ON TODAY’S EPISODE:

What Chelsea does as a business broker, niche site investor and founder of Her Paper Route [3:47]

Her experience of helping product based businesses sell their companies [5:04]
How to know if selling is the right decision for you [6:53]
Her advice on how to navigate the emotions of selling your business [10:09]
Chelsea’s tips on putting your business in the best position to sell [13:13]
How her company determines a business’ valuation [16:37]
What role inventory plays in your business valuation [18:06]
How intellectual property factors into your valuation [19:41]
The ideal time to exit your business [20:49]
The timeframe that most people tend to want to sell their business [24:04]
Common mistakes she sees business owners make when wanting to sell their business [25:34]
What happens after you sell your business and the offboarding process [29:05]

Download These Quotables to Save and Share

KEY TAKE AWAYS

“All of these things (your sales funnels, your sales systems, client connections) that may have seemed so simple for you when you were creating it. It adds value to the next person because they don't have to do it. You are saving them months, if not years of work by being able to just come and take it over.” - Chelsea Clarke [09:25]

“The businesses that we create, they are our babies. They have a piece of us in it.” - Chelsea Clarke [10:11]

“You have to decide for yourself it's right for you and your business and your family, that it's time to move on from the business you created.” - Chelsea Clarke [11:31]

“It's like selling a house, right? We want to get everything staged and ready and primed for the buyers before we open the doors or hang the sign outside ” -Katie Hunt [27:10]

RESOURCES

LABS
Paper Camp
WordPress
Google Analytics
Create Joy
Etsy
Amazon
Free Business Valuation

MEET CHELSEA:

Chelsea Clarke is a Content Monetization Strategist, investor and business broker who helps entrepreneurs and investors buy and sell niche online businesses, via her brokerage BlogsForSale.co. In 2020, Chelsea put over $490,000 USD in the pockets of creators, from the successful sale of their websites, in the pandemic.

Additionally, Chelsea founded HerPaperRoute, where she helps entrepreneurs make sense of funnels and marketing so that they can scale faster. She has a passion for sharing business growth-hacking strategies and is on a mission to help creative entrepreneurs make more paper.

CONNECT WITH CHELSEA

Website: blogsforsale.co, herpaperroute.com | Instagram: @herpaperroute

Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct

Transcript for Proof to Product Episode 217

DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT

217 | How to Exit and Sell Your Business with Chelsea Clarke of Blogs for Sale

[00:00:03] Katie Hunt We're taking you behind the scenes with entrepreneurs that run product based businesses. There is so much information out there tailored toward service providers. So we have carved out a space just for you, the creative entrepreneur making and selling physical goods, whether you are just starting out or a seasoned business owner. This podcast will shed light on new strategies, inspiration and action steps to help you grow your product based business. Hey friends, I'm Katie Hunt, and welcome back to Proof to Product. Have you thought about your exit strategy in your business? Would you want to sell the company? Does all of it pass it on to a family member or friend to continue running it? Most of us don't think about the end when we're beginning our business. And I would venture to say that most small business owners don't know their options for exiting their business. But today we're going to learn all about selling our company. Today's guest is Chelsea Clarke. She's a content monetization strategist, an investor and business broker. She helps entrepreneurs and investors buy and sell niche online businesses via her brokerage, BlogsforSale.co. In 2020, Chelsea put almost a half a million dollars in the pockets of creators from the successful sale of their websites, and that was during a pandemic. Additionally, Chelsea founded Her Paper Route where she helps entrepreneurs make sense of funnels and marketing so that they can scale faster. She has a passion for sharing business growth hacking strategies and is on a mission to help creative entrepreneurs make more money. On today's episode, we talk about the pros and cons of selling, what to prepare in your business to make it more attractive for a buyer and the steps involved in selling. We also talk money. Chelsea has a tool on her website to help you determine the potential value of your business. So definitely check this out for that link. But before we dove into today's rich episode, I want to share this note I received from Amy Wilkins of Verity Press. Amy joined our Proof to Product LABS community earlier this year. And here's what she had to say about the program. I am 100 percent glad I joined Proof to Product LABS as a paper camp alum. I knew the time spent with you would be worth every minute and every penny. Proof to Product LABS is perfectly organized and beneficial for any stage of business. It's fantastic to have so many elements converging in one place. Our monthly trainings, coaching calls, podcast, community conversations and resources Proof to Product LABS is truly an incredible knowledge, strength and support bundle. Thank you, Amy. Thank you so much for your kind words. We're so happy to have you in our community. Listeners, the doors to Proof to Product LABS are always open so you can get the help you need when you need it most. We have members in the startup phase similar to Amy, as well as seasoned business owners with more than ten years experience under their belt. If you would like support, head to ProoftoProduct.com/LABS to join our twelve month group coaching program. This was built specifically for product based business owners just like you. All right, let's head into today's episode with Chelsea Clarke. Hi, Chelsea. Welcome to Proof to Product.

