Owner To Owner Podcast

Rodger Spencer shares what he learned over 15 years from buying, improving and then selling his inbound call centre business.

Episode Summary

Rodger Spencer threw himself into the deepend when he bought his first business. He did eventually sell it and shares his personal experience of the process, beginning to end, in the spirit of helping other small business owners.

Episode Notes

Rodger Spencer bought, improved and then sold his inbound call centre business, @AceAnswering

After a professional background in structural #engineering, cost engineering #estimating, and #projectmanagement in the oil and gas industry he'd reached that point where he needed a big change. He wanted a break from the intensity of previous jobs entailed and thought the only way out of it completely was to start again.

That's when in 2001 he ended up buying an existing #callcentrebusiness. He openly admits he didn't know a lot about the industry when he went into it. He thought running a business would be easy, but it wasn't. He soon discovered it was hands-on and that he had to do everything himself. If he didn't, it wouldn't happen. It was hand-to-mouth for about 4-5 years but over the  years and step by step he built it up.

He's learned a lot from this experience. In our discussion we talk about; 

• initially not being in a hurry to sell because he felt like he was improving the business every day anyway
• seeing the #businesssaleplanning process as interesting process because it made him look more deeply at some of the things that he was doing day to day, the #systems and the #procedures (that needed to be brought up to date) - he called it phase 2 of the journey aka getting the 'house in order' to make the business presentable for selling
• removing himself over time from the day to day operations and customer-facing activities
• how surprised he was at the length of time it took for anyone to actually take a more intense interest in the business
• realising late that it takes a lot longer than everybody thinks
• tye-kickers who need a ground up education in the industry
• focussing on buyers from within the industry
• his major reasons for employing @kerrcapital as his #businessbroker;
  • so you can get on with your work
  • so you don't have to get involved in the negotiations
• dealing with the up's and down's during the selling process - having an attitude "well, if it happens, it happens. It'll be great. But if it doesn't happen, we just got to keep going, anyway"
• not getting too excited about people coming along and showing an interest but staying positive
• dealing with staff while selling and when to tell them about the sale to avoid unnecessary upheaval
• the merits of a #companysharesale (which allowed contracts to stay in place) vs an #assetsale
• the #duediligence process
• what happens after you sell
• his advice for others considering leaving a job to #buyabusiness
• his takeouts for owners thinking of selling;
  • start thinking about it much earlier
  • put things in place to make your business more attractive
  • continue run your business (like you would if you were going to keep it)
  • don't do a DIY