Dr. Nolan Duck - Are You Ready To Sell Your Business? (#134)

This week on the Maximize Business Value Podcast, Tom speaks with fellow CEPA and author, Dr. Nolan Duck, about all-things exit planning! Be sure to check out Dr. Nolan's fantastic CEPA book, too! You can find it here:  https://amzn.to/3DpoYSe

Dr. L. Nolan Duck is the founder and CEO of DBG Advisors. Nolan is passionate about working with business owners to get their company organizationally healthy and financially profitable as they move toward an exit. Whether they plan to sell now or ten years from now, his goal is to build the Full Value of their company, so they are ready to sell if someone comes calling. He uses his experience of selling companies to guide business owners through the exit planning process and the sale of their company.

Tom Bronson is the founder and President of Mastery Partners, a company that helps business owners maximize business value, design exit strategy, and transition their business on their terms. Mastery utilizes proven techniques and strategies that dramatically improve business value that was developed during Tom’s career 100 business transactions as either a business buyer or seller. As a business owner himself, he has been in your situation a hundred times, and he knows what it takes to craft the right strategy. Bronson is passionate about helping business owners and has the experience to do it. Want to chat more or think Tom can help you?  Reach out at tom@masterypartners.com or check out his book, Maximize Business Value, Begin with The Exit in Mind (2020).

Mastery Partners, where our mission is to equip business owners to Maximize Business Value so they can transition their business on their terms.  Our mission was born from the lessons we’ve learned from over 100 business transactions, which fuels our desire to share our experiences and wisdom so you can succeed.

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Tom Bronson is a serial entrepreneur and business owner. He is currently the founder and President of Mastery Partners, Mastery Mergers & Acquisitions, and the Business Transition Summit. All three companies empower business owners to maximize business value and serve business owners in different capacities to help them achieve their dream exit. As a business owner, Tom has been in your situation a hundred times and knows what it takes to craft the right strategy. Bronson is passionate about helping business owners and has the experience to do it. Tom has two books to help business owners on their journey to a dream exit: "Maximize Business Value Playbook," (2023), and "Maximize Business Value, Begin with the EXIT in Mind," (2020). Both are available on Amazon.
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Transcript

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Welcome To the Maximized Business Value Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Mastery Partners, where our mission is to equip business owners to maximize business value so they can transition their business on their terms. Our mission is born from the lessons we've learned from over 100 business transactions, which fuels our desire to share our experiences and wisdom so you can succeed. Now, here's your host, CEO Mastery Partners, Tom Bro. Hi, this is Tom Bronson, and welcome to Maximize Business Value, a podcast for business owners who are passionate about building long-term sustainable value in their business. This episode is part of our series on books written by certified Exit Planning advisors or CPAs. Now, I got my CPA in certification in 2019. Earlier this year, I was invited to participate in the exit planning conference, author showcase that they had in Scottsdale, Arizona, where I picked up some great books. Now, while our guest today did not participate in that Author Showcase, he sure could have. He is a SEPA and an author, so I invited him to participate. Anyway, he's also a great friend. So in this episode, I'd like to welcome our guest, Dr. Nolan Duck, founder and principal of DBG Advisors, an m and a advisory firm based here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Our paths crossed at an event hosted by business navigators, that servant leadership organization that you hear me talk about frequently, and we've gotten to really know one another over the past couple of years. Nolan is the former president of the Texas Association of Business Brokers. He's a licensed real estate broker and author of, Are You Ready to Sell Your Business? 10 Critical Issues Every Business Owner must Address to get their business on the right path for a Lucrative Exit, and one of my very few business broker friends that I keep in my Rolodex. Awesome. So welcome to Maximize Business Value Nolan. Thank you so much, Tom. I appreciate it and glad to be with you. Look forward to this conversation. I look forward to sharing your wisdom with our audience. So tell us a little bit about your background and why you became a certified exit planning advisor. Well, Tom, I have a pretty unusual background because I have spent decades in ministry. I was a pastor. I went to the University of Arkansas and have my finance degree from, from that school. But then I, I went to seminary and earned several degrees there, one of which is my doctorate. And, and I, later in life, I was in my fifties when I, I felt like taking another path. I had read a book that is, is called 40 