Leadership In Law Podcast

S03E113 How BizRetire.com Community Connects Advisors, Buyers, & Sellers with Evan Poling

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 3 • Episode 113

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Most owners think profit equals sellable, but buyers see something else: key man risk, overworked operators, and books a lender won’t touch. We sit down with Evan Poling, founder of BizRetire.com and former financial crimes investigator, to unpack why so many small businesses never sell and how to flip the script by building true transferable value. Evan’s reviewed hundreds of company financials, and his take is blunt and useful: if your numbers aren’t clean and your operations depend on you, you’re not selling a business, you’re selling your job.

We dig into the mistakes that quietly kill deals, from aggressive addbacks and mismatched tax returns to handshake supplier terms that vanish post-closing. Evan explains two paths to credible financials, retroactive cleanup with an owner-focused accountant or a “day zero” reset, and why three years of consistent, lender-ready books change everything. For law firm owners, we talk brand strategy beyond surnames, SOPs that codify expertise, and cross-trained teams that de-risk delivery. The legal angle runs through every phase: pre-sale contracts that lock in relationships, diligence that protects trade secrets, and post-sale enforcement of non-competes and earn-outs without choking a fair deal.

We also pressure-test the role of brokers versus curated marketplaces. Evan’s model charges buyers for access, filtering tire-kickers and creating space for real conversations between principals. That trust accelerates problem solving, cleaning up books, formalizing contracts, and aligning on legacy, so both sides can move with confidence. If you want to stop trading time for money and start building an asset someone else can run and finance, this conversation gives you the roadmap, the pitfalls to avoid, and the legal to-dos that keep value intact.

Reach Evan here:
BizRetire.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanpoling/


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SPEAKER_00:

The Leadership and Law Podcast to start off with you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to another episode of a Leadership in Law Podcast. I'm your host, Marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, Evan Pauling, to the show today. Evan, the founder of BizRetire.com, has a background in financial crimes investigation and has reviewed the financials of hundreds of businesses. Having learned that 80% of businesses never sell, Evan is seeking to disrupt a 250-year-old industry. Evan founded BizRetire.com in 2023 to help small businesses connect to business buyers and both to advisors. I'm excited to have you here, Evan. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Marilyn. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about your journey to bizretire.com.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, like most journeys, we we want it to be like you're running on a track and it's nice and straight to the goal. But like most journeys, there's some hills and valleys and mountains and all that and in between. And so, yeah, so you know, really quick, you know, I started out very young, watching my father build businesses, finding some short-term success in some of those, but not really seeing long-term success in those businesses. And so grew up around a business owner who was trying to make it work, and you know, he was just doing like everyone else. You you buy something, you sell it, you have a product or service. And yeah, so that was a real great learning experience. You know, in college, I got a degree in accounting, financial economics, ended up in the financial crime investigation world, like I had mentioned to you, like you had mentioned in the intro. And so that was a really cool opportunity for me to actually get into the nitty-gritty of the financials of businesses. You know, I'm looking at people's personal accounts, I'm looking on their business accounts, I'm seeing how they're spending money. I'm learning about industries and trying to reconcile is this activity, actual activity that needs to happen in this industry, or is this some criminal activity going on here? And so really studying those things. That's a little bit about my business background. You know, started watching a lot of you know videos on how to buy and sell businesses and got really interested in Tree. As far as my leadership journey goes, specifically, I mean I have opportunities to lead as like a martial arts instructor within the military, you know, and just leading youth groups in my in my church and things like that. And so a lot of opportunities to get get to know people and to lead in those capacities as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Fantastic. So yeah, the military certainly sets you up from leadership, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02:

So when you're talking about 80% of businesses go unsold, that's that's end because you build this thing, this is your baby, and you're working in it, and then what happens? It just closes or successful branding? What do you what types of things have you experienced?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so yeah, that's there's a statistic I heard someone say this and it was really profound, that a hundred percent of business owners will exit their business. And you know, I don't know about you, but when someone says a hundred percent or it always happens, I'm kind of leery, right? Like that doesn't but you know, you either die, you you get sick, you get divorced, you have a disagreement, or you can't pay the bills, right? And so your businesses close the door and you exit that business one way or another. Like you will always do that. And it's actually more prevalent in taxes. Less people actually pay their taxes than exit their business, but few people actually plan for it. And to the statistic that 80% of businesses never sell, I mean, that statistic is real. And these are profitable businesses, these are businesses that have been in business for decades, so these are solid businesses. The problem is that 90% of businesses are under a million dollars in revenue. And so most of these businesses are really small businesses. Um, you know, so these IBITA numbers, you know, the final profit margins are, you know, half a million dollars and under in some cases. And so what ends up happening is you have a small business with a small business owner, and that business owner is kind of the jack of all trades. They know everything that goes on in that business, they know how to run it, and they're so hard, they're so stuck working in the business that they have they don't know the tools required to actually make that business a standalone entity. And so way I like to look at it is they don't have a business, they have a job. And so when is that happening? A business buyer looks at the business and maybe, you know, maybe the business owner making a quarter of a million dollars a year or$400,000 a year, which is really good money, right? But the problem is that a business buyer is looking at this business owner, they're working 80 hours a week. And so if the buyer wants the business to run and operate on itself, you know, 80 hours a week for a business owner like that is like 10 full-time employees, right? As far as hiring them and managing them and getting all these little little things going. And so by the time you factor in what you who you have to hire and how you're gonna operate and run that business, the problem is is it's no longer profitable because that business really stood up with that the expertise of that one or two, we call it key man risk, someone operating and running that business. And so then the buyer is now faced with the choice, can I can be that operator? But again, that that business buyer is not gonna have 40 years of experience like that business owner. And so what that business buyer is essentially saying is now I'm gonna take out a 400, you know, so if it's making$400,000 profit, maybe it's worth$800,000. I'm gonna make I'm gonna take out an$800,000 loan to now go work an 80 an hour, 80-hour a week job at which I won't make the same amount of money as this owner. I'm gonna put my house up as collateral. And so in most cases, it just really comes out to where that it is not worth it, right? And so it's a good business, it's sitting on the market and then no one really wants to buy it.

SPEAKER_02:

I see. Yeah, that's the whole thing about trying to remove yourself from the business so that you have an entity to sell.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And and that is that one of the biggest misconceptions that business owners have is how to position to think about starting to sell their business.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, absolutely. Because I mean, you gotta think about it, everything's all perspective. If you're if you're an owner and you're working within your business, you're you're seeing the money that you're making. You're you're you see the lifestyle that you have, you see, like as an owner, you know how to do the things and you do them efficiently. And so it's not a big deal for you. It's like, yeah, you just go work, make 400k, no big deal, right? You know, this is how you do it, and you know, but it's taking that person 40 years to get to that point. And and so their perspective is like, I have a profitable business, it makes a lot of money. You know, we we've been around for 40 years, everyone knows who we are. Like, I don't a lot of them like I don't advertise, and so everyone knows us. And so the the problem is is in their minds, like, I got I got an asset here, I got something, I got something that produces money, but they don't realize that they're the asset. And you know, that's the reason why people invest in the stock market because you literally just take money, you throw it in the stock market, and you get a return. There's no money, there's no effort involved in that transaction. The problem with a business is that it's not like that. There's a lot of work involved. And so, and and you know, tying it back to lawyers, a lot of lawyers are like this too. And and you know, like the the thing for lawyers is they work their time and they get money in return. If they're an expert, they charge more money for their time. But here's the thing, what happens if a lawyer gets cancer? What happens if you know something happens to a lawyer? They can't produce money. So at the end of the day, even firms with partnerships, I mean, you you can have some leeway there because you have a you can have an entity built out, but even then you have people that are trading time for money. There's really no enterprise value if the people are not within that enterprise. And so, you know, I I think lawyers are in a very similar situation, right, with with what they're what they're doing. You know, business owners working, getting you know, time in and then money out. Lawyers are working time in, money out, and it's the same thing, you know, at the end of the day, what is the angle? How are you creating something that will work without you and be a standalone entity?