[00:03:02] Chelsea Clarke Hey, thank you so much for having me.

[00:03:05] Katie Hunt Yeah, it's my pleasure. You know, when I read your bio, I was captivated by the multiple arms of your business, but I was mostly intrigued with how you have helped content creators and business owners sell their websites. And I think I read in 2020, you help them sell them for almost a half a million dollars, is that correct?

[00:03:24] Chelsea Clarke Yeah, that's right. So in 2020 we put $490,000 U.S. into the pockets of content creators from selling their businesses and in 2021, we've already doubled that. So it's crazy like it's great. It excites me beyond anything to be able to do that.

[00:03:42] Katie Hunt Oh yeah. So in your own words, tell us about the work you do and who you work with.

[00:03:47] Chelsea Clarke Oh absolutely. So yeah, I am a business intermediary. I'm also a niche site investor and the founder of Her Paper Route. Basically, I help business owners increase the value of their websites through content marketing and digital products while providing a marketplace for content creators and investors to buy and sell online businesses over at BlogsforSale.co So those are probably the two wings that you had noticed, different ones of the business, but they yeah, they under the umbrella of Her Paper Route, they're both are under there. So I'm just all about growth, hacking, the profitability of a business and basically just empowering creators to feel good about sales, whether you intend to sell your online business or not, whether it's digital products or service based or physical products, whatever it is that you sell. I'm excited and I just want to encourage and empower people to feel good about making those sales. And that's what we do over at Her Paper Route and then at Blogs for Sale.

[00:04:46] Katie Hunt That's awesome. I love to how you help prime them for the sale with the whole, you know, the funnel side of things, the marketing side of things. You need that to be able to position the business for sale. That's awesome. Have you worked with a lot of product based business owners to help them sell their businesses? And do you have any examples you might be able to share?

[00:05:04] Chelsea Clarke Yes, absolutely. So we often have product based creators come to our marketplace. And the nice thing about a product type of business where there is a physical product is it's something that can easily be taken over by a new owner, you might think. Oh, but there's so many spinning plates in my business. There's inventory. There's just too many things to even consider. But we have worked with enough creators in this type of market before that we can make it really simple, so what I like to say, and actually I can give an example, so last year we sold an Amazon FBA business. She was making handcrafted jewelry. So she herself created everything from her living room, creating all of these pieces. And then she had them shipped out to Amazon warehouses. So when customers bought things, Amazon just took care of the packaging and shipping. So the FBA model is actually pretty easy for someone else to come in and take over the inventories already at the offices of Amazon. You know, you basically just change a few names on where payments are going. And of course, there's the the legal contracts and the escrow transaction and all of that that your broker, myself or whoever you end up working with takes care of for you. But the actual transfer of assets is a lot more simple than you might be thinking if you're listening and you're thinking of all the types of things you'd have to consider.

[00:06:31] Katie Hunt Yeah, I think most people's brains go to oh, that feels overwhelming. But when you break it down and you also have someone to help support you in that, I could see how it's much simpler than we make it out to be in our heads. How would a business owner know if selling is the right exit strategy? What are some of the pros and cons to selling versus just closing down a business or making other options as you exit?

