Buying and Selling a Business

In this episode of the Business Pulse podcast, host Candice Jarrett (co-founder of the tech-startup XKOVA) interviews Evan Poling, founder of BizRetire, an innovative online platform that transforms the way businesses are bought and sold. 

Unlike traditional methods that involve business brokers and hefty commissions, BizRetire connects buyers and sellers directly, requiring buyers to pay for access to listings, which helps filter out non-serious inquiries. 

Evan shares insights into the traditional business selling process, his personal experiences, and the challenges faced in the marketplace. He emphasizes the importance of legacy for business owners and the human element in transactions, while also discussing the marketing strategies and cost structure of BizRetire. The conversation highlights the appeal of buying established businesses and offers valuable advice for potential buyers.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to BizRetire
• 1:05 Traditional Business Selling Process
• 2:07 The Unique Model of BizRetire
• 4:04 Onboarding and Listing Fees
• 4:30 Vetting Businesses and Buyers
• 8:13 The Human Element in Business Sales
• 9:02 Evan's Personal Experience in Buying a Business
• 11:57 Challenges in Traditional Business Buying
• 13:42 The Importance of Humor in Business Communication
• 15:05 The Journey of BizRetire
• 18:31 Marketing Strategies for BizRetire
• 21:22 Cost Structure for Buyers and Sellers
• 22:20 Target Audience and Business Types
• 23:56 The Appeal of Buying Established Businesses
• 25:37 Advice for Potential Buyers
• 27:21 The Significance of the BizRetire Name

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to the Business Pulse podcast.

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Today,

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we'll be talking to Evan Poling,

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founder of BizRetire,

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an online platform revolutionizing how businesses are bought and sold.

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This marketplace doesn't use business brokers.

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There's no commissions or middleman between the buyer and seller.

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Buyers have to pay to see listings,

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which mean they have some skin in the game before they can ever contact a seller.

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Let's dive in to discuss this business model right now in episode four.

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This is the Business Pulse Podcast,

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where you'll discover strategies,

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tools,

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and stories to inspire success through conversations with leading business owners,

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startup founders,

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and venture capitalists.

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Our aim is your success.

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Presented by XKOVA, a next-generation payment processor to help your business thrive.

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Visit us at XKOVA.com.

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Evan, thank you so much for joining me today.

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Thank you, Candice, for having me on.

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It's my pleasure.

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For people in our audience who maybe have a business but have never bought or sold

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a business,

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how does the process of buying and selling businesses normally work?

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Yeah, that's an excellent question.

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So typically when you're ready to sell a business,

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you would go through someone called a business broker,

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which is a lot like a real estate agent when you're buying or selling a house.

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They're the middle person that walks with the seller through the whole process.

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In a lot of cases, the business broker will help list your business on a website.

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They'll give you like an evaluation of what they think it's worth.

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they'll screen buyers,

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you know,

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and that's a huge element of that because a lot of buyers aren't qualified or a lot

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of buyers have a lot of questions.

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And so they're kind of the barrier to you as the business owner to protect you from

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those buyers,

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you know,

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those inquiries and stuff like that.

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And then once you're actually ready to sell,

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they walk you through,

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you know,

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negotiations and legal paperwork and transfer of ownership and things like that.

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And so

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That's typically the way you would go when you're going to sell a business.

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How is BizRetire different?

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To give a history on what BizRetire is,

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we're an online marketplace where business owners can list their business for sale.

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There are other online marketplaces and the thing with them versus BizRetire is our

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marketplace is private versus a lot of marketplaces are public.

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And so, for example, I could create an account on some of my competitors websites.

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And the thing is, is I could walk in there and look at your listing with no skin in the game.

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So and in a lot of ways, I can actually just research your business.

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You know,

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you have a description,

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been in business for 54 years on the west side of Columbus,

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Ohio,

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and I can actually contact you and kind of skip the broker.

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So it really eliminates a lot of the protections that that the business owner and

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business broker have anyways.

