Marc-Andre Seguin launched JazzGuitarLessons.net in 2009 to share his knowledge as a guitar teacher. Seguin started by offering YouTube videos and PDFs but soon realized his content could be stickier and more profitable if he transformed his business into a subscription-based company (which was strikingly uncommon in his industry). In this episode of Built to Sell [...]
Dr. David Bach is a Harvard-trained scientist, physician, and serial entrepreneur. Bach has founded and built three healthcare companies, each of which grew to over $100 million in value. His most recent exit was from Leprechaun LLC which became the fastest-growing company in America before it was acquired delivering a 90X return for his shareholders. What [...]
Zain Hasan started an insurance agency called National Insurance Consulting Group (NICG), in 2014. By 2019, Hasan had built NICG to more than $2 million in revenue, earning him a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies. Hasan figured his company was worth between 6-8 times Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization [...]
Jean-Eric Plamondon was in the scrap metal business where the stereotypical operator is a shady character buying metal by the ton with a blow torch in one hand and a wad of cash in the other. Plamondon decided he wanted to do scrap metal differently and discovered farmers were keen to clean up their land. Plamondon [...]
If you find yourself in a position where your customers always insist on speaking with you directly instead of your employees, then you might want to consider shifting your structure so you can improve the value of your business. Here's why: a business that can thrive without the owner at the center of all its operations [...]
Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey built Barefoot Cellars to sales of more than 600,000 cases of wine per year when they got the attention of E&J Gallo, America’s largest winemaker. Gallo was impressed with how quickly a $7 bottle of Barefoot moved off retailers’ shelves and were intrigued by Barefoot’s use of grassroots sponsorship to grow [...]
Upon selling your business, the benefits of a successful sale most likely out-weigh any downsides. After closing, you should have a nice financial windfall to pad your bank account, less stress, and more leisure time to travel or spend time with family, for example. I sold my conference and event company in 2012. In the seven [...]
As a business owner, I know you’re ready for anything. But recent data shows us that even the most affluent and successful founders struggle with one common problem: the regret of how they handled leaving their company. In fact, 75% of owners say they regret their decision to exit after just one year (based on how [...]
In 2013, Alex McClafferty co-founded WP Curve, a company that provided IT support for people with a WordPress site. McClafferty and his partner stitched together a network of contract support professionals in developing countries and quickly grew the company. They hired a few managers, and by the beginning of 2016, McClafferty was already looking for an [...]
Staffing-industry veteran Will Gilbert co-founded Socium – a U.K.-based company supplying workers to companies that needed them – in early 2019. Within six months, Socium was generating more than 7 million British Pounds (GBP) in revenue. A coffee meeting with a former colleague in the staffing business led to an acquisition discussion and soon after, Socium [...]