[00:06:53] Chelsea Clarke Oh, that's such a great question. I personally have been there too. I've been at the point where I've been running a business and I get to the point where I'm just like, oh, I'm tired of it, or my passions have changed, my interests have gone somewhere else and I have considered just letting it die out. But the thing is, where your passions may have changed to someone else, it is brand new. It's exciting. They see all of the work that you have put in thus far and created this brand for them. It's brand new and they can just put their name on it and take it over and run with it. So you actually have created this amazing asset. Even if you yourself don't think it's any good anymore to someone else, it could be the most amazing thing they've ever seen. So I always want to encourage people don't just give up on your business or if you're feeling burnt out or whatever the reason is being able to sell it lets it live on. It gives you profit because we sell sites for up to thirty six times its monthly revenue so you can walk away with a nice payday, you can exit and then use that money to put onto your next project, your next passion, whatever it is that you want to do. So you can always get ahead. If you sell yourself for a good price, you don't have to just let it die just because you're not interested or because your personal interests or needs have changed.

[00:08:13] Katie Hunt Absolutely. I think, too, we underestimate the amount of legwork. And, you know, building a business is tough work and we build that foundation and we sometimes undervalue it because we put the time and effort into it. We think, oh, we did that. It was not that big of a deal, but it is a big deal. And for someone else to walk into a company that's already running, that's profitable, that has strong systems in place, that's a huge asset to them. That's very valuable. It saves them a lot of time and money of having to do that legwork themselves. Would you agree with that?

[00:08:44] Chelsea Clarke Absolutely. There's that's such a good way of putting it, because when we're actually in the business, a lot of the time we forget about everything that we do in a day. We do so much. We're creating so many different assets of the business, so many different moving parts, whether it's updating your website, talking to clients, networking, all of these little things that you do and you probably don't even think about any more, that is all very valuable and it is all helped to get the business to where it is now. So for someone else looking at it, they can see, oh, wow, I get to jump ahead. I don't have to make all of the connections you've already made, all of these client connections. You've already set up your funnels, your your sales systems, your cart on your website, all of these things that may have seemed so simple for you when you were creating it. It adds value to the next person because they don't have to do it. You are saving them months, if not years of work by being able to just come and take it over.

[00:09:38] Katie Hunt Absolutely. You know, selling your business is a very emotional decision, especially the people I work with they're, one or two person businesses or small teams. Right? So it's a lot of individuals doing all the work. And the idea of selling a business may feel scary and emotionally driven because it's such a large piece of our identity. I know you're not in the business of, like, forcing people to sell their business or anything like that. Before you say to somebody who's, like, weighing the pros and cons and that emotional piece is weighing heavily on them.

[00:10:09] Chelsea Clarke Well, that is so true. The businesses that we create, they are our babies. They really are. And they have a piece of us in it. And when I look at sites that are they have the creators persona on it, like maybe they've even included pictures of their family. You know, over the years, they've actually created a brand that has some of their personal brand on it. That's really hard to, to sell to someone else, so if you are having that thought or you have a business where your personal brand is on it, first of all, if you're going to be selling it, I always say take your pictures off, take your pictures of your kids off. You know, anything that you're selling the business with would become the new owners to be able to do what they want. So anything that you would want them to have, just take that down. So maybe it's pictures on your Instagram, because when we sell businesses, the social media accounts go with it, the email accounts, everything like that. So you would just want to remove your persona from it. And I think when people realized that, that they actually can remove themselves, whether it be their name, their picture, that part of it, then they can look at the business for just what the businesses. And that really does help to be able to move forward because they can see that it's not them that's being sold anymore. You know, it's just the business that they created. But you have to be ready yourself. It's not something that anyone can tell you. It's time to do is really just, you have to decide for yourself it's right for you and your business and your family that it's time to move on from the business you created. And then once people do decide that that's a whole other bag of emotions when you go live with your listing and, you know, people are asking questions. And that's the nice thing about having a broker, too, is you don't have to deal with people one on one answering all their questions. Your broker handles that for you because there's a lot of the time questions can be fairly personal. And because you have your personal connection to the business, sellers can feel attacked, especially if a buyer is saying all your traffic has gone down in the last six months or I see that your sales have decreased. And why is that? And as the seller, you might feel personally attacked, but as the buyer, they just want to understand the business so they can understand where their money is going, what their ROI will be if they take over the business. It's never personal. So that's a nice thing about having a broker as broker handles that. And you don't even have to you don't have to do anything until an offer is on the table. And then you can get into the conversation if you want to or not. You can just let your person take care of it for you. But that can really help with the emotional side of things is just sort of remove yourself from the position of being the face of the business.