Days. Well, we had a 40 Days of Purpose project in our church, and I read the book, Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. And in that book, he talks about being, you know, why people are happy in their lives. And I had to have to admit I wasn't all that happy. I was, had been a pastor for over 20 years at that time, and I felt like I was in the wrong spot. So I left full-time ministry and went into something called Intentional Interim Ministry, which is going into churches that have had either a long term term pastor or a pastor who has had a problem and, and the church needs to regroup. And I, I do turnaround work for churches. And I began to do that, but I didn't make that much money doing that. So I began to wonder, Well, Lord, what do you want me to do otherwise? And since I have a finance degree and I thought, Well, maybe I should go into real estate, I went to training in to get my real estate license, and in the process I discovered business brokerage, had a friend invite me to work with him, and I just really enjoyed it. And so over the, over the years, I began to get trained and, and began to work in this area of selling companies. And that has been very rewarding, kind of a dual by vocational approach to, to ministry and business. And over the years, I've, I've been just blessed to be a part of working with business owners. I love people to begin with. I have, I'm a pastoral counselor, I'm a have a finest degree. I'm a a board certified broker, a real estate broker. And, and so all of this kind of fit together in a marvelous way. God works in mysterious ways, I guess, to he does to get us to where we, where we are. And through that process, I I, I found my, my niche of, of working with business owners, being m and a advisor. And in that process, I had a lot of different companies and, and business owners coming to me that were ill prepared. They, they didn't have an exit strategy. So I began to look at different methodologies I could use to help business owners who were struggling. They've come to me, they, they have a lot of issues that that really would prevent them from having a lucrative exit. So, so I, I began to, to move in the direction of providing that kind of guidance to, to business owners. You know, other brokers don't do this. They, they feel like it's a waste of time. I want to help business owners. And so that's what's motivating me, me, I, I want to help people accomplish what, what their true goals are. And one of those goals ultimately, especially for those that are baby boomers, is retirement and having, you know, their business as their greatest asset pro provide for that retirement is, is something that, that is near and dear to my heart anyway. And so I'm, I have been working with business owners to accomplish just that. I got my CPA to help me better fit in with other CPAs in my lane, so to speak. Or the thing that I do is mainly help business owners sell market and sell their companies. And, but I want to make sure that the business owners that I'm working with have a team of people around them so that they can actually have that very positive exit experience that I, I hear many people don't have. So that's kind of what motivated me to, to get involved and I wrote the book to, to help people have some steps that they could follow to be able to, to move in the direction of, of that exit. Wow. That is just a lot to unpack right there. So, I guess so, And, and I, now, I get a, I get a understanding of what it's like to be listening to one of your sermons. There's just lots to think about, right? So, Oh, no. Yeah. So Purpose Driven Life, great book. It, it made me make a note here. You know, I'm glad your church did that. Our church did the same thing. We, maybe we should collaborate and write a book 40 days to exit instead of 40 day, you know? There you go. We Can do it. Absolutely. I don't wanna mislead anybody to think that it can, you can really do that in 40 days. It takes a long time to get a business prepared, and your book is, is good now. So you sort of think of your business as a calling, as as this is part of your ministry, right? I do. I I believe that God has given me gifts and abilities that, that really fit well with, with what I'm, the service I'm providing to business owners. I mean, I could talk about the biblical background of, of why I came to hell, I came to that conclusion, but that might be a little bit much for, for to That's right. Maybe we'll save that for, for another podcast. But it is a great book and you've sort of given me a little bit about why you, why you've done that and, and the fact that people need a team that, that not all exit experiences are good. In fact, I met with a perspective client yesterday who's had two failed attempts right? To sell. Oh, no. And it's because they haven't taken the time to read a book like, Are you ready to sell your business? And again, the the subtitle, 10 Critical Issues Every Business Owner must Address to get their Business on the Right path for Lucrative Exit. It's, it's, it's 10 things that, that, in my opinion, Nolan, and don't take this the wrong way, there's nothing in here that's earth shattering. I'll bet that most of your clients that read this book, or business owners that read the book, go, Yep, I probably should have been doing that, Right? Yes. That it's, it's just common sense. And I, I use illustrations of, of real live people that