How to sell when you are the business
“Gaven Bell owned a successful marketing business and realized his business was too dependent on him. Customers knew him and him only,” shares Sam Thompson, a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “In this episode he shares what he did to remove himself from his business and successfully find a buyer. He discusses changes such as a rename, employees and his system.”
The fastest way to make a service company unsellable is building it around a personal brand.
When clients hire you—because of your reputation, your name, and your specific expertise—you haven’t built a business; you’ve built a high-paying job.
And as Gavin Bell realized, you can’t sell a reputation.
Gavin was known as the “Facebook Ads Guy” in the UK. He was making good money, but he knew that to build a sellable asset, he had to fire himself as the face of the company.
He rebranded his firm from “Gavin Bell” to “Yatter,” productized his service, and systematically removed himself from sales and delivery.
The result? He sold Yatter to a larger agency, Velstar, in a deal that closed just one minute before a major tax deadline.
In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Gavin breaks down exactly how he made the switch. You’ll learn how to:
- Transition from a personal brand to a sellable entity: The specific branding and operational changes required to make the business independent of your name.
- Productize a service: How Gavin “named” his process steps to make his service feel like a tangible product (and how this improved client retention).
- Structure a sales hire: The commission-only strategy he used to validate his first salesperson before committing to a salary.
- Negotiate your earn-out: The specific argument Gavin used to cut his earn-out period from two years down to just nine months.
- Avoid “Seller’s Remorse”: Why staying disciplined with “business as usual” during due diligence is critical for your mental health.
Gavin’s story is a masterclass in turning a service hustle into a valuable asset.