What Nobody Tells You About Selling the Business You Built
Most entrepreneurs spend enormous energy building their businesses and almost no time thinking about how they will eventually leave them. Andrea Black, business advisor with Transworld Business Advisors and a longtime member of Mariah and Monique's mastermind community, has made that gap her specialty. In this episode, she joins the hosts for a conversation that is equal parts practical and personal, covering everything from how to price a business to what it really feels like to hand over something you have poured yourself into. If you have ever wondered what it would take to buy or sell a business, this one is worth a close listen.
Episode Highlights
From Family Business to Burnout to Finding Her Calling
What a Business Advisor Actually Does (and Why You Need One)
Understanding Seller's Discretionary Earnings and What Your Business Is Actually Worth
The Key Things to Do Before You Are Ready to Sell
Creative Financing Options for Buyers Who Think They Cannot Afford It
Why Passion Matters, and Why It Is Not the Whole Picture
How to Reach Andrea and Get Started
From Family Business to Burnout to Finding Her Calling
Andrea's path to business advising was not a straight line. She grew up in Duluth, spent her twenties living elsewhere, and was eventually convinced by her father to return and help run the family insurance business alongside her brothers. That experience taught her a great deal, including how emotionally complicated it is to transition a business within a family. She eventually stepped away, moved into a W2 role, and ultimately found herself so burnt out she could barely take the next step. That is when she joined the mastermind, took the space she needed, and began to get clear on what she actually wanted. What emerged was a role in business advising, something both Mariah and Monique had quietly seen as her natural fit long before she got there herself.
Understanding Seller's Discretionary Earnings and What Your Business Is Actually Worth
One of the most useful segments in this episode is Andrea's plain-language breakdown of how a business gets valued. The core number most buyers will evaluate is called seller's discretionary earnings: the business's profit, adjusted to add back personal expenses the owner runs through the company, like a vehicle or an above-market salary. If that number is $100,000, a rough starting point for the sale price might be two to three times that figure, though the specifics vary significantly by industry, growth trajectory, and whether the business holds intellectual property or other assets. The point is not to arrive at an exact number in this conversation but to understand that clean books, documented processes, and a business that can run without the owner being present at every moment will always attract better buyers and better offers.
The Key Things to Do Before You Are Ready to Sell
Andrea's top advice for sellers is to start thinking about the exit long before you are actually ready for one. Life happens fast, and the reasons people end up selling, whether retirement, health, divorce, relocation, or simple burnout, are not always ones you can plan for in advance. She recommends cleaning up your financial records, systematizing your processes, and asking yourself honestly whether a buyer could step in and run this business without you. Mariah adds from her own experience selling her cleaning company that thinking like a buyer is one of the best things you can do early, anticipating their concerns about what happens when an employee does not show up or what the path forward looks like when you are no longer in the building. The businesses that sell well are the ones where the answer to those questions is already documented.
Creative Financing Options for Buyers Who Think They Cannot Afford It
For prospective buyers, one of the most encouraging parts of this conversation is Andrea's point about creative financing. Many people assume that buying a business requires substantial personal capital, but seller financing is a common and often advantageous structure where the seller carries a portion of the deal. This can make a business accessible to a buyer who cannot get full bank financing, while giving the seller a higher total return through interest and demonstrating that both sides are committed to the business's continued success. For buyers who have the business acumen and passion but not yet the track record to impress a traditional lender, this kind of arrangement can be the bridge that makes the whole thing possible.
Why Passion Matters, and Why It Is Not the Whole Picture
One of the more nuanced conversations in this episode involves what actually makes someone a good fit to buy a particular business. Passion helps, especially in the hard early years when the learning curve is steep and the wins are not yet consistent. But passion does not have to mean loving the product or service itself. It might mean loving operations, or systems, or the specific challenge of building a customer base in a particular market. Mariah points out that a car wash is not exactly glamorous, but plenty of people make excellent money running them because they love the operational puzzle behind it. Andrea's role as an advisor includes helping buyers figure out what actually lights them up about a business, not just whether the numbers on paper look right, because those first few years are going to require everything they have.
How to Reach Andrea and Get Started
Andrea Black works with both buyers and sellers in the Duluth area and beyond through her affiliation with Transworld Business Advisors. Whether you are years away from an exit and want to start building toward one, actively ready to sell, or simply curious about what it might look like to buy a business, she is the kind of advisor worth having a conversation with early. Contact information for Andrea is linked in the show notes.
All Heart & Soul's Details:
Website: www.heartandsoulmastermind.com
Join the mastermind program: www.heartandsoulmastermind.com/heartsoul
Say hi to Mariah on Instagram: @mariahmckechnie
Say hi to Monique on Instagram: @moniqueforcier
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