I've worked with and, and issues that, that were either not addressed or ill addressed. And, and, and so as a result, it led to a problem. Now what we wanna do is remove problems. We wanna remove obstacles that would prevent a lucrative exit. So those are the things that many business owners are not thinking about. And I, I hate that because I, you know, it, they're walking through a minefield and, and what I'm trying to do is put little flags on where all the mines are so you can avoid those and, and move beyond it. Yep. I I, next week our guest is gonna be Zain Torrance, who wrote the book, 17 Reasons, Your, Or your, What is it? 17 Reasons Your Business Is Not Investment. Great. And so, so you boil it down to 10, he's got 17, but chances are there's, Well, in fact, I know because I've read both books, there's a lot of very similar things. And I'm guessing that, that these 10 things are the things that you're seeing most commonly in businesses that come to you that want to sell. Would that be a fair statement? That would be fair. Yeah. So, so of the 10 critical issues, why don't we examine a few of those? So by the way, just folks know who are regular listeners, if you're listening to this and not watching on YouTube, what you don't see if you're just listening, is that this book has a lot of sticky notes in it. And, you know, because I read a lot that, that if I find really good material, I market in a book like that in order to, to go back and, and refer to it again. And so I've got not only the sticky notes, I've got things circled and, and whatnot. It's a, it is a really good book. So let's attack one of those things. Let's explore a couple of those and then we'll take a break. What will it take to prepare for an eventual exit without disrupting the business? Well, one of the things is business owners don't really understand how long it takes to, to be prepared, to get prepared. And, and so, you know, they've been doing their work, they've been successful in their business, All is just great. They hopefully have a management team that, that they have worked with. They hopefully have some processes that are in place and documented, But what happens a lot of times they don't realize how much time that it takes to actually sell the company. Their focus is off of is, you know, because you're adding something to your normal business day. And, and if you're not prepared for that, you're in, you're in in a little bit of a a well, you're headed toward a shock. They, they begin to recognize that they have to do things to be able to sell the company, and there's a lot of work that's necessary. And so what happens is they, many times they take their eye off the ball. They, they, they stop doing what they normally do. And if their business is too dependent upon them then, and what, what takes place is their revenue begins to drop or, or the, you know, maybe they're not doing the things they had always done. And as a result, the clients are not as happy there. There's some distress that shows up not only for the, in the revenue, but also even in the employees. They, they begin to, what's going on? Why is the boss so, so busy? What's, what's, what's happening? And, and most of the time they don't really understand that there is a transaction on the horizon. And so when, when that happens, you know, if, if you're gonna prepare without disrupting, then you need to not be in a hurry. We need to set this process up so that we can do it in a reasonable amount of time and not feeling like, you know, the, your hair's on fire, you, you've gotta recognize that this is gonna take some time. And if you're gonna do it, you're gonna have to commit some well, resources and time to the preparation process process. And that time can be as many as two or three years could be longer. But if we do that, if we set things in motion in that way, then we come to a, well, we are preparing for a very lucrative exit where we don't have obstacles that we have to, you know, manage around. We, we are in, in a better position to sell the company at a higher price. I love that. You know, we, we, of course, you are on the side of the business that actually takes'em and, and then goes and, and sells the business. And where we sit is, of course, on the preparation side. And, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. Well, my, my goal is to, to introduce somebody to you possibly or someone like you, Right? And, and then be, be prepared so that when the time is right for the, for the marketing process to begin to go to market with the company, we have all of our ducks in a row, Sorry for the pun, but we have everything lined up so that we are moving in the right direction at the right time. Can you imagine all the ducks being little doctors as well? Yes, I do. Dr. Duck is a, is a, is a lot Yes. Deal with, Yes. It's so, but now you said, you know, working, it could take two or three years, you know? That's right. We always tell prospective clients that five years before your exit is the time to actually kinda ignite the process so that you've got plenty of time to do the things that you need to do to prepare the business. And then once it's time to shift over into the marketing and sale of the business, I mean, that can take as long as 18 months. Oh yeah. It's, you know, 12 to 18 months is typical. And so if you just do the math and you work backwards, you know, you got, you have an 18 month