Scale to Sale V2

[ROHAN FOLLOW SHOT] He hunted businesses for a living. His entire job at his private equity firm was to wine and dine you, get you to like him, and then he would devalue your business as much as possible. After he completely destroyed all of the confidence you had in what you spent years creating from the ground up… Only then would he start talking numbers with you. The negotiation would keep you up for days on end… And when you were completely emotionally drained, he would then make you an offer for the lowest amount possible… And after you reluctantly accepted, he would turn that business around, pour leveraged debt into it, grow it, and flip it for 3-4x the amount he bought it for. By the way, he’s acquired over 100 different businesses this way and sold 26 of them resulting in five billion dollars worth of deals.[a] The entire world of mergers and acquisitions is just as cutthroat as this man who I’ll introduce to you in a bit. If you’re not prepared, without a doubt you will get taken advantage of. If you’ve ever thought about selling your business, this is quite literally the most important video you’ll watch this year. Over the next few minutes, we’re going to share the 5 step process which ensures you don’t get taken advantage of by a shark like that guy. If you actually want to exit your company one day, what we’re about to share could save you tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars… Seriously, this isn’t an exaggeration. If you follow the 5-step process we’re about to share, you will be able to sell your company for the maximum amount possible… But…that’s only if you have a company that’s attractive to investors. Now, you may be asking, what does that look like? Well, let’s start here… [ROHAN VOICE - ANIMATION] ---------- [NICK BRADLEY DTC] Hi, my name is Nick Bradley, and I’m the “business hunter” as mentioned earlier. It’s true, I was one of those sharks in the world of Private Equity, using every trick in the book to get the upper hand for the firm. After acquiring over 100 different businesses and doing FIVE BILLION DOLLARS OF DEALS, [b]I can tell you without a doubt, I know the acquisition playbook like the back of my hand. However, after years and years of using ruthless cold blooded tactics so I could come out on top, I ended up questioning everything about my career… The guilt caught up to me, while everything was legal it still felt…dirty. I was ripping people from the businesses they had spent so much energy building. I couldn't be a part of it anymore, and that’s why 8 years ago I left the world of private equity… To this day, I still play the same game, I just switched teams. Now I’m on your side. I've made it my mission to ensure that business owners like you are equipped with the knowledge and strategies to not only survive but thrive in the world of business exits. I've seen too many entrepreneurs get taken advantage of, and it's time to level the playing field. You’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into your venture… Yet, here's the thing: while passion and hard work are non-negotiable, they're not enough when it comes to preparing for a successful business exit. Earlier, we talked about a 5-part methodology which would help you sell your company for the highest price possible… And also prevent you from being taken advantage of in the ruthless world of business acquisitions. What I’d like to do is share this methodology, and if you’d like help implementing it, we’ll talk more about that at the end. Regardless of what you do, simply understanding this 5-part methodology at a base level is going to give you a massive advantage… This is the stuff that private equity firms and acquisition sharks don’t want you to know about because it gives you way more power at the negotiation table… With that being said, let’s dive in and get started. --------- [NICK BRADLEY WHITEBOARD SHOT] NICK: Okay, so let’s talk about the Scale to Sale methodology Again, the whole goal of this is to position your business for an external sale to a strategic or financial buyer at the highest possible multiple. The methodology involves 5 steps Step 1: Setting a Clear End Game The first step is to define your "life-changing number" - which is the amount of money you want from selling your business that will provide complete financial freedom. Here’s the questions you need to ask yourself… What net worth do you want to achieve? Why does this number matter to you? Is what you're doing now going to get you there? Most business owners never take the time to do this and as a result, they end up severely disappointed when an offer to buy their business comes around, if that ever happens in the first place… So once we determine your end goal, we then need to reverse engineer it and can create a plan on how to get there… Which brings us to step 2, Strengthening Foundations Here’s a great way to help you understand this… If you were on the market trying to buy a house, would you even consider one that has a foundation on a bed of sand? Not in 100 years, right? Well buyers in the world of acquisitions are no different… They want STRONG concrete foundations. That starts with financials…buyers want clean books and good numbers on revenue, profit margins, and EBITDA. This also includes people…buyers want to see a capable team in place, especially in key roles driving your growth strategy. After that we have processes…nobody wants to buy an inefficient company… Buyers look for streamlined systems and operations for maximum efficiency… If you have smooth workflows and standardized procedures, that alone can add a tremendous amount to your valuation. Then there’s your market base… Buyers want to see broad distribution channels, buying a company with just a few major clients is a massive risk… So the larger your customer base, the better. And last but not least, we have brand & culture… When you have a popular brand and constructive culture focused on performance, your company is a lot more attractive than one without that. Now this is a lot to do all at once… The whole point of this step is to evaluate where you’re at with these different areas on a scale of 1-10, and then construct strategies to help you get to a 10/10 in every area. So once