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And so Bus Retire requires buyers to sign a non-disclosure agreement and to pay to

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see the listings,

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which in a lot of ways,

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it's a barrier for buyers who are really not serious about the process.

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And so when you look at a business broker in general,

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they charge anywhere from five to 20% of the sale of the business.

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So when you're thinking,

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you know,

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a million dollars,

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you're writing a $200,000 commission check to a broker.

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And in a lot of ways,

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BizRetire actually creates a barrier to entry to buy a business that really does

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the job of the broker.

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And that whole listing and screening process for a broker is about 50% to 70% of

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the work of a broker anyways.

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I don't know about you, but I only like to pay for what I what I get.

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Right.

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And so instead of paying for this large commission package that includes everything

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listed with biz retire and then hire the savings that you would get,

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hire a broker to help you with the legal side of things to finish up the

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transaction and save possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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So when you are onboarding businesses to biz retire, do they also pay a fee?

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Yeah, there's a small listing fee just so that they're serious as well.

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But it's a lot less than all of our competitors.

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And we have free trials and things like that.

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And we really don't onboard businesses.

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We let them just create an account and they can list a business themselves.

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So it's pretty quick, easy and simple.

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How do you vet businesses to make sure that they're legitimate when they post on your site?

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Yeah, that's a great question.

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And so the goal of Bus Retire is really just to connect the owner with the buyer.

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And so you kind of look at it as like a meeting, a marketplace.

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And the idea is that the owner will vet the buyer and the buyer vets the owner.

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And so the idea, they talk, the seller will show financials, proof of the business.

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And then,

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you know,

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the buyers show the sellers,

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you know,

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any kind of financial data that they have as far as,

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you know,

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the ability to buy.

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And so in a lot of ways, that's really done off platform.

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And so that makes it a lot easier and simpler for people to list.

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So basically,

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they use BizRentire as like a meeting place and then they go off their separate way

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and then get their lawyers and stuff involved.

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Yeah, I mean, even with the, yeah, exactly.

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And even with a broker, you still have to hire accountants, appraisers.

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If you have like equipment or valuable assets on the business,

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you still have to hire,

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I might've said accountants already,

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accountants,

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lawyers,

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all those,

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those parties are typically involved in some sort of fashion in addition to a broker.

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And so,

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yeah,

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when you,

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when you're selling,

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you always want to have the appropriate professionals involved with selling the

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businesses in,

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in,

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And that's whether or not you use Biz Retire or use a broker.

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And so that expense exists regardless.

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The idea with Biz Retire is just that you're really eliminating that middleman.

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And in a lot of ways, I feel like a business owner will go to the closing table

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And they're ready to sign on the dotted line.

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And they're like, who is this person?

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I haven't talked to them because the broker really has been the person in the

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middle the whole entire time.

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And a lot of times when a business owner is thinking about their legacy,

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they're thinking,

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well,

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I have employees.

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They're like my family.

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I care for them.

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A lot of these business owners have owned this business for 20, 30, 40 plus years.

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And then they have a community of people that they're serving, that they interact with a customer base.

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They have suppliers.

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These are people that they have these really tight connections with.

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And so if the business is somewhat successful,

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at the end of the day,

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a broker might get your business a little bit more money.

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But I mean, the broker is really just looking at how do you get more money?

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And is this person competent enough to run the business?

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They don't really look at the legacy piece and how that matches together well.

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And,

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you know,

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when I was looking to buy a business,

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what the broker really prohibited me from doing was talking to the business owner myself.

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And I actually had some offers that I gave to the business broker and they outright said,

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I'm not going to give this to my client.

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And so a lot of times they will just like stonewall the offer.

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Maybe they don't like you.

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They don't like your offer.

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They don't like how much money they're going to make them offer.

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And so there's a lot of reasons where,

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you know,

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having a broker in the middle really prohibits the sale or prohibits the sale from

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going forward,

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either from the beginning,

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you're not seeing a lot of offers that exist,

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or in the end,

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you really don't know who's sitting across the negotiation table from you.

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You know, the idea is just to connect those two parties together.