SPEAKER_02:

And are you thinking instead of say the names on the wall, having a law of group and make and building the brand of the law group instead of the brand of the actual attorney?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think so, right? I mean, you know, what what so there there is obviously the the the brand element, you know, the I mean, because the name on on the on the wall is just kind of like a logo, if you think about it that way. It's just an image, even though it's a name, it represents something. The what it represents is the brand. And if those names represent people, when those people leave, that law firm is not that anymore. And so the question becomes is like how do you build something out? I think I saw an interview with a lawyer, gosh, I forget his name. He's like a billionaire, but he does a lot of the accidents, but the well, actually, I think it's in his name too, but he's got a bunch of sons running it, and so it's not necessarily just him, and so there is some life beyond him because he has more lawyers with that same name. But yeah, law firms are so representative of a people that you know, if I I don't know, can a I don't I mean you're the expert here, can a lawyer, uh law firm actually have a name or a brand that doesn't incorporate the name of the people? Because I think the people within the organization want to have their name on that. That's kind of like the golden standard. And so, like, how do you like, hey, we're taking that away, but you should still strive and earn and work your way and work hard your way up the ladder to you know build this thing? I don't know. It's a good question.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I've spoken to a few attorneys that choose to make a firm that has a name, not their name. So then it's also positioned to bring in partners or grow and be more than necessarily a lifestyle business. But then here's some of the larger ones with one or two names on the building, and they have dozens of attorneys. So it's a little interesting. But let's jump forward to talking about there's 80% of businesses that never sell. How can we position a small business to be able to sell? What are the top challenges that derail a sale whenever someone comes in and says, Hey, I like your small business and um I'd like to buy that. Are you willing to sell? What are the things that kind of pop up?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the biggest thing is is data that's accurate, right? Because a lot of times the owners say, Yeah, this thing is profitable, it it runs well. And a lot of times the owners kind of have the feeling of it. They kind of know intuitively that it's a good business, but the buyer doesn't care about how you feel. They don't care about like, you know, oh yeah, it's been great for you. What they care about is is there numbers in the books that actually really support the claims that are being made? You know, is because it's like like buying a car, right? You go in the parking lot and it's like, hey, I got a great car for you, but I I can't tell you how many tires is on it, I don't know how many miles is on it, you know. I don't know if the windows are tinted or not, I don't know what year it is, but I I promise you it's a great car, it runs well, but you know, I don't know any of the data. You'd be like, well, I don't want to buy that car, I want to know, tell me the statistics of the car. Like I want to break down and and understand what it is that I'm buying. And I think the books is huge. And then you have owners too, because what happens is they'll use the business to take as many tax breaks as possible. You know, it's legal tax breaks, or sometimes they kind of stretched out a little bit, and then their tax returns are not reflecting the books. And so they're taking these shortcuts, and there's a lot of like, well, yeah, it's because I, you know, deducted my lake house as a business expense, and you know, I deducted my truck as a business suspense, I don't use it 10% for the business, and you know, they're trying to add back all these things or deduct them, you know, from the this the value, and it just gets kind of messy, and it's like, well, if you're willing to cheat the government who could throw you in a jail, how much more are you lying about on to me as the buyer, right? Like, so that that's that's huge. Book is books are by far the number one thing that will derail a business sale. And I may talk about more, I don't want to jump too much.

