Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

Good info. Really disliked the authors descriptions of women. I almost threw the book when he mentioned the way on lady’s daily salads and regular exercise kept her looking five years younger with good posture. 🤮He hardly ever described anyone else.

I have a strong bias against business fables. I generally don't read them and don't put much stock into what I term "business fiction."In BUILT TO SELL, however, John Warrilow draws on his personal experience in starting and selling four companies to craft an entertaining primer. The "story" of Alex Stapleton and his marketing company compose most of the book. Frustrated, Alex decides to sell the company, and while discussing his lot with mentor Ted, he discovers (as many entrepreneurs do) that he has nothing to sell. To paraphrase Michael Gerber, THE E-MYTH REVISITED, Alex really has a job with a lunatic for a boss.Through Ted's tips and coaching Alex eventually builds a business he can sell. The lessons Alex learns apply to anyone who owns a business.Specialize, don't generalizeCreate a scalable product or service that is teachable, valuable and repeatableDon't concentrate more than 15% with one customerThe business can't rely on you, the ownerThere are 35 wonderful pages that follow the fable, the Implementation Guide and Ted's Tips, highlighted and standing alone.Since reading Warrilow's book...in one day...I have recommended or purchased it for a number of my customers and business colleagues.

This book is simply outstanding! If you own a business, no matter what size, this book is an excellent read. Truly eye opening to me!!It is super important to think strategically and start planning early for your exit. If your exit strategy is to liquidate assets and close up shop, then you don’t really need to read this book. However, if you want to sell your business and not just close your doors, then you’ve got to craft a plan and start early!!Some key take always:If you intend to put your business up for sale or position it to be acquired someday, you CAN NOT be the sole reason for the success of your business! If the success or failure is strictly dependent upon you and/or your partner working with your customers, then your sales multiple will be strongly discounted and you will earn a lot less at closing than is possible!! You need a strong management and sales team in place and you need a system for getting things done that is NOT reliant on YOU personally. You need to develop a specialty - being a jack of all trades, but master of none is NOT a recipe for success!You really need to read this book! It's an easy read...very engaging and easy to understand. Written in a very conversational tone and just makes SENSE!

An excellent business book that’s both fun to read and full of valuable insights. Whereas other business books are laden with jargon and often unattainable examples, “Built to Sell” is a practical and relatable read on how to grow (and sell) a successful service business. Part of what makes it so accessible is that the story is told in a narrative format, making it easy to follow and apply.The fictional story follows Alex, who runs a marketing design firm that he decides he wants to sell. Alex seeks advice from his friend Ted, a serial entrepreneur with a few successful exits under his belt. Through their weekly conversations, Ted asks pointed questions to understand Alex’s business and his motivations to sell. Each chapter is then built around what’s happening in the business (ex: a lucrative client that soaks up all of Alex and his team’s capacity), Ted’s advice on how to solve the problem, and then Alex implementing said advice and making progress on turning around his business and transforming it into something much more valuable.There are numerous lessons that Ted uses to lead Alex to a successful sale. All are valuable, but all are tethered to creating a standard offering and process that’s easy to control, price, and sell. In Alex’s case, it’s a 5-step logo design process that he offers and delivers to clients. It helps Alex to specialize his business which makes it easier to standardize his sales process, which leads to more recurring revenue, and align his company’s resources (e.g., staffing, internal operating model). It’s a effectively a system for turning services into products.

I have gone through M&A experiences of my own without any planning and it became a disaster for relationship between me and the buyer. Even though I have made a very good deal but it's still feel that I did not really fulfill my part of commitment for them. If I can turn back time I would change many things on thr agreement. I had a retroactive wishlist that I would change. When I have read this book, I think the checklist become even longer and clearer.I hope that I had found this book way before we have made the deal.However, looking forward towards the future, this book would helped me set the course for my next venture, wish is to have entrapreneurs build their company in a professional way with the benefit of both buyers and sellers.Thanks John Warrilow for this contribution to public.

Using a fictional story to teach such an important (and widely misunderstood) concept was pure genius for one main reason......It made the content easy to remember.I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read, learned from and enjoyed only to completely forget a few days after I finished.And speaking of finished. I often do t even finish a lot of the books I buy. This book was different. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time - a business book!All in all a great read for anyone wishing to understand how to build (or transform) a business that can be sold for a hefty sum.

This is a great little book that helps you to think about how a potential buyer might value your business and provides tips on how to position your business to sell.It uses a fictional story of a design agency owner named Alex who is struggling with various issues and trying to grow his agency. He is mentored by Ted (the voice of wisdom) into changes he needs to make to improve his agency; specialising in one service, having detailed and easy to follow processes for staff to follow, generate recurring revenue, have a business that runs without your daily input etc.Whilst reading this book I couldn't help but think of 'The E-Myth' book by Michael Gerber (another great book) and this book is like a fictional story of how a business owner who has read 'The E-Myth' might run an agency.Having worked in design/marketing agencies for over 12 years my only gripe with this book is the author chose logo design as the specialism of choice for 'Alex' as it doesn't work with some of the excellent advice given in the book and this slightly lets the book down. Although I suspect the author is experienced at selling businesses I'm not sure if he's worked in a design agency.- The book advises specialising in a service that generates recurring revenue (excellent advice) but how often does a client need a new logo? If the author had picked a marketing service that would create monthly recurring revenue this would have been a better choice (i.e. SEO, Facebook Ads, website maintenance plans etc).- The book advises turning your services into products and putting your prices on your marketing collateral. You wouldn't do this for a 10k logo design service otherwise you’d scare potential clients away. I'm not disputing some companies will pay 10k for a logo, but this would need to be a bespoke service that would be tailored to that particular client and would be hard to ‘productise' for many clients. If you were selling logo designs for £100 a pop, then yes, the author's advice would work fine.Don't let the logo design issue put you off as the general principles are sound, I just felt the service example could have been better thought out. It's still an easy to read page turner that delivers on the promise of the title and I highly recommend it.

This book was written as a novel so the learning sneaks in under the radar. It is essentially The E-Myth (Revisited) but in a more accessible format. I read it over two days and enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this as essential reading for anyone before they launch a new business. Set it up in line with these principles and you won't have to deconstruct and change the structure later.

Really enjoyed reading this whilst travelling recently. It's written as a story about an enterpreneur who starts a business and goes through the motions of growing it, to the point where he decides to sell his business. The book goes through the processes he has to go through in order to make his business 'sellable'. It's very easy to read and almost every entrepreneur will be able to relate to the main character.The book gives a lot of great tips and insight into growing/selling a business. Even if I never end up selling my business, the book gave me lots of very good tips on managing staff, clients and growth of a business.John's writing is easy to read. I took away a lot of value from this book, far far more than I paid for it!

One of those books that can completely change your mindset. Thank you!A friend recommended to me and I would highly recommend in return

Essential reading if you run a business that you might want to sell one day. I've run businesses and sold them and have read over a hundred books on entrepreneurship. This is one of the very best.