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And it does require a little bit more work,

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you know,

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because typically the business broker is,

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you know,

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filtering all these deals and filtering all these people.

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And,

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you know,

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a busy business owner,

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they kind of want hands off and like,

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hey,

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you just take care of it and let me go my separate ways.

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But the beauty of the business owner doing it is they're going to make the best

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decision for their business and all the arenas.

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Right.

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You brought up so many great points that I had never considered.

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That's so true that a business owner who that's their legacy that they've spent,

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you know,

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decades of their life,

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maybe even half their life building and they care about the employees that work there.

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They they want to know who is going to take it over because

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They want to know that it's going to be in good hands.

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They want to know that the business isn't just going to fold up and shut down or

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get bought up and gobbled up.

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And that's such a beautiful and really human reason to want to make a business like this.

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And it also shows what type of businesses would be your customer, you know, would want to come on.

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That's so fascinating all the way around.

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So I caught something you said.

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You said when you had gone to buy a business,

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is that something that you want to share your experience on the other side of it

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being a customer?

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Like what kind of business were you trying to buy?

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Yeah, no, that's a great point.

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So I was trying to buy a business for my wife.

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She's in the medical field and buy something for her to run on herself by herself.

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She's had some problems at work and it's like,

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hey,

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your hard work,

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your care for the people that you serve.

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And so I was considering that process and,

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you know,

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I was talking to a broker and the very first thing they send you is an NDA,

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which stands for non-disclosure agreement.

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And, you know, I asked like, hey, I want to see the financials.

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I want to know what it is.

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And a lot of times the brokers will prepare this like pamphlet with like,

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you know,

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this is the market data.

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This is the, the,

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type of type of graphic data and what the business has and their last three years

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and all that stuff and what the offer is and things like that.

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And so but it took like two or three days to get the nondisclosure agreement and

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then took another two or three days just to get the package.

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And then we asked questions and then it was like eight days later,

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we answered questions and then we had more questions and other eight days.

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So like we hadn't even

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started really started the process and we were already like three,

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four weeks into this process,

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just asking basic questions that if I had talked directly to the owner,

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it would have been solved in an hour.

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I sat there thinking kind of like, wow, this is very inefficient.

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This is very miserable.

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And you know how like when you want to buy something new and shiny, you're like, I want it.

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I want it now,

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you know,

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and you're excited about it,

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you know,

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and the kind of excitement wore off,

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which is a good thing,

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right?

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I mean, it's a business.

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It's not like something you can just buy in a car lot.

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But but at the same time, the process was very infuriating.

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And then you go into these public websites.

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I don't want to name my competitors,

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but they some of them have two to three hundred thousand free buyer accounts.

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I was thinking about like, wow, how can I ever compete with that?

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And I'm thinking about I thought about it and I'm like,

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well,

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as a buyer,

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if there is a diamond in the rough business for sale,

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what's the what's the probability that I'm going to find that business,

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that they're going to see my email,

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that they're going to do business with me and sell their business to me?

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And I thought about the business owner,

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if they have a good business,

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a good deal,

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as soon as they put their business on that website,

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I'm sure that all of those people have their notifications set.

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So they're going to get, hey, a new business on the market.

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And what are they going to do?

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Email them.

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And so now you have a business owner that is getting bombarded.

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If there's 300,000 members, maybe 1,000, 2,000, 10,000 emails.

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how's a business owner going to know they're just going to start from the top and

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start making calls like and then a lot,

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you know,

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we have these online,

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all these gurus.

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So that's how I got influenced was the gurus like,

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you know,

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buy a business,

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no money down,

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you know,

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seller financing,

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meaning like the sellers,

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the bank,

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They're going to finance all the money.

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You're going to get this multimillion dollar business for free, no skin in the game.

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And so a lot of these buyers have that mentality.

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And so I can't imagine trying to go to one of these free marketplaces as a seller

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and get any kind of offer from people that know nothing about buying businesses.

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I didn't know enough when I was buying my business or trying to buy a business.

