Owner To Owner Podcast

PART 1 - Sandra Kain from Coles Bay in Tasmania on lessons she learned selling the supermarket, cafe & bakery she started 26 years back.

Episode Summary

PART 1 - Sandra Kain from Coles Bay in Tasmania finally completed the cycle of starting and then selling her 2 businesses. End to end it was 26 years. The selling part took a lot longer than hoped. In this episode she shares her personal experiences and tips for other regional business owners thinking about selling.

Episode Notes

Regional small businesses are at the centre of healthy local economies, both as a supplier of goods or services and as an employer. It's in everyone's interest that these businesses successfully transfer from one owner to another. Owners of regional businesses face additional hurdles when selling their business. In this 3 part owners of regional businesses share their own personal experiences from going through a business sale process.

In this 2nd interview (over 2 weeks)  Sandra Kain from #ColesBay in #Tasmania hares her beginning to end story of landing in #ColesBay starting 2 new businesses and then completing the cycle and selling, over a much longer timeframe than she imagined, a bit over 26 years later.  We cover;

• arriving in 1994, taking on a #supermarket and #takeaway as one #business, and then a few years later, purchasing the #bakery next door
• using the earlier experience of owning a business in #perth but being challenged by the step up to the next level
• her motivations for being in business
• the #inspiration she got from her #mother who worked in a little #MilkBar, work alongside  her, and enjoying the interaction with people
• though I had worked before and it was my own business but this was a large scale
• the benefits of good #timing with #Tasmaniantourism opening up and having #international guests coming from everywhere
• #colesbay being the first town in #Australia to #banplasticbags and working with @PlanetArk
• #tasmanina as a beautiful #cleanandgreen place
• hearing the signal that ït's #timetosell - knowing that the average time it would take to #sellyour business was three or four years.
• kicking off the #sellingprocess and getting nowhere slowly (initially by putting notices on the front of my businesses - just to see who was out there)
• deciding that after twelve months two years that it was not really going anywhere
• the challenges for young couples, young baker's in getting #finance
• dealing with #tirekickers and endless #questions
• working alongside #goodpeople #colorfulpeople
• the difficulties in getting good people working for you in #ruralareas and #countryareas
• hoping and then realizing that #children weren't really interested in taking on the businesses - a major turning point in her life
• feeling anxious from then on
• experiencing the sense of loss after selling the business  - wandering "what you are going to do tomorrow?"
• finally selling and becoming farmers #breeding #BeltedGalloways
• working out that working with animals is a lot easier - because they do not answer back!!

@kerrcapital