E508: Selling My E-commerce Business After 3 Years

Mike Jackness talks to Chris Duty of Quiet Light Brokerage to dive into the challenges that they faced when trying to sell one of Mike’s most recent business acquisitions, and the string of bad luck that Mike faced along the way.   After 3 years, I’m glad to announce that I’ve sold one of my businesses.    Joining me today is the broker that helped me with the transition, Chris Duty from Quiet Light Brokerage. Chris and I explore the process of selling a business that I, alongside investors from ECF Capital, acquired in late 2020, and what transpired along the way (which includes some unfortunate events).    One of the key takeaways from this episode is that the process isn’t over until it’s over.    Some roadblocks might pop up along the way, but it’s always important to move onto the next step until the whole process is complete. If you’re considering on selling your business, or if you want to hear the fun (or unlucky) details of my journey in trying to sell this business, today’s episode is definitely one to save.    Here’s today’s main points 00:00 - Introduction 01:50 - Ground rules of today’s discussion 03:04 - The backstory of our sale  08:39 - Today’s main takeaway: It’s not done until it’s done.  14:41 - How Chris approaches a business sale   16:28 - Building trust and credibility with buyers 24:18 - Tax returns and SBA pre-qualification 31:05 -The impact of having your priorities in order 33:43 - Finding the right buyer who recognizes the long-term value of the business 42:38 - The importance of early preparation for selling your business   We hope today’s episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with Chris you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out the company at QuietLight.com. If you want to check out how Mike planned to grow this ecommerce business back in 2021, you can check it out here.    If you have any questions or anything you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at [email protected]! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes.    Thanks for listening!