[00:12:43] Katie Hunt So this kind of leads nicely into my next question. If we were interested in selling our business, we're not sure if we want to sell it yet. But if we're interested, what are some things we should do leading up to it to put it in the best position possible to sell? So you already mentioned, you know, depersonalizing it. I don't know if that's a word.

[00:13:00] Chelsea Clarke That's a great, great word.

[00:13:02] Katie Hunt Depersonalizing it a bit from the the humanistic standpoint of like being our personal brand. But what other things should people be thinking about or doing in advance of considering selling?

[00:13:13] Chelsea Clarke Well, the great thing about positioning your site or your business to sell is a lot of the things that you'd want to do for that. You're probably already doing just for your own business, accounting and tax purposes. So things like having your profit and loss, so some sort of spreadsheet where you track what you're spending or buying in the business and where the money's coming from for your revenue and sales, a nice, easy spreadsheet like that can just that's what was the first thing that we ask for. And that's the thing that the buyers will want to see. They want to understand as far back as possible, the revenue history, what's being bought, what's being sold, what are the expenses that they, as the new owner, may have to expect them to pay moving forward or some expenses that they wouldn't and they would be removed. So that's the first thing. The next thing is for your website. And now so we will have some Etsy sellers, Amazon sellers here, but for your own website, like your WordPress site, making sure that you have your analytics. So Google Analytics attached and is calculating the traffic that's coming in because traffic is really important when we sell online businesses, buyers want to see that there is a history of stability of people actually coming and checking out your sales pages. And if you're using a third party selling tool like Create Joy, Etsy or Amazon or something like that, you can go by any analytics that those companies are able to provide for you. So this is the two main things is revenue and traffic. And then you'll also want to prime your site by making sure that your social media accounts are being kept updated. So we don't just have a Facebook page that hasn't been, you know, we haven't posted on in six months or we have customer comments on our page that were never answered. You always want to make sure that you go and you're keeping your social media current and active. Just you probably doing that in your business anyway. But it just looks good in the eyes of potential buyers. Nobody wants to buy a business that looks dead in the water. They want a business that is active with happy customers and an audience. And then the last thing I would mention is just the actual content that you're putting out on your website, on your sales pages, on your social media, wherever it is that you hang out, that you are just keeping active content out. So that's why it's always really great to have a blog if you're able to publish a weekly blog, post or monthly. Either way, that is really good. Just showing that someone in your business is there active, putting out fresh content, keeping your sales pages updated, that sort of thing. Those are the best ways to really prime your site, to be ready to put out into the world to potentially sell.

[00:15:47] Katie Hunt That is fantastic. So just to recap, we've got our revenue streams or revenue like our profit and loss statement, our traffic, our social media and then our general content on our site. So whether that's a blog or a podcast or something like that is that those are the four.

[00:16:01] Chelsea Clarke Yes, absolutely. And I guess I would probably also want to add in your email list, so making sure that your email marketing is consistent as well. So you're sending a weekly newsletter and you're keeping track of your open rates and what people are clicking on. That's just something that your email service provider shows you. It's not something you have to track down or anything. It's just there. And that's something that you can show as proof that you have a happy, happy, engaged audience as well.

[00:16:25] Katie Hunt Love that. OK, let's talk about pricing a business. How do we determine like how do you value a business? Is that something you help clients with? And what are the things that you look at to determine that valuation?

[00:16:37] Chelsea Clarke Yes, absolutely. So that is something that we do for you. And if anyone's listening, they're interested in just getting a ballpark idea of what their site could potentially sell for. Just go to blogsforsale.co/val like short for valuation and you can fill out a form there and we'll give you a free business valuation and a couple of suggestions of what you might be able to do to increase the valuation if you are interested in selling. So the basic thing that you would want to look at for a valuation is the revenue. That's the number one thing we want to see how much income has been coming in as an average for the last 12 months and the average of that, we will usually times between twenty four months to thirty six months. And that's that's usually the selling, multiple of which is would be two to three years. That's usually the selling multiple for businesses. But then there's a lot of other things that come up that can play and come into play as well, because we also are looking at your traffic the size of your social media accounts. There's a lot of little details they can bring up that initial valuation. So that's why I say it's the best way is just to calmly get your free online valuation. And I can I can help you out from there.