SPEAKER_02:

No, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Is so in your forensic crime figuring out the crime investigation, are you gonna answer ask this question? It's obvious it's really important to have your books ready for a serious buyer. How do you get them started in that? So you've got a small business owner that's done exactly what you said, and he's played the game and done all of that, but now he's ready to exit. How do you fix that, or how do you make the book some of the buyer would actually be interested in or looking at?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, there's really no easy answer. I I first thing a stock to an accountant, a count. There's there's two type of accountants. There's ones that think that the government is owed everything and they want to try to extract as much money, and there's accountants that work for business owners. Find really good accountants that work with business owners that really know what they do, probably industry specific to what you're doing, so they they can be an expert in what what they what they do, the work they do for you. But so you can you can you can go back and redefine the books and make them better, so you can do like a retroactive kind of audit review and like resubmit tax forms and things like that. Maybe the owner ends up paying more taxes because they you know it's kind of kind of scary, but yeah, you go back and pay some taxes to get everything straightened out, if possible. That may not even be a reality, I'm not sure. The second is is you start at day zero, and so if if your buyer needs three years of clean books, you gotta run your business for three more years and doing it right the right way. So those are really the the only two options, and both kind of suck.

SPEAKER_02:

That's true. Having to redo your taxes is a pain. So if I'm thinking about selling my business, how far in advance should I be preparing?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, they say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time is tomorrow. So I would say either one of those two options. Do it plan 20, start planning 20 years ago, or start planning today. I it sounds simple, but it really comes down because I mean like anything in life, the more that you prepare for it, the more that you work towards it, the better it's gonna be when you reach the result.

SPEAKER_02:

And I've recently been talking with tax planning CPA that has a completely different process than saying your CPA that files your taxes. And it's it was really interesting that the ones that are strategic planners know these different tax planning rules that will save you taxes that do not impact an asset to be sold because it's all within the law, it's not gray here yet. So you that's not gonna be a red flag to a buyer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I mean there's there's uh stretching the tax code, and then there's like using the tax code legally and properly for the right things. Yeah, so definitely want to do it by the by the book as much as possible. Doesn't mean you gotta pay Uncle Sam the most money possible, but yeah, definitely talk to an expert.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. And how do you find when it comes to connecting buyers with sellers and the advisors doing that, how do you find that emotions and personal attachment play into the whole getting in the way of a successful exit?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's it's it's huge. It's really huge. There's a lot that go in that goes into that. I mean, the the seller has one thing in mind. They have an identity in the business, how they feel, how the business is, you know, they've had this, they've been in control of everything their whole entire life. They've they've told people what to do, how to do it, they they've made decisions. And then when a buyer that knows next to nothing in comparison to the wisdom and knowledge of this person that's worked for 40 years tells them that their business isn't valuable, I mean most people are gonna not take that well. Like, hey, it's because but the problem is again, buyers are looking at numbers, they're looking at can I finance this deal? Am I not gonna lose everything that I own? Can I actually hire or learn this 80-hour work week? Can I, you know, is are the suppliers gonna like me? You know, there's a lot of like handshake deals that go on between owners and suppliers and customers and things like this. And when they're not the face of the business anymore, are the people gonna leave? You know, and so the there's a lot of fears from the buyer side, right? Because they they're not gonna perform at the same level as the business owner. But the business owners actually look at it from where they're performing at and what they've been and what they're doing. And so there's definitely a mismatch of intentions. And then if you throw in a third party like a business broker, it just gets even worse. And I mean that's one of the reasons why I created Biz Retire, but you know, business broker filters through the buyers and they're trying to find the buyer that maximizes their commission. And so the business broker is aligned with the seller, trying to get the most money. But the problem is the business broker is not always aligned with finding the best buyer. And so, like, for example, if you build a business for 40 years and you find a buyer, let's say a private equity firm, and they don't care about Susie, who's worked in the business for 30 years, and they buy the business and they fire all the employees and you know, roll it up into a larger company. Well, kind of the legacy of that person, that business owner, they you know, who cares, right? Like, you know, so that owner built something, they're you know, paying these com you uh salaries to people in the community, you know, have had a good name in the community, and next thing you know, they're they're they're the enemy. No one in the community likes them anymore. The community that they lived and worked in for 40 years, because now they betrayed the community by selling it to this big, big person. And so, you know, and again, the business broker is not completely aligned with the owner or the buyer, right? And so then, or if you have the business broker doing all the work, which I mean, if you're an owner working 80 hours a week, you can't talk to you know a thousand buyers or a hundred buyers. And so then a lot of times the sellers only kind of met them in passing, or maybe never met them at all, and they meet them at the closing table and like, well, that buyer's a jerk. I'm not giving my business to that a hole. You know, I don't, I don't, I don't like that. And so there's a lot of like personalities, there's a lot of different ideas on what this looks like. There's lots of different levels of experience, and so it's definitely a messy situation.