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And that's the beauty of Bus Retire is we kind of,

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but because of the fee,

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a lot of those people that are wanting the free business will like,

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well,

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the business is no longer free.

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I got to pay.

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So it kind of, it filters that out from the get go.

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Yeah.

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Which also goes back to your other point about selling your business to someone who

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is equipped to run that business instead of run that business into the ground,

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essentially.

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I think that this is a good strategy because if you have ever tried to sell anything on Facebook,

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you know that there is a billion tire kickers.

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Like you try to sell something and people will say, is this available?

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And you say, yes.

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And then they're gone.

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Like, yes.

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And that can,

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as someone who's trying to sell something,

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even if you're trying to sell something as simple as a toaster,

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you can just chew up a lot of your day.

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So, and obviously business owners who are still running their own business don't have that time.

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So I think that even though you have to vet the buyer and you have to spend the time on that,

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that it could actually be a time savings in some instances with like what you were

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talking about,

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how the broker took a long time to get back to you on very simple things,

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dragging it out three weeks before you even got the conversation going,

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as opposed to talking to someone immediately and being like,

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this is not the right person.

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And then you just, you know,

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They're just off the table.

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So I think so I was on your website and you're frequently asked questions are hilarious.

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The way that you wrote them is so funny.

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I actually have to go and read them.

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So so I think so everyone, you know, if you're if you're listening to the podcast.

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Please go to bizretire.com.

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That's B-I-Z-R-E-T-I-R-E.com slash FAQ for frequently asked questions.

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And these are the funniest frequently asked questions I've ever read.

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So the first one is, what if I struggle with technology?

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Very simple question.

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Fear not, brave user.

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Our platform is just a website designed for the simplicity of a peanut butter sandwich in mind.

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When I read that, I was like, that's awesome.

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And then,

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you know,

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all of them,

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like every one of them,

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like you have like these little jokes in there,

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which are just...

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I feel like it made it very lighthearted and fun to read.

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I won't go through and read the whole thing,

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but there's like,

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you know who your audience is and you speak to them very well.

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So that's what I took away from that is,

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you know,

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like you are like,

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it feels like you are a family business yourselves that are very approachable,

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very like...

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you know, in touch with your customers' needs.

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So I think that's excellent.

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And so now I want to mention, so BizRetire is actually pretty new.

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I mean, like really new in the terms of in business time.

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So when did you launch?

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So I've been on this journey for a little over a year,

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which actually was a result of being laid off due to some efficiencies I created on

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a team.

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And long story, but I created BizRetire.

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It's actually transformed like three times.

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I'm actually kind of launching a new marketing strategy again.

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And so it's just it's just the nature of trying to disrupt industry like his

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brokers that have been around for 250 years.

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It's a tough it's a tough stuff to get out there because most most sites charge a

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commission and there's a business broker involved and all other stuff.

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And so.

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Yeah.

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I mean,

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I,

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I,

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I relaunched sometime in October,

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I believe,

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and it's just about getting the word out there,

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letting people know that it's available,

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that it's,

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it's an option for people.

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And so yeah, been a little bit of a struggle, but that's part of the, part of the startup.

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I think all startups have growing pains like this is acquiring your first users and

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then iterating,

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iterating.

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I mean, it's just, it's just part of the, part of the life.

(00:16:04):
So, um,

(00:16:06):
So you were inspired to do this particular business because of your wife trying to buy a business.

(00:16:12):
Was that ever successful?

(00:16:13):
I mean, was she ever able to buy one?

(00:16:15):
No, we never ended up buying a business.

(00:16:18):
You know, inspiration came from a lot of things.

(00:16:21):
You know, my father growing up, he had a lot of different businesses.

(00:16:25):
They would do well for a while and then kind of like, you know, Peter off and not do very good.

(00:16:29):
And then, you know, with all the guru stuff, you know, I kind of got motivated by that.

(00:16:34):
Oh, let's buy a business.

(00:16:36):
But I also was a financial crimes investigator,

(00:16:38):
so I was looking at bank accounts and transactions from businesses.