[00:17:48] Katie Hunt Awesome. We'll be sure to include that in the show notes for anyone that's looking so you can easily click through. You know, the other thing our our audience has that's unique is inventory. Right? Like, yeah, we've got assets in the business outside of just general computers and things like that. They've got product and most carry inventory. How does that factor into the valuation?

[00:18:06] Chelsea Clarke It absolutely factors. And so inventory increases the value of the actual selling price because you have purchased products for the business or created them. If you're a Handmaid seller, there's a value in that. However, much of your inventory will be included for the new owner to take over. So we would do a dollar amount for what it is worth, the selling price, minus any expenses that would have been incurred for acquiring or creating that inventory. And then that gets factored into what the actual valuation would be as well. And with inventory, there's a couple different ways to do it. So we've sold a few sites where the inventory there was one was a subscription box business for for books and there was a lot of inventory that had been purchased already that was at a warehouse. So we had options. We could either just include it as part of the asking price or it could be an additional thing that the new owner would purchase from the sellers. And that's just really it's a deal by deal basis. There's no just one set in stone way to do it. It just comes down to the buyer and the seller. And that really just gets worked out during the negotiations, what everybody wants, what everyone agrees to. And then I put that into a legal contract so that there's no confusion after the fact. We make sure that everyone understands what they're paying for, what they're getting, how it's being shipped to the new owner, all of those little micro details.

[00:19:32] Katie Hunt OK, what about things like intellectual property? So trademarks or copyrights? I know that would transfer, of course, to the new owner, but how does that factor into valuation as well?

[00:19:41] Chelsea Clarke Yeah, so that can add as an additional asset, usually the trademark or the LLC or whatever it is. That is not a dollar amount that is added in, but it's like a nice to have because if a business comes with a trademark that is professional, that that's a certain expense that has been already paid for all of the documentation in the time that it takes to register. So that definitely increases the value of the business, not necessarily increases on a dollar amount, but it's better than not having a trademark, let's say, and the actual transfer of that. It is quite easy. We usually do that after the payment has gone through escrow because that's when we get the lawyer or the representative who registered the trademark involved who then takes it over. And they work between the buyer and seller to make sure that the names and everything there with the trademark is is transferred successfully.

[00:20:32] Katie Hunt OK, is there like this, I feel like there's no clear answer to this question, but I'm going to ask it anyhow. Is there like an ideal time to exit your business? Is there like a tipping point where it may be less advantageous or more advantageous?

[00:20:49] Chelsea Clarke When your business is doing well, that is the best time to sell. If you sit on it for too long and you're not active with it and you're thinking, oh, maybe I'll just it'll pick up, but then it doesn't, then that's not the ideal time to sell. You can still sell when things are on going down. But if when you're able to sell it, when things are going up, it's on a high note. And you've decided that, yes, this is a good time for you personally. That is the best time you can sell it. It's looking great. Sales are coming in to a new buyer. That's ideal. They want to see that business. But I do want to say that if your business has been having a couple down months or maybe years, you're not at a loss. There is a way to still be able to sell and walk away with a profit.

[00:21:36] Katie Hunt OK. Last year was kind of an odd year. There were a lot of businesses in our community that did exceptionally well. They have their highest revenue ever. And then there were others that struggled, you know, and everyone was going through their own circumstances, of course. But it makes me think there were a lot of people who felt burned out at the end of the year, but yet they had this thriving businesses. Is that a good time to sell if the owner is feeling not so excited about the business, but the numbers are high? It seems to me like it might be, but also it seems like an emotional time to make a big decision like that.