SPEAKER_02:

That's amazing. And so I agree with the business broker thing. So when you're thinking about the MA and merging acquisition selling, what are some of the common mistakes that these owners make when they choose advisors and brokers and has firms to work with?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm I'm of the opinion that smaller business owners, for the most part, don't need that. So I typically think like brokers probably anywhere from like zero to five million-ish, maybe more or less, give or take, a couple of million. And then you have your MAs that probably take to certain margin, and then you have like the really big deals, the multi, you know, hundred million plus deals that are like broker, gosh, what is it called? Think brokers or whatever they're called. I can't think of the right word. And so MA specifically, you know, I don't deal with a lot of businesses in that space, but for brokers, one of the reasons I created business retirees, I don't I don't think it's fair that a business owner pays anywhere from five to twenty percent of forty years worth of work to have someone sell their business. Especially for some of these small businesses where it's just like a few employees. I think that they should hire a business broker, maybe$200 an hour or an attorney, and it's kind of getting back to the attorneys, where the attorney will advise them through the sale process. And so maybe the owner ends up paying, you know,$2,000 or$5,000, you know, to get their business sold, versus, you know, hey, here's a 10% commission check on a million dollars, here's a hundred grand. Because the brokers are really just listing that on a platform, they are fielding through buyers. I mean, there is a little bit of work in there, but that's 50 to 70% of their work, which our platform really pretty much does automatically for free. And so I'm just not a big fan of brokers. There's a lot of brokers that are great and they'll stay in business and they'll always be great at what they do. But there's there's a lot of business brokers that are not great at what they do.

unknown:

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that can be a good idea. I didn't mean to say your own business broker.

SPEAKER_02:

No, Sam, let's get back to how, and like you mentioned, how attorney you can bring an attorney and obviously hiring your own attorney instead of a business worker is going to be extremely more cost-effective. Plus, they're on your side. You don't have to question motives or any of that kind of thing. How do you work it out? So it's like an add-along service. If an attorney has a client that's already a business owner and moving into that, helping them sell the business.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think I think what you're kind of getting at, and correct me wrong, is like what opportunities do attorneys have in this? Is that yeah? So I think there's three tranches. There's the pre-sale, there's during the sale, and there's post-sale law work, right? Pre-sale, I'll just really quick, I'll I'll touch on some points. I think pre-sale, one of the things I mean, I was talking about before was the the the relationships. And so a lot of times they're handshake deals, there's an agreement. And so having legal documents in place that solidify the supplier relationships, the the provide, like where they're providing a service, the you know, the the rental agreement, maybe that was written, you know, or the contracts for employees, right? So any kind of like contractual thing that solidifies the business and makes it more locked in. So when the buyer comes in and says, Yeah, well, when so-and-so leaves, I'm still gonna have that same rate for my supplies. Like Mr. Supplier isn't gonna jack up the prices because he knew Bob, but he doesn't like me because I'm a millennial, right? And so now he's gonna jack it up 10%. And so anywhere where, and like I said, the contractual piece lock in, and that's one aspect, one thing to think about. During the sale, it could be, you know, there's letter, there's IOIs, letter of intents, things like this where the attorney can help evaluate is this a good offer from the buyer? And then also there's due diligence. And so, what are the legalities of due diligence? What are the confidentiality agreements with you know going through the books and learning trade secrets, and then you know, closing the deal? How do you transfer assets to make sure that it's and the buyer's name? And the, you know, there's there's horror stories where you know credit cards are left in the old business owner's name and now they're legally responsible for the you know, the the new business owners are running them up for business expenses. And then, you know, now the credit card suing company suing the the prior business owner because it wasn't properly transferred the you know the accounts, maybe it's an account, a line of credit with a supplier or you know that kind of thing. And so making sure that the transfer of assets is complete, and that's where the attorney comes in in the sale portion. And then post-sale, a lot of times you have like non-compete agreements. So, how do you enforce legal contracts where the owner sells you a business and they they open up a shop right down the road and start stealing all their old customers? Like, how how do you fight through some of that? Maybe there was an agreement where the business buyer would take it in and then they would pay based upon the profits, and there was like a percentage, you know, margin that comes out, and maybe they're not paying that anymore, or maybe the business is going down and the buyer can't pay it, and they need a lawyer to represent them against the the seller, right? And so there's a lot of legal things that happen with the transfer, these transfer assets that are really important. And so, I mean, that's just that's just tip of the iceberg. There's there's so much legal work that can be done.