(00:16:44):
And so I had to learn all these different industries and all the norms and what

(00:16:48):
actual activity for that that industry looked like.

(00:16:51):
And so,

(00:16:52):
you know,

(00:16:52):
with with an accounting degree and things like that,

(00:16:54):
I was digging into those and I got really interested in business.

(00:16:57):
And so.

(00:16:58):
you know,

(00:16:59):
to your point,

(00:16:59):
yeah,

(00:16:59):
I mean,

(00:17:00):
definitely want to give the family owned vibes,

(00:17:02):
want it to be a simple,

(00:17:04):
easy to use platform,

(00:17:05):
friendly for all.

(00:17:07):
And,

(00:17:07):
you know,

(00:17:08):
we're a broker free platform,

(00:17:10):
you know,

(00:17:10):
but I think that for brokers,

(00:17:13):
it can also be a tool where brokers could double or triple their salary with not

(00:17:19):
doing commissions and then

(00:17:22):
increase the reps, you know, average brokers sell five to 10 businesses a year.

(00:17:27):
And if I were to say, Hey, I golf five or 10, 10 times a year, I should go to the PGA.

(00:17:31):
You would laugh at left me out of the room.

(00:17:33):
Right.

(00:17:34):
And it's, it's just not enough reps to say that you're an expert or anything.

(00:17:37):
But the sad thing is that in the industry, five or 10 a year is actually really good.

(00:17:42):
And so,

(00:17:42):
um,

(00:17:43):
with biz retire,

(00:17:44):
you could skip all of that dealing with buyers,

(00:17:46):
which is 70%,

(00:17:48):
and you could sell three times more businesses.

(00:17:50):
And, um,

(00:17:51):
And so I think it's a really great platform.

(00:17:53):
And you got to think about business owners that think that their business is worth

(00:17:56):
a million dollars when it's only worth 300,000.

(00:17:59):
It's a real eye opener when a buyers keep lowballing you at 300K,

(00:18:03):
when the broker told you it's worth 300K,

(00:18:06):
you start to realize that your business is only worth 300K.

(00:18:08):
And so I think BizRetire is not only a great tool for owners,

(00:18:12):
but it's also a great tool for biz brokers to make more money,

(00:18:15):
to do what's right by the owner.

(00:18:18):
And I think it's really a win-win for everything.

(00:18:20):
And so I'm hoping it does.

(00:18:22):
One of the taglines is revolutionizing the way that we buy and sell businesses.

(00:18:26):
And so that's kind of the goal.

(00:18:29):
And hopefully we achieve that.

(00:18:31):
Well, I think it is a refreshing take on this whole thing.

(00:18:37):
And really with...

(00:18:40):
a lot of good things to recommend it.

(00:18:42):
So right now it's really early.

(00:18:45):
And I know that you said that you were starting to focus a little bit more on marketing.

(00:18:49):
So what kind of things are you doing to get the word out there now?

(00:18:53):
Well,

(00:18:54):
unsuccessfully,

(00:18:55):
I have put things on the radio because my target audience is more of like a boomer population.

(00:19:01):
And interesting enough, I've never advertised to a buyer one time.

(00:19:06):
I've got like 10 to 30 to 50 times more buyers than I do sellers on the platform, which is crazy.

(00:19:13):
This shows you how much more demand there are with buyers.

(00:19:16):
But Google Ads,

(00:19:18):
radio,

(00:19:18):
I've got a cool email thing that I've been tweaking and working with,

(00:19:23):
trying to get the word out there that way.

(00:19:25):
But I'm hoping to do a little bit more social media, get my name out there, get my face out there.

(00:19:30):
Because I think with the boomer generation is they want more of a relationship.

(00:19:35):
They want to know that I'm a trustworthy person.

(00:19:39):
And you can't really do that over a cold email or even a cold call.

(00:19:43):
I mean, there's some...