we’ve gotten clear on our end goal… And we’ve strengthened our foundations… We move onto step three, which is scaling up… Now, I’d actually like to park step three and circle back to it later and you’ll see why here in a moment…but just stick with me. So moving on, step 4 is called, profiting up. This is definitely the longest part of the entire 5-step process… Some people spend 6 months in this stage… However, the smartest business owners I’ve come across spend upwards of 36 months on Profiting Up. The reason why this takes so long is because our previous step, scaling, makes things messy. When we’re growing revenue, we’re going to break things and we’re going to try things that do and don’t work. I like to think of Profiting Up as a house that’s having renovations done. When you buy a house, one of the first things you do is assess whether it’s got issues, and then you fix those issues. Right? That’s steps one and two. Then you might decide you want to make the house bigger, so you might add a loft extension… In order to do that, you’ve got to have scaffolding in places around the house, and it’s a bit messy, there’s shit lying around everywhere, right? So now it’s a messy house, but it’s got an extension and other improvements. Creating that mess to make the house better - that’s scaling up. So you’ve now got a house that’s a more valuable asset but again, it’s doesn’t look good enough for buyers. And step 4, profit up, is effectively like cleaning everything up so we can actually get the home on the market and sell it. You see what I mean? We’re going to clean the rubbish out of the garden. Now I want to preface this by saying if I were to break down all of the specifics of what that looks like, this would be a much longer video. For now, let’s focus on the broader picture, and at the end of this video I’ll give you an option to be able to get an in-depth breakdown of this part of the process…that fair? Okay so, big picture, what does Profiting Up look like? You give your finances a facelift, ensuring every dollar and cent is accounted for. Your operations get a shoe shine, making sure everything runs smoothly. You cut some fat off the team. You make sure supply chains, if you have them, are tightened. Your legalities are checked. You bring on a board of advisors to help you do your due diligence. The whole goal here is to be able to present the company as healthy, profitable, AND SELLABLE! And as a cherry on top, a clear exit plan is drafted, setting the stage for a grand finale… Which brings us to Step 5, exiting for the highest multiple. So a lot of people assume that selling a business just happens randomly. As if one day, someone knocks on your door and says, “I want to buy your business” and then you go “Oh thank you very much, I’d love to sell my business.” That’s not the case… You need to know what’s happening in the market, who’s buying, who’s selling, and you need to start navigating the world of buyers. This part of the process requires a lot of nuance because you have to be able to manage the emotions of the sales process… Not just your own emotions but also the emotions of your prospective buyer. People get cold feet, they disrespect boundaries, and so on… You gotta be able to manage all of that. Again, we don’t have time to go into depth right now on all of the details here, at the end of this video we’ll give you an option to get a much more in-depth explanation. So that’s all 5 steps but like I said earlier… I wanted to circle back to scaling and dive a bit deeper. When it comes to acquisitions and exits, that’s my zone of genius. However, scaling is a completely different game… That’s why I wanted to bring this guy into the picture to talk about Scaling because he is the King of Scaling. ROHAN CREDIBILITY[c][d] [ROHAN DTC] ROHAN: Thanks Nick. Okay, so most people confuse growth with scaling… Growing is something that anyone can do, right? They can have a one off results, but it's not predictable, repeatable, and sustainable. And what we're talking about here is building the machine in a way that it can keep going and going again and again. It's repeatable, like a flywheel. Understanding how to systemize growth, and make it predictable, is where we now start to step into the world of Scaling. So when I’m coming into a company, I plug their ad accounts and metrics into our agency IP dashboards and take a look at everything across the board. A perfect example of this was Publishing.com When they came to work with us they were doing about X[e] per month… But they were heavily reliant on a single traffic source: YouTube. It's like having all your eggs in one basket. Sure, it's working now, but what happens if that basket breaks? Their entire revenue stream would be at risk, and this is extremely risky for anyone trying to acquire your company. By diversifying their traffic sources and introducing them to platforms like Facebook, we not only safeguarded their revenue but we also opened up new avenues for customer acquisition. This move transformed them from a company that was doing well to a company that was set to dominate the market. And when we dove deeper into their metrics and looked at their Cost Per Acquisition along with their Lifetime Value, we noticed their LTV was expanding. This meant they could afford to invest more in acquiring customers. Their initial CPA of $900 soon became $1,700, not because costs were rising, but because they realized they could buy more of the market and still be profitable. That’s how we got them up to $250,000 a day in ad spend. This is the essence of scaling. It's not about one-off growth spurts. It's about creating a system, a machine, that can consistently and predictably drive growth. It's about understanding the nuances of your business metrics and leveraging them to your advantage. Now in the world I’m predominantly working in, selling information online, most people separate organic and paid traffic as two distinct entities. But in reality, they're two sides of the same coin. Organic traffic is often through word of mouth, SEO, or content marketing. It's the slow and steady approach, and while it's essential, it has its limitations. Relying solely on organic traffic is like trying to fill a bathtub with a dripping