Firma verkaufen oder auf 10 Millionen skalieren?

0:00Unternehmer/Gast I have a subscription based Yes. >> boat membership. Mhm. >> Yes, yes, I do. Currently doing 2 million top line. I'd like to pass the 10 million mark. What's stopping me is decision. I came here to this workshop because I've been doing this 13 years. I've put in my 10,000 hours. Not making enough money. So, I came to learn how to scale.

0:28>> Mhm. >> I have two options in front of me in the next 6 months. One to purchase an existing club that would more than double. >> Mhm. >> And another to start a third. I have five locations. This would make 10. Um >> And you're doing like two-ish with 500,000 in profit, right? >> Yes, 600. I mean >> [laughter] >> Hey, every dollar counts. I'm I'm with you. Okay.

0:55>> Yes. Um in in a session that I had this morning or this afternoon, um in asking questions about how to scale, Ed told me I should not scale, I should sell. >> Mhm. >> So, >> Is it because you don't like it? >> Yeah, that's what he said. >> [laughter] >> I'm just reading here. >> Yeah. >> Fair point. Okay. >> "Do you love boats?" And I said, "No."

1:23>> Well, before we before we break your life, um just a couple frames cuz I I didn't say this earlier, but I'll say this now. Um I'm really not talking to anyone per se, I'm talking through them to everybody else cuz believe it or not, the problems that you have is the same problem that like five other people here have or 10 other people here have. So, just want to set that up front. Um I'll just share something that might be just a maybe a different frame on this, which like have you heard the story of the three stone cutters?

1:52So, a guy walks up, sees a stone cutter, and he says, "Hey, how's your day going?" The guy's like, "It's terrible. It's backbreaking work. It sucks." And he's like, "Okay, wow. I got it." And he goes to the second stonecutter um and the guy says, um "Well, you know, pays the bills, you know, keeps the family fed, you know, that's fine." And then he goes to the third stonecutter and he says, you know, "How's your day going?" He says, "Oh, it's amazing. I'm building a cathedral that, you know, is going to last for generations for my kids, right?" And so the same work, just different perspectives on the work itself. And so the perspective that I'll share is just that um having now owned a lot of different businesses um almost all businesses are the same as if you chunk up high enough because if you get two or three levels up, you're going to have a director of sales, director of marketing, you're going to have director of IT, you're going to have personnel issues, you're going to have HR, you're going to have legal. And it's going to suck every other day.

2:44Alex You know what I mean? And so it's kind of like, you know, I've had I've had 10 executive assistants and I currently have none. Um and the common thread between all of me and them is them, obviously. And so and so I say this because like if we're if we're trying to hope for for the business to be the thing that brings you joy, I would just really strongly push against that. Um and I'd rather you just see the business through a different perspective, which is like this is an opportunity to get to learn some skills.

3:15Like a good friend of mine had um he was in the fitness industry and then started a cookie company, which makes it seems completely antithetical, right? He's like, "I'm creating demand and supply." >> [laughter] >> Um but what was interesting about it is that I asked him, I was like, "Are you passionate about cookies?" And he was like, "No, not at all." And I was like, "Why are you doing this?" And he was like, "Well, I think there's a good gap in the market." This is before Crumbl. So he had the right idea. Like he thought that the gourmet cookies were going to be a thing. He ended up having a bad partnership, whatever. But the point is is that he was right about his idea. He did a hundred different recipes to figure out the one chocolate chip cookie that was amazing. And he did he did really well. But the thing is is that he wasn't in he wasn't in love with cookies. He was in love with being excellent.

3:50And I think that that's that's at least how I try to see business. It's like how can I let this business be an expression of the values that I have rather than this business has to fill a hole in my heart. So, back to you. Okay, so do we exit this thing? Do we get another location? Cuz I'll bet if you just didn't hate the people you work with, you'd probably be okay with it. >> With getting another location? >> Oh, no, just in general. Like I mean, cuz right now you have this this desire cuz you have what? 2 million in debt, right?

4:20>> Yes. >> Yeah, so you have 2 million bucks in debt. You're doing 600, not 500,000 in profit. No, that's not Um and so basically after taxes, it's going to take you like 6 years, 7 years to pay the whole thing off assuming you don't spend any money, which would suck, right? >> Yes. >> That would blow. Okay. Um So, I can feel that that is crushing weight. So, either you want to scale past it so these debt payments aren't killing you because it's eating probably the majority of your cash flow.

4:48Um or selling and you kind of either starting over or, you know, doing something else, etc., right? >> That's right. >> Okay, do you have an offer on the business? >> No, I wasn't even looking to sell until an hour >> I was like, sell. >> [laughter] >> Um [snorts] So, you have 25% margin, so it's not bad. I know less than that cuz you're a little higher than 2 million in revenue, right? 2.7, is that what it is? >> Um

5:14>> revenue? Between 2 and 5? >> 2 million. >> It is 2 million. Okay, so it's 2 million top line, 5 600, excuse me. 600,000 bottom. So, I mean, you're on 30% margin. The only issue is you made a bad decision like 4 years ago or however many years ago you took the debt out. >> Yes, cuz it's pretty capital intensive to have 50 boats. >> Yeah. So, how's cash flow for the business? >> Um good. I mean, COVID was great. We sold like crazy and unfortunately put a lot away, so I don't have cash constraint.

5:45>> That's great. Okay. So, okay, outside of like let's sell this thing, you still want to grow it, right? >> I want to grow business. This just happens to be the vehicle. >> think this is a bad business. I mean a boat membership where you have a, you know, like I mean I fundamentally you have very high margins on each incremental membership, correct? >> Yes. Yes. >> So, you're kind of at this point where like you've covered all your costs and so each additional membership makes you a lot more money, right?