(00:19:46):
some skepticism when someone calls them randomly out of the blue and,

(00:19:49):
and,

(00:19:49):
and that's unfortunate,

(00:19:50):
but fortunately that population has been taken advantage of,

(00:19:53):
and,

(00:19:54):
um,

(00:19:54):
there's been a lot of fraud and things like that.

(00:19:56):
And so, um, you know, just really focusing on the legacy piece of this, I think that's huge.

(00:20:00):
And, uh, um, yeah.

(00:20:04):
So two things, um, one, like, have you ever like joined the chamber of commerce or anything like that?

(00:20:09):
Yeah,

(00:20:10):
I actually went to a conference yesterday and I think that was a huge eye opener

(00:20:16):
for me that as I was sharing my business,

(00:20:20):
all the business owners that were the age of my target audience were very excited

(00:20:24):
about what I was doing.

(00:20:24):
Some of them said I had a friend that just sold it and it was a nightmare with a

(00:20:28):
business broker and this was their experience.

(00:20:30):
And so they all wanted my contact information and it was just like how excited they

(00:20:34):
were for what I was doing.

(00:20:35):
And so that was

(00:20:37):
kind of reminded me that I needed to be more in person and doing these events,

(00:20:41):
connecting with people one-on-one.

(00:20:42):
And as a millennial,

(00:20:43):
I think,

(00:20:44):
you know,

(00:20:44):
one to many,

(00:20:45):
I got to get the word out quickly and as fast as possible.

(00:20:47):
But I think it really just comes down to taking the time to invest in those

(00:20:51):
relationships and get the word out.

(00:20:53):
Oh yeah.

(00:20:54):
I agree.

(00:20:55):
Especially in this type of business that you're talking about, it was exactly what you just said.

(00:20:59):
Now that person who had a friend that

(00:21:02):
it was a nightmare when they have another friend that's saying,

(00:21:05):
Hey,

(00:21:05):
I'm thinking about selling my business.

(00:21:06):
They'd be like, wait, I met this person.

(00:21:08):
I think that you should maybe check this out and see if this is viable option for you.

(00:21:13):
So what is the cost barrier to entry?

(00:21:14):
Like,

(00:21:15):
like what,

(00:21:15):
if you don't mind sharing,

(00:21:17):
like how much does it cost a business to sign up and how much does it cost a

(00:21:20):
potential buyer to sign up?

(00:21:22):
So for businesses, it's, it's a 90 day free trial.

(00:21:27):
If you're working with someone like a professional,

(00:21:30):
I'm actually offering professionals a free year for their clients so that they can

(00:21:34):
actually get market feedback prior to selling so that they can implement that.

(00:21:39):
So for a free year, contact me if you're interested in that.

(00:21:43):
But other than that, it's about 50 bucks a month.

(00:21:46):
So it's super affordable.

(00:21:48):
And if you do like a semi-annual or yearly, it's less than that.

(00:21:54):
And then the buyer side, it's 75 bucks a month.

(00:21:57):
And the same thing, if you buy more time, it's less money.

(00:22:00):
And so as it becomes more popular, I'll probably go up on the buyer side and keep the seller side cheap.

(00:22:07):
And the idea is to really just stomp out my competition where they can't compete on the seller side.

(00:22:13):
What kind of businesses are you seeing bought and sold on your platform?

(00:22:17):
I mean, like brick and mortar, SaaS?

(00:22:20):
I mean,

(00:22:20):
it's just any,

(00:22:21):
it's anything where the business owner has probably had a bad experience,

(00:22:26):
at least on the onset with a business broker,

(00:22:28):
you know,

(00:22:29):
they've,

(00:22:30):
um,

(00:22:30):
wasted their time.

(00:22:31):
They've, you know, lied to them, they've mistreated them.

(00:22:34):
And so that's kind of been the population so far, but, um, I'm, I'm hoping to get, um, anybody in there.

(00:22:41):
Um, I mean, for right now, I'm trying to really cater to the small business owner.

(00:22:46):
the guy or gal who is running their business and they care about the legacy piece.

(00:22:52):
So kind of like an owner operator.

