybe I'm wrong I don't mean to throw you in a category here but- Rochelle:     Yeah. Joe: You know I think attorneys when they respond to an asset purchase agreement and do edits and send it directly via email and make comments. It's vastly different than if they actually get- Rochelle:     Get on a phone. Joe: When they get on a phone and speak to the other attorney, it's- Rochelle:     Absolutely. Joe: You guys are brutal in emails and comments but then when you get on the phone you can generally work things out. Rochelle:     So one of the challenges Joe is that really it's more than there was but today there are very few lawyers who have experience in this kind of business. Joe: Yup. Rochelle:     And the typical document we're seeing has all sorts of stuff in it that makes no sense for an Amazon business. It's got loads of employee representations on employee benefit plans, it has loads of pages on environmental reps and warranties because they've taken the standard ABA form or the standard form they always use and they send it and say this is our asset purchase agreement. Joe: Right. Rochelle:     And people like … and I'll use Shawn Hussain as a great example I do a lot of deals with them, people like us look at that and we just simply white out all those pages. So we start off with 75 pages when we're done it's about 35 and 40 of them were just garbage. Joe: Let's jump to the indemnification clause. Rochelle:     Yes. Joe: Stomach ache clause number two, tell us about that one. Rochelle:     So indemnification, for people who don't understand what it is, it's the clause that says if something goes wrong after the sale here's when and how I might be able not I the buyer may be entitled to get some money back. Or get some protection get some defense. So understood anything that happened in your business prior to the sale of the business is certainly the seller's responsibility. Anything that happens in the business after the sale of the business is the buyer's responsibility. But then there's the foggy world; what about product that was produced by the seller but not sold until the buyer owns that inventory? What about claims made on the websites, claims made in the marketing materials, claims of natural or organic that the buyer is relying on that the seller created, or what about simple … the business didn't do very well? You told me this business is a million dollar a month business but when the buyer takes it over the think tanks, the lightning deals go away. There's all sorts of speculation, the supplier doesn't supply quite as well to the buyer as the seller, and then the buyer comes in and says how do I get money back for this it's not what I expected. It's really really important that going into the deal you understand what the caps and limits are, what's the maximum amount of money a buyer can get back and under what circumstances, and is there a deductible. So for instance fraud; okay everyone understands that if the seller committed fraud, the buyer is going to expect their money back and probably all of their money. At the same time let's just assume that what really happened is that the seller had representation, some warranties and in it it said that the financial statements that are attached are true and correct and it turns out one line has one number transposed, it doesn't change the business, it doesn't change the quality of the business, it is an immaterial mistake, should the buyer get money back? Should they get all their money back for that? Should they get any money back for that? And so that's what I would call a typical representation warranty. Let's assume there was as a result of that mistake there really was a little bit of a material implication. Well, it will … let's say turned into a $10,000 problem, so what should the buyer get for that $10,000 problem? The language and the representation warranties are very important. What we recommend is that going into the deal there be a very clear conversation about the difference between fraud which might mean you get your purchase price back or maybe even the right to unwind the transaction versus an unintentional misrepresentation or mistake or something hiccups that you didn't anticipate. And we recommend that you have a clear cap, what's the maximum amount that the buyer can get back in the event of those issues and it might be we … generally, we see somewhere between ten on the low side and 30% on the high side as the range; that's today's market, as the range for those kinds of indemnifications. We might see a basket, so we might see something that says but if it's all under $25,000 or under $50,000 depending on the size of the deal the buyer gets nothing back. It's just a small de minimus issue whereas if it's hundreds of thousands of dollars of issue there might be a cap on it. There are fundamental representations such as title to the assets and if it turns out the seller sells you something it didn't have title to it, of course, the buyer is going to expect to be completely reimbursed for that. There are questions about whether or not you'll pay for the attorneys. These are provisions that both your broker understands and your attorneys understand. I strongly recommend that you line up an attorney at the beginning of the deal at the LOI for the base of this and you also line up an accountant who and as a seller. Joe: Well in advance. Rochelle:     Well in advance. Joe: Yeah for sure. I hope you have one already for those listening that are sellers you know the four pillars that Mark and I talked about; the risk, the growth, the transferability, and the documentation are all critical. And you can't have that documentation in place without having a good a. bookkeeper and b. CPA to figure out what's going to be and left with after the sale. That's why I don't want you to wake up and go okay I'm ready to sell, list my business, please. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: You want to think about those things in advance. I did a podcast with Dave Bryant from EcomCrew way back on importing from China and Dave talks about how he planned in advance selling his business and renegotiated the cost of goods sold on certain skews over a 12 month period. Saved himself about $40,000 and got that back in a multiple of three when he sold the business so all of these things are really important. As you talk about the indemnification, and as you talk about the non-compete for those listening you know I'm sure some of you nodded off right? Just like you did when I talked about the doing the valuation in cash versus accrual accounting. You can make so much more money in the sale of your business someday if you ever decide to sell or your heirs do when you take care of these things in advance when you plan when you have proper documentation. Now all of that will make these stomach ache clauses like the indemnification, not an issue. Proper documentation in advance of the sale you'll know that you did the right thing with your customers, you know that you don't have any cash and potential liabilities; you know that your financials are correct. That transposing of the number you know is it material, is it immaterial? Rochelle:     Right. Joe: I've never had it happen pretty small if it's immaterial to material. I always go back to things can be worked out for the most part with math and logic. Emotion is the wild card, a good attorney a good a broker will help keep those emotions in check and on track to closing. And I think one of the reasons why I wanted you on the podcast Rochelle is because you seem to apply that math and logic into the conversations that we've had and you realize really really strongly that both buyers and sellers need to be happy. Rochelle:     Right. Joe: Otherwise that transaction is not gonna close. There's no point. A one sided deal is never going to close folks. So if you have an attorney that is fighting tooth and nail for indemnification clause it's going to have the seller not cover anything, not cover any risk for the buyer, it's not going to close. It has to be comfortable for both parties. I always tell a story, I'm not going to tell the full story but it boils down to I will not take on a clients that is married to an attorney that has an attorney's her mother father sister brother that's going to do their contract negotiations because they fight like rabid dogs for things that you know there's one tenth of 1% of it happening but they fight like crazy to make sure that their client, their relative is fully protected. Because they're gonna have to have drinks to that relative at the next 4th of July barbecue. Deals fall apart for those clauses that we've talked about more the indemnification in my experience than the non-compete because again a good broker will handle that upfront and take care of it upfront and it should be both buyer and seller free LOI. Now one last thing on the LOI face in terms of when to hire the attorney Rochelle, our experience is the letter of intent is non-binding and fully contingent on the asset purchase agreements on due diligence and the further detail of asset purchase agreement so we don't recommend that clients hire an attorney for the language in the letter of intent. Because it says right in there is non-binding and contingent on those things. I think as long as some of these points or all of these points are worked out in advance you know particularly the non-compete that it's in there that 9.5 times out of 10 it's not an issue. Occasionally we have a little further negotiation in the asset purchase agreement, would you agree though that you should be hired once the LOI is signed and for the asset purchase agreement negotiations? Rochelle:     Let me frame this a little differently. Joe: Okay. Rochelle:     If you're getting ready to sell your business you should have a lawyer lined up who's taking a look at your business to make sure your ducks are in a row. Make sure if you have supply agreements that they are written signed enforceable supply agreements because if you're planning on selling those supply agreements then they have to have assignable supply agreements. So what I always suggest is just like you have your accountant in your back pocket you ought to have an attorney that you work with that's helped you think through your business. So I actually believe that you need to have a good business attorney lined up early on. Now having said that, 90% of my clients don't even though that is my advice and I wish we would be there. Joe is exactly right we are very often hired after LOI or right as the LOI is being prepared. And the only catch we have with LOI is if you have an LOI that doesn't address indemnification, it doesn't have a cap in it, when we go to do the asset purchase agreement the attorney on the other side will say the letter of intent didn't have a cap, the letter of intent said purchase price because it didn't say anything else. So when you're silent on those terms in the LOI you might have uphill battle. What you could do to protect yourself is to say a … indemnification with cap and basket to be agreed upon in the definitive document. So then you've at least left open the possibility that there's a negotiation to still be had on that topic whereas if you simply leave it silent the buyer is going to say that … I know I'd say when I'm a buyer I'm going to say no no no no no there were it said indemnification there were no caps, there were no baskets. Joe: Yeah, you're going to say different things as the attorney for the buyer than you are for the seller. Rochelle:     Absolutely I'm very good at switching hat, as a matter of fact, I have represented clients who have been both buyers and sellers and they laugh about the fact that my tone changes and the way I look at the document