Owner To Owner Podcast

PART 2 - 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

#regionalsmallbusinesses are at the centre of healthy #localeconomies, 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 #regionalbusinesses face additional hurdles when selling their business. 

In this 3 part series #owners of #regionalbusinesses share their own personal experiences from going through a #businesssale process.

In this 2nd interview (over 2 weeks)  Sandra Kain from #ColesBay in #Tasmania shares 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