[00:22:09] Chelsea Clarke Yeah, that's a good point. It is an emotional time to make a big decision, but I think it's really just on an individual basis what feels right to you. And, you know, you're so right with the pandemic and everything that has been going on, all different nations and all different types of businesses are all over the map. We have some that had to go ahead to receive government assistance because they weren't able to get through those hard months. We have the businesses that are selling more of the digital products. They were killing it last year and still seem to be. And we also, which is kind of interesting, is we have product based sellers who had started their business with a physical product. And then during the pandemic, they realized that they needed some sort of digital element to pull the business through and kind of support the main side of the business. And those sellers who were able to do that, like having an e-book, having an online course, teaching something they did really well. And then because they had that digital element, when they put their business up for sale, it was just much more attractive because it wasn't relying on just the one stream of revenue it had to. And one of it was something that could just live online, be sold over and over again. And after the first time it was created, you know, just having that to support it really can help.

[00:23:24] Katie Hunt So it totally makes sense that, like the most attractive time of your business is when it's doing well and the revenue is strong and all the marketing pieces are in play. Are there like any I guess this question is more about time. You know, we've got people in our community who have been in business for ten years and then and, you know, they've built a really solid business. We've got others who are just starting out. Do you see people on both spectrums selling their businesses? Are there people that start up a business, get it rolling with the intent to sell from the start? Are there people who have been doing it for a long time and who want to transition to something else that are like it seems like you have sellers at all ends of the timeline?

[00:24:04] Chelsea Clarke Yes, yes, yes, yes. And that is the exciting thing. So there's people who start up businesses with the intent to sell it. They create a niche niche online business where they have a product, they have blog, post. Everything is just talking about this one niche. They run it for three to six months and then they flip it and sell it. We have people who buy businesses, run it for a couple of months, increase the revenue, increase the traffic, flip it for double what they paid it. So then we also have people who have been running their business for years, sometimes ten, fifteen years, and they have been the old the sole owner of the business, and then they decide to sell. So really, whether it's a starter business, an established one or something in between there is a market and there's a buyer for everyone. And I really do think that because when I look at my network of buyers and investors and the people that I speak to and ask what they're interested in, when I'm looking for sites for them, they're all over the map. They have these are people who have money and they have multi passionate interests that they are interested in all different types of businesses. So I could never just say one person is into one thing because I'm always surprised by what what I learn.

[00:25:16] Katie Hunt I love that and think of ourselves as individuals, how many different passions we have in our lives, different hobbies and interests and things. Perhaps I can see that being the same for people that are purchasing businesses. You know, what are some common mistakes that you see business owners make when they're considering selling their business?

[00:25:34] Chelsea Clarke One big mistake is I see if someone puts their business up for sale, it can be a mistake if you decide psychologically that you are no longer part of the business. So it goes up for sale and then you somehow, mentally just check out you are no longer putting as much content out there. Maybe the weekly blog post, stop the weekly newsletter, stop. You have decided it's no longer yours and you're no longer there. That is a mistake because it's still yours. You are still running the business and the time you want to be most active is while your site is listed because people are coming to your site every day to come and check it out who may be interested in buying it. And if they see that nothing's happening, they're just not going to make an offer. Right? So that's a big mistake. If you can just force yourself to stay engaged and stay passionate as much as you can or outsource, hire a VA to do that job. That's good, too, just so that someone is keeping things going. But really, you can't really make too many actual mistakes. If you were to, say, put your site up for sale and then while it's listed, you are taking your blog post down or taking your sales pages down and moving them to another website, that would be bad. Don't do that. You know, once it's up and listed for sale, that is like your your your open for business and everything that is in your store is part of whatever you will be selling. So you wouldn't want to start removing things or moving things to a different business ethically. And just that's just going to be messy when it comes time to to sell.

[00:27:09] Katie Hunt No, that makes sense. It's like selling a house, right? We want to get everything staged and ready and primed for the buyers before we open the doors or hang the sign outside that says, OK, we're for sale. So it makes sense. I'm kind of going back a little bit here. But like, what about internal systems processes, SOPS, like if you have that side of the business really tidy and in order, does that help with the attractiveness of a business or even the valuation of it?

[00:27:35] Chelsea Clarke Well, it definitely helps with the attractiveness of the business, and it definitely helps with once you have sold that sort of 30 day period post sale where you are transitioning the new owner on, if you have all of your SOPs and all of your systems of frameworks and everything in a really organized way, that's just going to help you so much, because I know once you sold your business, you've got that money in your bank account. You're going to want to just go and do your thing, but you still have to onboard the new owners and make sure that they are all set up and happy. So if you have your systems in place, man, that is really, really going to save you time and headache during that transition period. So that is important, but it's not something that would be added into the valuation. It's just another really nice to have.