SPEAKER_02:

But I think we've all heard some of those horror stories where you with some asset, whether it be the actual lease of the building or trucks or something like that, for some reason we've never changed over the name and the old owner still owns that. And it's yeah, so hiring your own attorney is definitely and the reviewing the legal risk, and especially you're bringing someone in, if it's your hometown where you've been for 40 years, you want to make sure that it's a smooth transfer. Your attorney can help you do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Now, attorneys can also botch a deal too. So, you know, buyer comes in and attorney writes his covenant with all these restrictions and makes it like locks it in for the owner, which is what you know they're they're being paid to do. And the buyer's like, that's too restrictive. I'm just not interested in the sale. And so there is a balance. And so having an attorney that has kind of this experience or understanding that, you know, you could really like, you know, he's hiring you. Owners not only hiring you to protect their legal risk, but to make sure that it's a smooth transition. And so, you know, the goal is not to be a pit bull, but to, you know, protect where you can. And so there is there is a balance, and it and it does take the right attorney to to have that foreknowledge to know how to do that and do it well.

SPEAKER_02:

And how does BizRetire fit into that as if I'm an if I'm a business owner? And what types of things can you help me with?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so we're we're an online marketplace. The bit the big goal is connection. That that's the that's the end goal. I connect owners directly to buyers without commissions, and so that's kind of not unique. There's a lot of other platforms that do that. Um kind of the the uniqueness of my platform is that our buyers actually pay money to have that direct conversation with owners. And what that really does is these are buyers that are really serious about buying a business. There is kind of this movement in culture right now. There's a lot of social media marketers and on YouTube and everything talking about buying a business with no money down, and you know, the context of like the one-man business owner, like it makes sense why like you can't sell your business, so you have to do like a no money down seller financing deal where the the seller is kind of the bank to the buyer, and it may make sense, right? And so there are there are a lot of risk with that. But so there's so what all that to say is there's a lot of buyers that think that they can buy a business with no money down, and so they're kind of window shopping. And so what the what is happening is they talk to an 80-hour work week owner, and hey, let me see your books, let me see this. They have no financing in order, they have no intent to buy, they have no experience in the industry, they really end up wasting the time of the owner, and it really kind of becomes a bad process. And so that's one of the risks of selling on a on a marketplace, right, where there's free members, and so we charge the members, and so one of those members will like, I'm never, I'm never gonna pay, I can do it for free over here. It's like, all right, you well, you go over there and do it for free. And but then we're trying to get owners that are not anywhere else, they're not with a broker, they're not on another platform. And so for the buyers, it makes sense because the other platform has 250,000 free buyers, and so you're you're competing at 250,000 other people that are also wasting the time of those owners. Those tired those owners are exhausted, they're tired of the the sales process, they're they're bitter, and so it's hard to buy a business under those conditions. And so the buyers win, the owners win because they know that the the sellers are serious, and so we kind of do that connection in a way that a broker would, but we give the owner full power to get to know the buyer if they're a good fit for the marketplace, the community, you know, the skill set for the business. And so then there's a relationship that's built. And that that that that relationship allows them to get through some of the hurdles, like the hey, your broke's not an order, let's work with you, or hey, you know, I don't know, you don't have contracts in place, let's work with you, get in those contracts. Because now all these two people like each other, they want to facilitate, they want to work together for the mutual benefit of each other. They're creating a microcommunity, which I think allows for more sales of the business. We don't facilitate, you know. I don't choose the buyer, I don't talk to the the owner, I don't do anything. So I you have two adults that are are intelligent, and I say, hey, look, if you guys need some experts, you guys need a lawyer, you guys need uh, you know, a CEPA certified exit planning advisor, you guys need a financial planner, you guys probably should get all these things, but if you don't, fine. But if you do need them, I can connect you with people that will help you. And so that's kind of the goal because I I don't think business owners should pay to sell their business. You know, oh, I agree.