process at the end, two and a half, three and a half years to get ready. You know, our objective is to hand off clients to you that are fully ready to execute, to cut that time to market in half, because you don't have to do all the prep work. You know, they come with a, with all the data that they need. I mean, business owners don't think they, the gentleman I was talking with yesterday, you know, he just knows things intuitively about his business that you have to explain, right? Yeah. Oh, you see, so, Oh yeah, I know what's going on with that. Well, those are things that if you've been in your business for a long time, then, then how do you document that? How do you transition that knowledge? And, and you can't do that if you're in a hurry. I love that. Right. Don't, don't do it. Don't try to do it in a hurry. Right. And, you know, when I, I'm, I am not trying to push my, my clients to do something quickly. I'm not sitting there patting my foot. What I'm trying to do, I, I look at myself as little Abner, Heather's a character in little Abner called Marrying Sam, and people would come to him to, to get them married real quickly. Well, in a way I'm marrying Sam, but I, I do premarital counseling, and I, and I make sure that, that there, there's a good fit here. And, and really when I go take a company to market, what I'm looking for is a buyer who is a fit for that, that company and for the, for the seller himself. That they, that there's a good fit on a number of different levels because business owners do, have, have concerns about their employees, about the legacy of their company, the name that they've built, you know, the, you know, all the brand that they have. All of those things are important. And so I wanna make sure that, that I'm putting my client first and making sure that they are, are happy about the outcome after the sale. Right, right. You know, chapter four, we're gonna kind of rehash a little bit of what you just said, but go a little bit deeper here. Chapter four is, How do I keep my business operating on all cylinders while I prepare for a sale? What, what advice would you offer to business owners on how to keep their business operating on all cylinders while they prepare for exit? Well, again, I, I think I've already pretty much covered that to some extent, but the things that, that come to mind, well, Listeners want you to drive it Home. Okay? I'm a I'm gonna drive it home. One of the things that, that you need to do is lead by example. You know, the, for you to get prepared and move in the right direction, you need to demonstrate accountability and create that kind of atmosphere so that everybody understands that, you know, what we're doing here is important. The, the things that that come to mind is, you know, you, you're gonna need to be able to have good records and books. You're gonna need to have good processes. You're gonna need to make sure that you are not the lone ranger you, that you are the business. And if, if, if you leave, the business will fold. I mean, you need to have, have a business, not just, you know, a clients that come to you and only you. I mean, you've gotta recognize, We're gonna jump into that after the break. We're gonna get into that whole owner dependency thing. But, you know, those are the things that, you know, to, to keep it keep you operating on, on all cylinders is, is mainly focused on, on making sure that the different areas of your business, and you know, it, it's the people, it's the processes, it's the data, it's the, you know, making sure that your, your accounting is, is in good in, in good shape, not living out of the business. So that there's a lot of, of expenses being hidden basically in the, in the ex p and l of the, of the business. Those kinds of things that, that you, you remove so that you have a clean three years anyway of, of p and l and balance sheet that is clear and is growing and is vibrant and, and is attractive to a business buyer. Yeah. So, and that's, and that just takes time, you know? Yeah. That just takes time to do kind of all those things. We're talking with Nolan Duck. We're talking about his book. Are You Ready to Sell Your Business? Let's take a quick break. We'll be back in 30 seconds. Every business will eventually transition some internally to employees and managers and some externally to third party buyers. Mastery partners equips business owners to maximize business value so they can transition their businesses on their terms using our four step process. We start with a snapshot of where your business is today, then we help you understand where you want to be and design a custom strategy to get you there next. We help you execute that strategy with the assistance of our amazing resource network. And ultimately, you'll be able to transition your business on your terms. What are you waiting for? More time, more revenue. If you want to maximize your business value, it takes time. Now is that time, Get started today by checking us out@www.masterypartners.com, or email us@infomasterypartners.com. We're back with Dr. Nolan Duck, a certified exit planning advisor and author of, Are You Ready to Sell Your Business? Now, of course, your book addresses, and we sort of touched on this before the break a little bit, but I want to do a little bit of a deeper dive in this. Your book addresses one of the classic sins that business owners commit, kind of keeping it in that whole