How to sell a small business

Let me share a wild story with you:

A few years ago, I found myself counting $10k cash (all $20’s) in the restroom stall of Grand Lux Cafe…

(Think of Grand Lux as a much more upscale version of Cheesecake Factory, with much better food and ambience…)

This was feeling more like a drug deal or a shady big ticket Craigslist transaction than a business deal.

But guess what?

It was a legit business sale!

You see, I was selling out…

Yep…

I had decided to sell a small streaming content brand I built with my partner—think of it like Netflix, but for health and wellness.

The $10k cash was the final cash installment paid to me to acquire the company.

(I won’t disclose the full sales price for privacy reasons)

And in exchange I gave the buyer a USB drive.

The deal was sealed…

Now, you might be wondering, what’s the deal with that USB drive?

What could be on it that’s worth more than $10k???

And how could a “company” be on a drive?

Well, first you have to understand something:

Selling a company isn’t just about “how to sell a company” — like contracts, terms and stuff you’d think normally equate to that.

💡It’s more about “what makes a company buyable.”
In other words, what makes your brand worthy of being bought?

In this 💡Sunday Swipes, we’ll dive into how to sell a small business…

But this isn’t just for sellers.

Even if you don’t plan on ever selling your company, in this lesson you’ll learn how to make your brand more valuable for YOU too.

You see…

Big corporate billion dollar deals aren’t the only game in town—there’s money to be made in selling small blogs with high traffic and even monetized YouTube channels.

In this lesson I’ll share how I sold a small brand I built years ago.

And I’ll go into what made it valuable enough for someone to even want to buy.

So buckle up, and let’s get down to business! 🎯

The Secret: Focus on increasing your brand’s value with assets!

Companies are bought because of assets.

They buy control of the key assets that make the company valuable (and buyable).

That’s really what I gave the buyer — there were plenty of digital assets on that USB drive.

On the drive was not only bank account numbers, usernames and passwords, but true assets.

(I’ll go into them in detail in a bit)

For now, just always remember, your brand’s assets are your power and value. 💪🌟

This raises a good question that I get asked often:

What Are Assets, and What aren’t? 🤔

SO, let’s clear the air.

Not everything in your business is a true asset.

Here are a three common things I hear that don’t make the cut:

Your Logo isn’t an Asset.

While your logo represents your brand identity, it alone won’t increase your company’s value.

Brand buyers want substance over style — they think in terms of revenue and growth potential over an icon.

Neither is your Social Media Followers

Having a huge following might look good, but if they’re not engaged or converting into customers, they won’t add much value.

Brand buyers are looking for real, profitable engagement—followers who impact your bottom line.

Your Brand? — Nope.

Your brand is sort of like the vibe you create and it’s important for customer loyalty.

However, on its own, it isn’t an asset.

Buyers want to see how your brand translates into a loyal customer base, recurring revenue, and scalable potential.

Not just your “Brand”.

This lesson shows you how to actually make your brand valuable.

Key Assets that made my small brand lit 🔥

Ok…

Now let’s briefly cover the assets that made my “mini-health and wellness Netflix” valuable?

Customer Lists

It’s a fact: repeat customers are easier to win than new ones.

And brand buyers see customer lists as real proof that people in the future will pay for what you’re selling.

Show buyers you have a solid customer base and they’ll be all in.

Here’s the sweet part — the company I sold had less than 100 customers!

Yep.

And the buyer was more than happy to pay for them –

(You’ll understand why after the next asset)

Build and manage your customer list using these:

Recurring Revenue

Membership sites = steady cash flow.

Buyers LOOOVE these types of income streams.

Why?

Because recurring revenue is predictable.

And normally recurring revenue is scalable, meaning, it’s usually fairly simple to increase the amount of recurring revenue a brand gets.

This is my go-to tool to build a dope membership site

It’s an all-in-one platform that works out of the box so you can spend time creating and not figuring out another piece of tech.

Content (Intellectual Property)

Video Content

Course and training vids? Pure gold. Make even more fire content, faster, with these tools:

Emails / Marketing Material

Evergreen emails have a very long shelf life — they’re written about long lasting principles rather than short-lived trends.

Buyers love these because they can be re-emailed to leads in the future.

AND these value-packed emails can even be turned into blog posts, commercials, or other videos.

Value. Value. Value.

If I were able to do it all again, I’d write those dope emails with the following:

Additional Assets that’ll send your brand value to the moon 🚀

OK, listen up!

Here are some additional assets that’ll make your brand’s value skyrocket, for real.

First, you need lists of leads.

A targeted email list puts you in direct contact with your customers and leads.

And with the right tools, you can build trust and relationships with thousands of leads, automatically.

My go-to tool? Convertkit.

It lets you build landing pages to capture leads, send mass announcements, and automate trust-building.

Now let’s talk lead generation.

Paid lead-gen is my favorite method — hands down.

It’s 100X faster than organic (no exaggeration).

And although you have to pay for ads, it ironically costs much less than pouring countless hours and energy into building organic traffic.

And you have extensively more control over the growth of your brand and revenue.

But don’t ignore organic lead generation.

The two big options are blogs and YouTube channels to bring in traffic and convert them into leads or customers.

To build your blog fast, use these guys to host your WordPress site, and these guy’s themes and content blocks.

With these you can build a blog site with no code on a Saturday afternoon.

Especially if you keep it simple and focus on building four key pages: Home, About, Blog Posts, and Blog Archive.

Want to start or grow your YouTube channel, my FREE YouTube bootcamp will cut through all the mystery and show you a clear path to getting your channel from 0 subs to monetized.

Next up, Documented Processes.

Your brand needs step-by-step manuals or training materials showing how your brand gets things done.

How do you make products, produce content and provide services?

These are the “secret sauces” that make your brand valuable.

But it’s not just about the “sauce”; it’s about being documented, teachable, and shareable.

If you’re the only one who knows how to do things, your business isn’t as valuable.

But with a solid documented process, a potential buyer knows they can teach someone else exactly how to get similar results as you — and THAT can be extremely valuable.

Equipment matters too.

Cameras, lighting gear, editing computers – all of these boost would have boosted the value value of my streaming platform.

In my case, the equipment used to create content for the streaming brand was owned by my production company which was separate.

But knowing this in the future gives any brand owner a leg-up.

Show off that tech, and buyers will take notice.

Last but not least: Property

Property is what makes some of the wealthiest companies in the world -— more wealthier.

Just look at McDonald’s.

They make plenty of money selling burgers and fries…

But their property worldwide is what makes ’em worth billions!

Quick Recap

Aight, here’s the deal:

  • it’s not just about selling’ a company
  • it’s about stackin’ that value with key assets that draw in the buyers

We’re talking customer lists, steady cash flow, and your brand’s intellectual gold.

But don’t sleep on the extras – targeted email lists, lead gen magic, step-by-step secret sauces, gear, and even real estate.

Just keep focusing on building and delivering value.

Grow your brand this way and you won’t just sell, you’ll leave a mark that lasts.

So, go get it, and let your brand dreams take flight.

Peace and Love,
Jesse “The Company Sellout” Young El