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that. You so you've created a community of like-minded individuals. I have something valuable, you want to buy something valuable, and if we need advisors, you've got that as well. So attorney can sign up on your platform to be that advisor or CPAs or that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they can reach out to me. What I like to do is I like to get some references, I like to understand what kind of clients they want to work with, where their expertise lie, and that way I can actually, like if I'm talking to an owner, like, oh well, so and so would be great for you. It's another piece of monetization for me because the way I look at it is you know, I know exactly what it is that you do, and I'm actually bringing you a client that specifically needs your services, and you're a perfect fit for. So I'm kind of like the marketer, I'm marketing to this broad spectrum of potential clients, I'm finding them, I'm vetting them for you, and then I'm sending them to you to kind of close. And so, you know, that I do disclose that, you know, I I I they pay me, but yeah. So, but they're getting qualified candidates that fits their market niche. And so everyone kind of kind of wins, and and that's kind of the way I monetize in one way because you know, I'm not getting an eight percent commission to facilitate to sell a business. You know, on a million dollar business, that's eighty grand, right? Right. So that's a lot of money. And so I'm asking for like a small hundred, couple hundred dollar fee for those referrals, or you know, we can do a closed contract, you know, percentage of that or whatever. Um so I'm getting I'm still getting a fraction of that, but at the end of the day, I'm putting more money back in the pocket of business owners, which I think is is is really the mission.

SPEAKER_02:

So I love that. Just that you created a place where everybody can connect and everybody wins. That's an amazing place to have built. And because you're right, nobody wants to have a hundred people calling me buy my business that have no money. Right. And just want to take it over and run it in the ground. That's crazy. Well, it sells like Biz Retire is certainly something that the attorneys, the service providers that listen to the show should check out to see if they can be an advisor for you if that or if they're looking to sell the business to definitely check out visretire.com. That's fantastic.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

This is this has been a really interesting conversation. And I I think you've shared a lot of great tips and information about that. And I know my listeners are probably going to reach out to you or connect with you someplace. Where would be the best place to connect to you learn more about?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm I'm most active on LinkedIn. I have an X account under the business name. I have a Facebook account under the business name. Those things I check a little less often. Like I said, most active on LinkedIn. But yeah, if you reach out to me any of those platforms, social media platforms, yeah, I'll check those inboxes and have a conversation. I'm pretty open to jump on a call and meet people. And again, I my business is about connecting. So like I love I love me meeting people and talking with each with everyone.

SPEAKER_02:

So that's fantastic. We'll make sure that your LinkedIn is as well as the website is included in the show notes. And uh Yeah, thank you so much for being here. This has been a great conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for joining me today for this episode. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. And if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to Lawmarketingzone.com to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law Podcast, and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. Remember, you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at LawMarketingZone.com. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources, and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us to review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

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Marilyn Jenkins

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