ministry thing. The classic sin is owner dependency. So what advice do you offer business owners on how to start making their business less about them? Well, business owners do come, They come to me regularly thinking that they are ready to sell and their business is them. And, you know, in this indentured servitude is, is not something that can be done. Slavery has been outlawed. So we, you can't sell yourself and without you in the business. There is no business the way these, these business owners have, have built their business. And so the number one thing I try to, to get them to recognize is that that is the case. And, and then begin to suggest that, you know, they're not ready to sell until they can develop and, and foster a, a leadership team of some sort. And it, it can start with one person or two people, you know, just somebody else that is doing what the business owner does so that the business isn't entirely dependent upon them. You know, they, I if they're the hub in the middle of the wheel and without them, it ain't, it just isn't gonna roll, then we gotta work that out. We've gotta have some spokes, we gotta gotta have some things that are in place so that the hub isn't the most important, you know, that the owner isn't the most important thing about that business. Now there's, it does take some time to do that. And one of the things that I, I do when business owners come to me this way is I refer them to people like you, Tom, to help them get to where they need to go before they go to market, so that they have something to sell. It's really frustrating. And there are some business owners that, you know, they, for one reason or another, it might be, you know, possibly they have an illness and, and they, they need to, to sell the company because they're, you know, they're, the stress is, is is beyond what, beyond control and or their, their health is declining or there's been a death in the family or something. And, and so they're ready to, you know, sell the company right then. Well, in that case, you know, I try to help them, but in some cases I can't help them at all. There's nothing I can do. I mean, we could try to take it to market, but it, it's not gonna sell. No one's gonna buy it because it is them. So those are the things I try to help them get focused on developing a leadership team of some sort, putting together some, some processes that, that are transferable, that are, that are helpful to the, the, the new owner, et cetera. Or else there would be a, a long earn out that would be a part of the sale of that Company. Well, yeah. And then the owner is tied up having to work there if they wanna retire or, or there's a reason like what you just described, you know, a death in the family or a spouse, you know, Ill spouse or, or worse, the owner is ill, or the, or the worst case scenario, the owner passes away and, and the business is owner dependent. That, that makes the business almost worth nothing. You know, a couple of months ago I got a call from an, from a business attorney in Birmingham, Alabama. The business owner died, and the business was owner dependent. And so the family wanted to find out, you know, how could they sell the business? Well, the first call to me didn't come until eight weeks after the year passed. There was nothing left. I, there, there was nothing left of that business to try and even go sell. And so that's, that is a horrible tragedy. It Is for families who are dependent on that business for income, right? And for right future, for the future of their family. And so, so owner dependency to me is a, is an absolute deal killer. Now, if you run a 50 million business and it's got some owner dependency issues, you're probably gonna take a haircut on valuation, maybe as much as 25% on the valuation. But a but a business that's less than 10 million in revenue and, and the smaller it is, if it's a, you know, 3 million in revenue and it's owner dependent, it is not sellable. No, it's unsellable unless you sell it to somebody, a competitor. And then of course you're opening the kimono to your competitors, right? And, and showing everything about that. So, so to me it may big business, 25% haircut, small business, It makes it worth nothing. And so I, it's such an important issue, owner dependency. It Really is. It really Is. I want to give a hint here to our, to our listing, You know, you don't have to pay me for, for advice on this because it's, it's a super seemingly simple fix. It, you know, the execution is a little harder. But when I get into a business and it's owner dependency issue, the first thing that I demand that they do is hire their replacement. Right? Hire somebody to who, who can be a junior them and do the things that they're doing. And here's the beauty of that. If it's done correctly, the, you hire a, let's call it a general manager or you know, manager or whatever you're gonna call it to replace the owner, that means that a hundred percent of the owner's salary, once you've kind of transitioned all of that, the responsibility and someone else can run the business. A hundred percent of the owner's salary is an ad back and doesn't. And so hiring a GM can actually improve the value of the business, right? And so many times I hear it, Sorry, this, this is just one of my real hot buttons. Yeah. And I'm glad you wanted to talk about it today. So many times I hear a business owner that, that that does go out and painstakingly hires a gm, I hear three months later, like, I don't know why I didn't do this 10 years ago. You know, I've got so much more to reduces The stress. It gives them freedom. It, it, it, you know, sometimes this happens and they think, Well, you know, I think I'm going to keep working for another 10 years That's This is, this is, I have freedom. Yeah. They're no longer working 80 hours a week now. Now they can do it in 20 hours a week or 10 hours a week. And so, so it's amazing. It's amazing. So sometimes making that decision though, takes them off the market. But that's, you're right. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay for me by me. Yeah. In their best interest. So that's, that's not a problem. Exactly. So now the, the last chapter in your book is actually one of my favorite, and, and business owners a lot of times, you know, the thing about business owners is they don't, they don't want any help. They don't need any help. They got to where they are because they are who they are. But it, it really does sort of take a village to get a business ready. And I love the last chapter of your book. It's all about surrounding yourself with the right people. So why do business owners need help in creating a successful exit? Well, there's, there's a lot to think through. And business owners are, you know, like they know exactly what to do to run their company, but they don't know much about investments. They don't know much about accounting. They don't know much about the law. They, they don't know a whole lot about actually taking their company to market. So at the very least, they need to have a competent cpa, someone that understands about the sale of a company, that they understand that it's not a good thing for them to be a C corp when they go to sale. Because that and diminishes the number of buyers on the market. Cuz people don't want do a stock sale. They, you want to make sure that you have not your family lawyer to, to do the transaction work. They need to have a transaction attorney. You know, you don't have a, a brain surgeon doing heart surgery. It, it just doesn't work well for you. So you need to have the right attorney. You need to have a financial advisor that, that understands that if, if you're trying to put a trust together, you need to have that all settled before you get an loi or the IRS is gonna come after you. You know, you need to have the people who understand the dynamics of what's going on in your corner. A boxer when, when he's, you know, fighting in the, in the ring has people in his corner who are taking care of him when he comes back. Well, you gotta have people in your corner that are on your side that are trying to help you win this, this battle that, that you're in using the boxing metaphor. I like that. I like that. I'm gonna start using That. That is something that, that you really need. And a lot of times what, what owners are thinking, Well, I don't wanna have to pay them to do this and pay them to do that. If the thing is, you are gonna get a much better sales price if you have these people in your corner. If you have competent people that you can trust now that's, that's an issue. You need to find people that are trustworthy, that, that are in your corner, then you are elevating the sales price by their presence and you're not gonna be taken advantage of. There's a whole lot of, of issues that, that business owners don't even have, never even thought about that we who are involved in, in the sale of companies. Understand. And so, and, and really the attorneys have their place, the financial advisors have their place, the CPAs have their place. The the brokers or m and a advisors have their place and the the people do. The CPAs have their place to try to help you get prepared. So all this, this team approach is critical. That's my view. No, I I love that. You know, in fact, you, you said something here that, that to me is, I, I don't wanna underplay that or don't want our, our audience to miss that. If you are a C corp, if you are a C corp today and you're thinking you want to sell in five years, you need to start right now. Amen. And, and you don't need to wait. Don't wait until three years before, Don't wait until a year before you need to transition that business from a C corp to a pass through corporation, an llc. If you're trying to sell a C corp as a stock sale, you are, you've eliminated 75% of the buyers. Yes, you did. And it makes it a whole lot more, more difficult to sell. Now I've done four stock transactions, but at the same time they, they are few and far between and they are much more difficult to, to get done. Yes. Now there's some tricks and things that you can do to do some interesting things, but that needs to be evaluated and it needs to be evaluated by a competent CPA and a competent m and a attorney. So when I say competent people who, CPA and attorney who are familiar with m and a transactions, who Can absolutely You make the right decisions. The other thing that I wanted to kind of jump in on here, I love the boxing analogy by the way. I'm gonna, the first time I use it, I, my, my process is the first time I use it, I will give credit for it. And then after that it becomes, it's yours. So Yes, I get it. So just so you know, if you hear me say it again later, you'll know. Right? So the paying for the advisors, you know, that's one of the things that's kinda universal. Business