It’s Time to Sell Your Business When… | Knowledge Bomb

Audio Transcription

Business Coach 1:
Grabbed the duct tape and mentally prepare yourself for yet another mind-expanding knowledge bomb from America’s number one business coach. Clay Clark.

Business Coach 2:
Yes, yes, yes. And yes. Here we are again, broadcasting from the beautiful man cave here in Tulsa, Oklahoma factory direct from me to you. And I’ve had a lot of DayQuil today. So I’m pushing through the pain. I gotta keep my hot streak going of 23 years in a row of no sick days now on today. Now, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been sick. There’s just no sick days. I’ve got to keep my hot streak alive. Now, on today’s show, we had a thriver who texted in a question or, or emailed in a question to us. And their question is this they said they wrote, maybe this is a Podquest about a podcast question, but I thought I’d ask you anyway. How do you know when it was time to sell your DJ business and to do something else? Did you know right away it was time?

Business Coach 2:
How did you decide to do that? We’d love to chat with you on this topic at some point. Travis we were talking earlier just just moments ago off air. You like Legos, love Lovell, Y it’s just been something I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid. How long have you known that you’ve loved Legos? Like, well, wait, what was the first time you remember playing Legos? Probably when I was five or six. Five or six. Yup. And so does it seem like a chore to you when you’re doing Legos? Absolutely not. Okay. So it’s something that you enjoy and therefore it doesn’t seem like a chore when you’re doing it? It’s, it’s, it’s a flow state. And modern psychology, the word flow state means it’s something where you lose track of space and time while you’re doing it.

Business Coach 2:
It’s fun for you. Yeah. I could spend all day doing it. How long did you play Lego’s? The last one. How old were you the last time that you started? Messing with some Legos. I haven’t done it as much as an adult but I got one for Christmas a few years ago and it just reminded me how much I enjoy it. How old were you when you got these? Lego’s 24. So at the age of 24, I mean, did you spend a whole day messing with Lego’s? Was it a couple of hours or what? All day. Really all day on Christmas. Were there other kids helping you with too or just you as an adult messing with Legos? No, I shamelessly blocked him out and just did it myself. Really? Yup. And there’s nothing wrong with that because that’s something you like to do. And for our listener out there for the good doctor, I know who the listener is who asked this question. I am of the belief that we should all try to live a life that’s like that where you’re playing Legos and so Steve jobs, who, who couldn’t be here on today’s show because he’s dead. He did have some profound things to say about death and I wanna I want to cue up this audio because this audio in my from my perspective is a great way to answer your questions. So let me queue up the side. I was 17. I read a quote that went something like if you live

Business Coach 3:
Each day as if it was your last someday, you’ll most certainly be right. It made an impression on me. And since then, for the past 33 years, I’ve looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself if today were the last day of my life, what I want to do, what I am about to do today. And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death. Leaving only what is truly important, remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Business Coach 2:
So the question is, again, the question is how do you know when it’s time? When, how did, how did you know when it was time to sell your DJ business? Or how do you know when it’s time to sell your business? Did you know right away or how did you decide on that? Well, this is, this is how I decided on that. I recognized that the three P’s were no longer all happening simultaneously and you say, well, what are the three PS? These are the three P’s, the three P’s of business. And in my mind, in my opinion, from my experience, having coached hundreds of clients, so close to thousands of clients, having grown several multimillion dollar companies, these are my three PS for a happy business friend, for happy business owner. One, you’ve got to make a profit too. You got to work with people that you like. You have to make a profit.

Business Coach 2:
You’ve got to work with people that you like. And three, you’ve got to make a product that you’re proud of. And Travis, if you’ve ever worked at a job before where you hated or disliked strongly the people that you worked with. Ah, yes I have. What’s that like going to work on a daily basis when you definitely don’t like the people you’re working with, even if you like the actual job itself. What happens when you start working with people on a daily basis that you do not like you spend the entire time you’re driving to the job thinking about how much you do not want to go. Yeah, it’s soul sucking, right? Absolutely. So again, my three PS are you want to make a a, a sustainable profit, okay? You want to create a sustainable profit. Well, what does that mean? A sustainable profit, a profit where it, it’s bankable.