faucet. It'll get there eventually, but it's going to take awhile. On the other hand, paid traffic, through platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, it’s like turning on a high-pressure hose. It's immediate, targeted, and can generate results quickly. But it comes at a cost, both financially and in terms of the effort required to optimize and maintain campaigns. Again both paid traffic and organic traffic, fall into the category of organic growth. You can have a massively successful company by just relying on organic growth… But the way to get exponential growth is by pairing both organic growth with strategic growth. This is where things get interesting, and I’m going to hand it back to Nick here to explain Strategic Growth. [NICK DTC] Thank you Rohan. Okay, so what is Strategic growth? It's about looking beyond just organic and paid traffic and exploring avenues like partnerships, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions. It's about leveraging capital, existing assets, relationships, and networks to accelerate growth. For instance, by buying out a complementary business, you can tap into their customer base… Same thing goes for partnering or JVing with those complementary businesses. Then there's the power of referrals, a happy customer turns into a brand ambassador and if you set up a proper referral program, you're essentially turning your customers into your marketing team. They know your product, they love it, and they'll bring in others who will likely feel the same way. And let's not forget about retention…why constantly be on the hunt for new customers? Starting every month from zero… When you can start the month with a surplus of cash because you created a business with retention built into the structure. Essentially, scaling is a multi-faceted growth approach. Yet on top of that, it also involves looking at the structure of the company… Can we double your customers and your fulifllment still handles everything flawlessly? If the company breaks, it means you’re not equipped for scale. Again, scaling is not just about throwing money at ads and hoping for the best. It's a strategic, well-thought-out process that looks at every aspect of the business, from marketing to operations, from customer acquisition to retention. It's about building a well-oiled machine that can precitably grow month after month, year after year. ----- [ROHAN + NICK DTC] NICK: And that’s the 5-part Scale To Sale methodology… Like I said, you even being aware of this already gives you a massive upperhand because these are the things buyers are looking for… And these are the main areas they attack when trying to devalue your company so they can purchase it for the lowest amount possible. But knowing all of this, and not doing anything with the information isn’t going to give you any benefits. ROHAN: The way we see it, there’s really only three paths you can go down after watching this video… The first is like Nick mentioned, not doing anything with the information we’ve provided to you today. Which is fine if you have no intention of ever selling your company… But if that’s not the case, and you do want to eventually exit, not doing anything with what we’ve discussed is just setting yourself up for failure. NICK: Exactly. Now, the second path is trying to implement all of this on your own. While that's commendable, and some of you might have the resources and expertise to do so, it's a challenging road. The world of business acquisitions is intricate, and one misstep can cost you millions. Without the right guidance, even your best efforts can lead to pitfalls. So while this is certainly better than doing nothing, it’s definitely the path of highest resistance. ROHAN: And that brings us to the third path. Which is having us help you implement everything we discussed today.[f] You’ll be able to have the experience of two industry veterans who've been in the trenches, who knows the ins and outs of the scaling and acquisition world, and who can guide you through every step of what we discussed today. This isn't about taking a backseat in your business; it's about ensuring you have two co-pilot who’ve navigated these waters before. NICK: Whatever you decide, remember that the goal is not just to sell but to sell in a way that truly reflects the value of the business you've built. And I’d like to remind you of this… Selling your business will be the largest financial transaction of your life. You don’t want to fuck this up. ROHAN: That’s definitely one way to put it… So if you don’t want to “fuck this up” your best bet is to speak with us about how we can help you implement this 5-part methodology into your business… To do that, all you need to do is click the button beneath this video, answer a couple of questions to help us better understand your business, and then find a time that works best for us to chat.[g] If it makes sense, awesome, we’ll share more details about how we can help and what that would look like… Now, if you feel like you need more information than this short video we put together… You can also click a button below to watch an interview with Nick and I where we go deeper on all 5 parts of the scale to sale methodology. NICK: The choice is yours, you can do nothing, you can choose the slow lane, or you can choose the fast lane. And just as a closing remark… If you’ve seen success in your business, you know that it was always on the back end of being decisive. And right now, you have a decision to make…but it’s not deciding whether or not you’d like to invest in what we have to offer. Not at all. Right now, the only decision you need to make is whether or not you’d like to chat about what it would look like to have us help you implement everything we’ve discussed today. ROHAN: So if you want to make that decision now, click the button below, go through that questionnaire, and we’ll speak with you soon. [FADE TO BLACK] [a]Need clarity from Nick on the specifics here [b]I'd like a bit more of a descriptive explanation of this for Nick [c]Not sure what Rohan wants to highlight here? [d]This is pretty much the last section we need to add in and then it's good to go! [e]need numbers here [f]LIST OUT ALLLL THE SHIT THEY NEED TO DO [g]Introduce follow up videos