owners don't want any help, don't need any help and don't wanna pay for any help. Well, really good advisors, having the right advisors around you pays for itself. Absolutely Does In, in spades. And actually you get a return on that investment if you've got the right people in place because, And it's fully deductible from your sales price. It is, it is. And so, so, you know, oh goodness, you know, it's, it, it make sure that, that you have the right people, don't let it be. So I don't want to do that because I can't pay for Right. If you have the right people, they will pay for themselves. So, wow, that great, great stuff here. Tell us a little bit about your practice and how you drive clients toward their ideal exits so that our, so that our listeners know who to call when it's time. Well, the, the way that I approach the sale of a company, someone approaches me and or I meet them and they are interested in selling their company. The very first thing I want do is do an assessment. And a part of that assessment is evaluation of their company. Cuz you have to have a defendable sales price. If you are gonna sell your house a 50 $500,000 house and you put a million dollar price tag on it, it's gonna sit on the market for a long time. Cuz you're not gonna sell it at that price. You need to have a defendable sales price. And you need to also understand that just like in the, the sale of a house, you, you stage the house, you don't, you know, you, you fix it up. You, you do the things that are necessary so that it has, you know, good road appeal. I mean, looking at it from, from afar, man, that looks like a great house. I need to walk in that and see what it's like, see if I wanna live there. Well, that's kind of what the bi the buyer is, is thinking, do I wanna live in this company and I do, I want to take this thing over. Where can I go with the company? So I do that value that assessment and evaluation so that I can understand what's going on. Usually when I do that, I'm, I, the PN l and balance sheet reveal quite a bit to me. I see things that are in the, in my book I talk about a, a manufacturer who, who, well, his sales were going down and his commissions were going up and he, he didn't realize that he, he didn't really even know how to, to know if the, the things he was manufacturing were making any money because he didn't have an accounting software that, that showed, you know, profitability. So it was that all of that had to be changed. And, you know, he told me, Well, that's not right. That couldn't be right. Well, I said, Well, Mr, Mr, business owner, I'm using your financials and that's what it says. So let's, let's find out what's wrong, what's going on. So you doing that, you can see some things that need to be fixed immediately that can possibly be fixed easily. And if there, if that company is growing, if if it's not in decline over several years, if it's bankable, then we can take that company to market and we can begin to put together the, what I do after I, after we've determined that and, and looked at the options that the business owner has, I'm not trying to force anybody to sell it. It might be maintained a status quo thing to do right now. But the thing is, we look at, at that company, they decide they wanna sell it is sellable. Then we, what I do is I put together a confidential information memorandum that is a clear understanding of what that company is about, what they do, how they do it, who is involved. And then we take that to market. We, I market in several different ways. One way is, is on the internet with smaller companies, larger companies, I have some other methodologies that I employ that are a lot more confidential that, that I, that I use. If there's a private equity group that I have access to thousands of private equity groups that I can put a teaser out to very easily. And then I have a 750, my best friends that I send an email out to with a teaser about the company. And, you know, I get the word out that a company like X is interested in selling and then I respond to, to the inquiries, sign an nda. And with that nda I'm able to, to provide them with the cert, the confidential information memorandum and, and we're off to the races. We begin to talk, I qualify the, the, the, the buyers make sure that they have the, the financial capability of buying the company before we go anywhere. And then we begin step by step working through with the buyers that indicate significant interest when they get an LOI signed, then that's when the attorney gets involved and we work through all the processes, we do due diligence, and then eventually we get a check that the owner gets and, and they are thrilled. So that's kind of the process. I have kind of a, the, the sales process outlined on my website@advisors.com. So that's, it's pretty, pretty well documented there. You can see a roadmap that I use and it, it's the, the first, first step is that assessment, but then I, I begin to build the team, make sure that you have a team and then move on to the other steps. Right. Yeah. That's, that is great. And as I said at the beginning of this, you're one of the very few business brokers that that, that I refer people to because there are so many, Make sure if you're gonna go try and sell your business, that you are partnering with the right m and a representation. Just make sure that you're doing that. And, and DBG advisors does amazing work in