Business Coach 2:
Meaning that if you went to a bank and said, can I borrow money to scale my business? They would look at your business model and say, yes, you’ve got to be profiting at at least a 20% margin or a business that is profitable to the point where your business is at least sellable, where somebody else would hear of what you’re doing and want to buy your company. Or someone could look at your books and say, you know what? Your business is healthy. I want to buy it. So you’ve got to create a business that is sustainably profitable. That’s the first P. The second you’ve got to create a business where you work with people that you like. And third, you got to create products that you’re proud of. And I can just tell you sincerely, when I built DJ connection.com, I started it by making a product that I was proud of and working people were working with people that I liked and I was, I was sustainably profitable, but at some point, and it’s all my fault, but at some point I looked up and realized I do not like the people that I work with and working with.

Business Coach 2:
I don’t like them. And I hired too many people that were not people. I wanted to hang out with too many people that were too casual about a business in terms of they would constantly be late and it didn’t bother them. Working with people that were chronically late. It just bothers me if you’re the kind of person who’s chronically late, I don’t want you in my life. And I had too many people working there that were chronically late. I had too many people working for me that thought everything was a joke and if they made a mistake or did something wrong, it was funny to them. It, it didn’t, they didn’t have a sense of pride that I had. I, I hired too many people that wouldn’t follow the systems and the processes. And so again, it was profitable. I, I made a product that I liked, but as I continued to hire, I kept hiring more and more people that I didn’t like.

Business Coach 2:
And I started dealing with inner office political issues and, and people that knew what to do but refuse to do it. And it just became a, everyday was an argument. Every day was me fighting for the overhead playlist to be the right playlist a was me fighting with people to follow the scripts every day consisted of me fighting with people who knew what to do, but who choose, who chose not to do it every day was a dramatic burning fire because everybody failed the plan. My day was an emergency. And so I just realized, you know what, if I have an opportunity to sell this thing and to move into the next phase of my life and to do things differently, I’m going to do it. And so I, I did it and I’ve built other companies and now I love all the businesses I’m involved with because of the three piece.

Business Coach 2:
I make a sustainable profit. I work with people that I like and I make products that I’m proud of. Like I’ll mention elephant in the room, men’s grooming lounge, our haircut chain. I really do like the vast majority of the people that we work with. I really do like them. I think of Joel is a great team player. Carly’s great. Jordan’s great. There’s so many great members of the team, captain Morgan, she’s a great person to work with. Travis, you work with these people. We’ve got a lot of great people in the elephant in the room. Men’s grooming lounge, right? We get a lot of good people up there. Yell. It’s full of them. Yeah. And so it’s not a soul sucking process. It doesn’t have a soul sucking thing. To think about for me going to work. Now there are some problem children we have to correct and there are some situations, there’s some weeds we have to pull.

Business Coach 2:
I get it. But I like people. I like the product and I liked the profit. So if you’re out there today and you’re going, when is it time to sell a business? If you no longer are you know, working with people you like and you realize it’s not going to be fixable. I would sell the company if you can. But now on the mathematical side of things, if you’re going to sell a company, don’t sell a company until you are in a spot where I’m selling the business, we’ll put you into a place of financial freedom. Don’t, don’t just sell it because it’s an emotional decision. Because if you sell a company and you haven’t thought about the next thing you’re going to do, it can get really, really bad because after you sell the company, you no longer have a job. You no longer have ongoing income and you’ll run out of money a lot faster than you thought you would. So that would be my tips for you out there of how to know when it’s time to sell a business. And we’d like to in each and every show with a boom. And so now, without any further ado, three two, one, boom.