(00:22:53):
I mean,

(00:22:54):
I imagine that maybe larger corporations would be interested,

(00:22:57):
but I would think that they would probably go with someone like an attorney,

(00:23:01):
which mergers and acquisitions.

(00:23:03):
So, you know, it's not necessarily owned by one person.

(00:23:06):
I think it's really interesting that you have, you know, a lot of buyers just sign up.

(00:23:13):
You know, I think that that just goes to show that

(00:23:15):
there's a lot of demand right now for people to buy businesses because they want to

(00:23:20):
get that jumpstart of like three,

(00:23:23):
five,

(00:23:23):
10,

(00:23:23):
15 years of work into something.

(00:23:25):
Uh,

(00:23:26):
it takes a long time,

(00:23:27):
as you know,

(00:23:28):
to start a business,

(00:23:29):
you know,

(00:23:29):
like one day you may sell biz retire.

(00:23:32):
I mean,

(00:23:33):
you know,

(00:23:33):
it's,

(00:23:34):
uh,

(00:23:34):
it's go on and,

(00:23:36):
you know,

(00:23:37):
we've got to put our suntan lotion on and go to the beach.

(00:23:39):
So that's, um,

(00:23:41):
you know, something that we, you know, all hope for someday.

(00:23:44):
So it's, you know, a business is something that can last many generations.

(00:23:49):
And so buying a business is very attractive because you get that jumpstart of those

(00:23:55):
early years where there's not returns.

(00:23:58):
Sorry, 90% failure rate for like startups.

(00:24:01):
And I think the first year, then it kind of goes down from there, the more you're in business.

(00:24:06):
But if you if you buy a business, I think it's like a 95% success rate.

(00:24:10):
And so to keep that business going.

(00:24:13):
So,

(00:24:13):
yeah,

(00:24:13):
I mean,

(00:24:13):
it's definitely more attractive,

(00:24:15):
especially to someone who's worked a professional career.

(00:24:18):
They have some experience, they have some money saved up and they have the, you know,

(00:24:22):
the wherewithal to run a business.

(00:24:24):
It's a very attractive option.

(00:24:26):
At least the dream is sold to people that you're going to get financial freedom.

(00:24:32):
This could be another podcast,

(00:24:33):
which I think is kind of a load of crap,

(00:24:36):
this whole idea,

(00:24:37):
but there is a huge cost to running a business and maybe financial freedom is one

(00:24:43):
of the benefits,

(00:24:43):
but there's definitely a lot of work that goes into any business you run.

(00:24:47):
Yeah.

(00:24:47):
I see those videos on YouTube a lot and they're,

(00:24:50):
they're so misleading to people,

(00:24:51):
you know,

(00:24:51):
like you can use this AI tool and make a million dollars in five seconds with no work,

(00:24:56):
you know,

(00:24:57):
like it's,

(00:24:57):
there's so much of it now.

(00:24:59):
It really does prey on people, but

(00:25:01):
the idea of buying a legitimate business that you can talk to that you must vet.

(00:25:06):
Like if any,

(00:25:07):
like I want to just mention this to the viewers,

(00:25:09):
if you,

(00:25:10):
no matter what,

(00:25:11):
what way you,

(00:25:12):
you do it,

(00:25:13):
like you always need to do your own research,

(00:25:15):
like do a lot of it,

(00:25:17):
you know,

(00:25:17):
and,

(00:25:18):
and really,

(00:25:18):
uh,

(00:25:20):
you know, get those experts on board, like Evan was saying, accountants.

(00:25:24):
And so I guess if you were gonna give advice to somebody who was using your platform,

(00:25:30):
just say they found a business that they wanna purchase,

(00:25:33):
what would you tell them that their next step should be after that?

(00:25:37):
I would say that you want to find a business that's right for you,

(00:25:41):
something you're interested in,

(00:25:42):
something you have expertise in.

(00:25:44):
I mean, you're not going to just walk into an industry with no experience and collect a paycheck.

(00:25:49):
That's not how it works.

(00:25:50):
And so or adjacent experience that you can walk into.