that. Well, one last business question here. This podcast is all about maximizing business value. So Right. You're a business owner, right? What is one of, what is the one most important thing that you would recommend business owners do to build value in their business? And only one? No, only one. Well, I guess, you know, after you know where you're going and what your business is, the one thing that's most important in my mind is having the right people along, along with you, knowing where you're going and who's going with you is, is key. And building that, to me, that's what makes a huge difference. Having the right people around you makes a huge difference. One of the things that, that I like to do is talk through and, you know, there's a lot of different ways you can use a disc, You can use a, I mean all kinds of different tools. I'm, I'm certified in several of them and making sure that you have the right people in the right seat in your company. Okay. And they Are, you are sneaking in more things. You know, the one thing is surround Yourself, but the one thing is having the right people with you, but having the right people in the right seat, it goes with it. So that's, no, I'm giving you a hard time. I have to Be too hard. But that's, that's what's most important to me. I, I completely agree. And by the way, if you wanna learn a lot about assessments, we did a whole series recently to our listeners on, on all the different types of assessments and, and I got a real education on how to use them. And so yes, I agree. Get the right people, surround yourself with the right people, not only at the time of exit, but make sure you have the right people internally. I think that is a Right. That's internal folks. Yeah. Well, just because you gave a good answer, there doesn't gonna, isn't gonna mean that I'm gonna let you off the hook. I have to have the answer to our bonus question, which is, Oh, what personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble over the years? I'm too nice. Oh, you're Too nice. Well, oh, I'm, my personality trait, I guess the one that's hurt me the most is, is I, I really do bend over backwards to, to help people. And sometimes that isn't appreciated. Oh, yeah. Recognized. But that's gotten me in the most trouble sometimes because I'm, I'm, I'm trying to be a pleaser, which is not what I have to do. I've, I've realized that I'm not, I don't need to be a people pleaser in this business. And I've made some adjustments to my approach that I'm still nice, but I'm, I'm firm in my behavior. You are very nice. You are very nice. Well, and I'll tell you what, you and I have a little bit of that same, we, I, I trust everybody that I meet the first time I meet them Right. Until they prove themselves untrustworthy. And once they do that, it's over. They I agree. Never. That's, that's kind of where I'm coming from, is that Yeah. I, I have anybody who's broken my trust has never been able to repair it. And it's, you know, it's just my personality when I, Well, we forgive 'em, we just don't, don't Trust them. Yeah. I forgive'em, but I never trust them again. Right. And so, very interesting. And of course, you know me, I am not a people pleaser, so I'm, you're, I'm gonna give the unvarnished truth every time. Oh, well, I, I have learned to do that. Yeah. So how can our, how can our viewers and listeners get in touch with you and how can they find your book? Okay, the easiest way to find my book is just to go to my website, dbg advisors.com. And there's on the website a place where you can, can basically order the book. And I send that to you free of charge. I pay the postage, the whole nine yards. And just, I, I have that. I feel like it's something that I can give to business owners that will help them get to where they, they need to go. And that's really what motivates me to begin with, is I wanna help the help people. And that I hope that people will not hesitate to, to, to order it. That's the easiest way to do that. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Nolan, this has been a fun conversation It has For being our guest today. I'm so, so glad we could do this. Grateful for the opportunity. Thank you so much, Tom. Awesome. You can find Nolan Duck at dbg, So like Duck Business Group maybe, I don't know what that, that's it. But dbg advisors.com or on LinkedIn. And of course you can always reach out to me and I will be happy to make a warm introduction. This is the Maximized Business Value podcast, where we give practical advice to business owners on how to build long-term sustainable value in your business and prepare it for exit. So be sure to tune in each week and follow us wherever you found this podcast. That way you'll be notified every week when we drop a new episode. So until next time, I'm Tom Bronson reminding you to learn as much about exit planning as you can by reading great books like this one written by cprs while you maximize business value. Thank You for tuning into the Maximized Business Value podcast with Tom Bronson. This podcast is brought to you by Mastery Partners, where our mission is to equip business owners to maximize business value so they can transition on their terms, learn more on how to build long term sustainable business value, and get free value building tools by visiting our website, www.masterypartners.com. That's master with a y mastery partners.com. That was perfect. I wouldn't make any changes.