6:13Disproportionately drops the bottom line is my point. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, what stops you from selling 10 times the memberships? >> That was the question that I tried to answer >> Right. >> coming here and going through the framework and and when we were going through the circles yesterday, I came down to I think it's my offer. >> Okay. Okay. And is this is this a franchise or is this yours that you just started your own?

6:40>> That's the other part of the equation is that it's it's a licensing model. >> Okay. >> And I think the conversation in the room today was is it really mine if I'm under a licensing structure? >> Yeah, I mean you can sell the business. You have an existing agreement, but what do you give away top line? >> Nothing. >> Oh, okay. So, then what what's the what do you license? >> The the marks and the system. It's a reservations software system.

7:08>> So, technically my members do because we're licensed and not a franchise, I can't pay directly, so the members do. >> Okay, what percent do they give away? >> It's it's a $500 a month membership, 30 bucks a month goes to corporate. >> Okay, so whatever that is, 6%? Okay. I mean that's fine. >> Mhm. >> Okay, so I mean I wouldn't say it's strangling you. Um okay, so it's 20% your margin functionally. All right, so uh why So, do you currently do ads? Do you do outbound? Do you do organic? Do you do any affiliates? What are you doing to grow?

7:37>> We spend about 6,000 a month in paid ads. We do a lot organic. >> What's ROI on this? >> Oh. >> Good, bad? >> Um well, according to the marketing agency that I use, they're very very [laughter] great. >> According to them, they're like, "It's acceptable." >> Yes, yes. >> You just spent all your money on >> Yes. I only spend $11 per lead, and that's a fabulous number in the industry, evidently. >> Well, what percentage are you closing of leads?

8:05>> Uh the industry standard is 6%. When I was doing it myself in the past >> here. Just for everybody, zero [ __ ] about industry standard. >> Okay. We're at 4%. >> Average American, overweight, in debt, divorced seven times over. Why would I care about the average industry person? They all suck. They don't make money. [ __ ] them. So, anyway, sorry. Go back to you. >> [laughter] >> We're at 4% lead to close. >> Okay, 4% lead. So, it cost So, 25 times lead cost. So, it two, whatever, 266 is cost of acquisition right now, not including sales commissions.

8:37That's what the number is. So, like, um >> Thank you. >> Yeah, yeah, you're right. So, um if that's if that's what it costs you to get a customer, what's the membership is 500 a month? >> It's a $5,000 initiation fee, and then $500 a month. We sell 5-year contracts. >> I love this. >> I >> Why are we getting out of this business? Cost you cost you cost $300, $400 with commissions, whatever, to get the sale, to get a $5,000 upfront, and then and then $500 a month or

9:05>> Mhm. >> Yeah, that sounds chill. >> So, that's why I was thinking I'd do more of it. >> Yeah, do more sounds great. I love this for us. I love this for us. >> [laughter] >> I love this. >> Yeah. Um Okay. So, why don't we spend more on ads? >> Sounds like I should. >> I feel like that's not a terrible idea. >> Not a terrible idea. >> Yeah. The thing is is you have a business where This happens a ton, by the way. Like, you get And this this is actually really interesting, cuz that's In my opinion, it's purely psychology, but you you have a certain amount of cost that you have that's fixed cost in the business and then you spend enough marketing to get above the fixed cost and then make some profit and then you like exhale you're like thank god I'm not losing money. But it's like you're willing to work so hard to make everyone else money. Your landlord, the licenser, the your the employees like you're paying all their mortgages but then like you're just forgetting to like pay you.

9:57>> Mhm. >> And so it's like let's go ham on that side. Like when it gets easy is when you go hard. So I'm what so you do this what else do you do? You said you're good at organic stuff. >> Yeah we are and what a third of our new members come from our existing referrals or existing members. >> Okay cool. Do you have a really structured referral system or just people talk to people? >> Yes and yes. >> Okay cool. Cuz we have a whole bunch of badass stuff for referral stuff but um that's one thing that can probably get juiced beyond the scope of right now.

10:29Um but that's a big one and then ad stuff honestly if we could take a look at it it's like we could probably figure this out in 5 seconds of what needs to do. The thing is is what's your close rate on people who come in? >> Um so 4% lead close and then we 33%. >> Okay you're fine. Yeah like your stuff's not [ __ ] up. >> [laughter] >> Okay.

10:56>> We just need to get the referral system in place we need to spend more on ads we can make sure attribution's right. If we needed to tweak like if you were like I'm closing 10% then it's either a sales motion issue or it's an offer issue. Now if the lead costs are too high but you said they weren't if the lead costs were too high I'd look at offer as well but that might not be the issue right now. And so I think probably more and better creative that we do on the ad side and I'm sure are you doing Google AdWords is that your primary? Yeah. Um more and better creative probably better targeting in terms of what what keywords will be look uh bidding on. Um and there's probably a handful of like really easy CRO stuff so conversion optimization that we can do on the actual funnel itself. Like you just don't know a lot of like there's so many little things there that you can just like immediately increase how much the business is making from each lead, and that'll probably just give you a little bit more exhale like uh in order to spend more, cuz I think that's what we have to do.

11:43>> Thank you. >> If you are a business owner and you are not growing as fast as you like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So, my team and I put together the $100 million scaling road map, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had and what stages of growth they went through and more importantly where they got stuck and how they got past it. And so, we broke it into these 10 stages and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at and the most important part for you, what to do for each of functions of the business across product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources, and finance. And so, no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it. And so, I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free. You can go to acquisition.com/roadmap, plug in your business information, and if you want us to actually help you deconstruct the business and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out. On the thank you page, you can book a call with my team and we will look at the business, see if we can help, and if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas and we'll do this in person live.