changes. But we do what we have to do for our clients. Joe: Yeah for those listening look like many of you had … you don't want to contact a broker to talk about the valuation of the business or what it might be worth and I've had people tell me that because they don't want to feel like they're committing. You've got to do the same thing with the attorney, I think you should have a call with a broker a year two years in advance just to understand the valuation process and how to gauge what your discretionary earnings are on a monthly basis, quarterly basis, so you get an idea for the value instead of just listening to podcast, instead of just listening to people in mastermind groups and their experiences because the full story is never told. Instead of just looking at listings and oh that's a 2.5 multiple, that's a three multiple, it's a four multiple, you don't get the full story. You can't do it that way. You should have a conversation and have it directly applied to your business and your business only because every business has its own unique qualities. The same applies I think as you're saying Rochelle to having a conversation with an attorney in advance because if there's a problem with the way that you set up your LLC or the trademark or a design or anything like that- Rochelle:     Right. Joe: You should have those things addressed in advance. Well worth it. Do you do any … do you have an hourly charge for that first call? Do you have a free consultation? Do you just talk about business what it … how does it work if somebody wants to reach out to you and have that conversation? Rochelle:     Well we offer a 20 minute free consultation to all new clients. So we do it telephonically, most of our clients are not located. We're based in Tampa Florida which is a lovely place to live and do business. Most of our clients are all over the world. So we do it telephonically or through Skype or some other online method and we offer … we say 20 minutes and sometimes it goes a little longer depending on how in-depth we get. And in that call, we can then talk to you about what you need and how to price what you need. So sometimes what you need immediately is really just a few hours of our time and consultation and we'll bill it that way. Sometimes what you need is for us to dive in … as a firm we will do flat fees, we will do structured fees meaning that a certain price to cover the LOI and other price to cover due diligence a 3rd price to cover the asset purchase agreement and actually do it in phases. We will do capped fees, it all depends on the nature of your transaction and on how well we can get our arms around what you're asking us to do. So for instance, if we're doing it capped fee or a flat fee we're going to be very specific about the services you're getting from us and things that are outside those services might be in addition. If we're doing an hourly rate, of course, we'll have some sort of retainer up front and we will be specific about what's included in those services but you'll be billed by the hour. We try very hard to be transparent and easy for our clients to understand what they're being billed for and how they're being billed. Joe: Excellent. Rochelle listen we're going to wrap it up here, appreciate your time today. Can you tell those listening how to reach you, how do they find you either online or via phone call? Rochelle:     Absolutely so by phone, our number is 813 999 0199 and I am in extension 115 if you press 0 when you call that number ask for Layla and she will set you up with me or one of our attorneys for an additional counsel. And by e-mail I am rochelle@walklawfirm.com And we have a policy of responding to people within 24 at the most 48 eight hours but we're usually pretty good about popping right back to you and getting something set up. Joe: Terrific we'll make sure that that phone number the e-mail address and the website address are in the show notes as well. Rochelle:     Thank you. Joe: Rochelle any last thoughts for those listening that may be either buyers or sellers that you want to share? Rochelle:     I just think in closing that when you think about buying or selling a business due diligence is the most important thing you can do. So even if you're an experienced Amazon seller whether you're a buyer or a seller you need to know who you're doing business with. Get some … if you're the buyer certainly understand the brand you're buying and understand what you're trying to accomplish by buying those brands, what services you need and frankly if you're the seller and you might be taking back seller paper which is a promissory note a seller promissory note you're going to want to know who the buyer is. Make sure you understand are they equipped to run a business like this and if they're not what kind of transition services do you need to provide them so they can hit the ground running. Know what kind of people there are, check them out. If you're dealing with people who are squirrelly get out of the deal in the … before you even sign the LOI. But if you're dealing with good people try and figure out how to make them successful because your success as a seller especially if you're taking back a seller's promissory note or consulting agreement your success is going to be very much related to their success. Joe: I love your approach you know if you're … if you ever decide to leave the law business give us a call. You may be a very very very successful advisor here at Quiet Light Brokerage. Rochelle:     Thank you, Joe, I appreciate that and look forward to working with you again on some transactions. Joe: All right. Well, thanks for being a guest I appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. Rochelle:     Thanks, Joe.   Links: www.walklawfirm.com Walk Law Firm, PA The Wells Fargo Building 100 S. Ashley Dr., Ste. 620 Tamp. FL 33602 Phone: 813-999-0199 Fax: 813-839-4896 LinkedIn