(00:25:54):
So make sure it's right for you.

(00:25:55):
You know,

(00:25:57):
you want to have a conversation with the business owner,

(00:25:58):
get to know them a little bit,

(00:26:00):
ask them some questions,

(00:26:02):
what they're looking for.

(00:26:04):
Are they looking for a seller?

(00:26:06):
Do they want to sell their finance to save on taxes?

(00:26:10):
Do they want all the money up front?

(00:26:12):
Is there any wiggle room?

(00:26:13):
That way you can write a letter of intent that meets their needs,

(00:26:18):
their financial needs and goals,

(00:26:21):
and that you're not going to be so consumed by debt that the business will fail.

(00:26:27):
And then you just kind of work on the terms of that.

(00:26:30):
And I honestly,

(00:26:31):
um,

(00:26:32):
you know,

(00:26:32):
encourage that person to,

(00:26:33):
um,

(00:26:34):
get some kind of expert and get some expert yourself and,

(00:26:38):
and work,

(00:26:39):
work on the terms together and work through the process,

(00:26:41):
the legal,

(00:26:42):
uh,

(00:26:43):
side of things,

(00:26:43):
you know,

(00:26:44):
every business is different from equipment to,

(00:26:46):
uh,

(00:26:47):
intellectual property,

(00:26:48):
to the employees on staff,

(00:26:50):
to.

(00:26:51):
you know, are there lawsuits?

(00:26:53):
Is there, you know, is there debt on the business?

(00:26:55):
Like,

(00:26:56):
so there's so many things to look over and consider,

(00:26:59):
but really learn how to read financial statements,

(00:27:02):
accounting,

(00:27:03):
you know,

(00:27:04):
the balance sheet,

(00:27:05):
that kind of thing.

(00:27:05):
And so that's what I would recommend.

(00:27:09):
That's wonderful advice.

(00:27:11):
So the last thing that I want to ask you about is Biz Retire.

(00:27:15):
That is such a great domain name.

(00:27:17):
Do you have to purchase that or was it available?

(00:27:20):
How did you get that?

(00:27:21):
Honestly, I'm like, what can I name this thing?

(00:27:23):
And I started typing in web names and I just spent like three or four hours and I'm like,

(00:27:29):
oh,

(00:27:29):
Biz Retire,

(00:27:30):
we'll just do that.

(00:27:32):
I've got the buy from biz, you know, you're moving to retirement.

(00:27:36):
So it's that transition from the business owner from business to retirement.

(00:27:40):
So that's kind of the so there's a little bit of thinking through that.

(00:27:43):
But yeah, I just got lucky, I guess.

(00:27:46):
Yeah, good, good, good logo and great domain.

(00:27:49):
Very easy to remember and says exactly what you are.

(00:27:52):
And I think also is, again, appealing to your target audience.

(00:27:55):
So everyone, you can go check out bizretire.com.

(00:27:58):
Definitely go to that fact because I think that if you change your marketing,

(00:28:02):
please don't change your fact because your fact is so funny.

(00:28:05):
Yeah.

(00:28:05):
So anyway, Evan, thank you so much.

(00:28:07):
Is there any parting words that you want to share with anybody like,

(00:28:10):
you know,

(00:28:11):
how they can get in contact with you or anything like that?

(00:28:14):
Yeah, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn.

(00:28:16):
That's my biggest platform.

(00:28:18):
I do have socials everywhere else, but yeah,

(00:28:22):
you know, I don't, they're not as popular.

(00:28:24):
So definitely reach out to me on LinkedIn, follow Biz Retire page on LinkedIn.

(00:28:27):
You know,

(00:28:28):
I'll post sometimes when businesses go for sale and yeah,

(00:28:32):
you know,

(00:28:33):
feel free to contact me through the website or on LinkedIn.

(00:28:35):
I'd love to chat with you.

(00:28:37):
Awesome.

(00:28:39):
Evan, thank you so much for joining me today.

(00:28:41):
I really appreciate it.

(00:28:42):
Thank you so much.