[00:28:23] Katie Hunt So it sounds like you get your stuff ready on the front end with your marketing and all the things we talked about earlier. Somebody contacts you or another broker and they help you list it and get everything ready. You'll handle talking to the buyers. I'm just walking through the process here. Yeah, you'll talk to the buyers, answer questions, help facilitate the discussions and all of the contracts and legal things that need to happen. Once money changes hands and the deals close. What is that typical like you coming off, you offboarding and the new owner onboarding? Is there a certain time frame in which you're obligated generally to help get them started? Or do a lot of owners stay on afterwards to help continue running the business in some capacity?

[00:29:05] Chelsea Clarke Yeah, so a lot of times buyers will actually write into their offer, asking for how much help you can be there for and for how long. Sometimes a buyer will actually ask you or someone on your team if they can stay on as a content creator, maybe to publish new blog post or to just be there to answer questions. So it's really a deal by deal basis. And whatever ends up happening in the end would be something that you and your buyer would have agreed to. So there's no surprises. You wouldn't want to just sell something and then suddenly they want you to basically work for free. We don't want that. So we make sure that's all organized ahead of time. But a lot of the time, yeah, people do want to stay a facet of the business in some way, like they may not have their face. They may not be the one creating content anymore. But I know one one example she sold her business is actually for $300,000 a couple of years ago, it was a blog, but the buyers wanted her persona to stay on, not in a way as if she was still running it, but just so that she could come in and write a new blog post once every season. So that was part of how they worked out. The the final selling price was by having her agree to write a seasonal blog post so that she still was somehow there. Her readers that have been following her for years could still see that she isn't gone forever, but then she doesn't actually have to be in the business. She doesn't have to be running it anymore. She's just off creating her next thing that she wants to do. Which is a nice way to do it too.

[00:30:38] Katie Hunt Absolutely Chelsea. This was so enlightening. I really appreciate you walking us through these steps. And, you know, for anyone listening that's interested, where can they find you online to, again, do that valuation or just discover more about your services?

[00:30:51] Chelsea Clarke Well, thank you so much for having me. This conversation was so good and I love all of your questions because this is the kind of stuff that I can nerd out on about all the time. So thank you.

[00:31:00] Katie Hunt Of course, though, I really enjoyed this.

[00:31:02] Chelsea Clarke Well, thank you. And yeah. So again, my name is Chelsea Clarke. You can find me at BlogsforSale.Co, that is the marketplace where you can just go actually and look and see the listings that we have live. You could find out all about them. You can see the traffic, get some ideas there, or if you want to find out how much your business could potentially sell for, there is a link on that website or you can go to BlogsforSale.co/val, and you'll get a free valuation and then you can get in contact with me. We can just chit chat. No obligation at all. I can always provide information and help there. Or if you're just interested in learning about the marketing side, the niche website development, all that kind of nerdy stuff, you can find that over at HerPaperRoute.com.

[00:31:43] Katie Hunt Awesome. Chelsea, thank you again for your time today. And I want to go check out your website, now so thank you.

[00:31:49] Chelsea Clarke Thank you so much for having me. This is so much fun.

[00:31:51] Katie Hunt All right, friends, I learned so much from today's conversation with Chelsea, and I hope you did, too. I particularly like how she talked about revenue, traffic content and audience all factoring into the strength and even the valuation of a business. You know, these are things that I want you to be focused on building or even refining in your business, regardless of whether or not you plan to sell your company. In fact, we've done several trainings inside of my Proof to Product LABS program to help you create a strategic and consistent marketing plan. We're talking emails, social media, marketing and even paid advertising. If you would like to watch our past trainings or participate in our upcoming programming, head to ProoftoProduct.com/LABS. And that's where you can join my twelve month group coaching program. LABS is focused on helping you fine tune all of the pieces of your business that will help you grow your revenue, increase your visibility and really nurture your existing customer base. So again, head to ProoftoProduct.com/LABS to join us. Thank you so much for showing up today and listening. I will be back with a new episode next week. Thank you so much for showing up today and listening. I'll be back with a new episode next week.