Business Builders Academy

Business Builders Academy
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How To Buy, Build and Sell Businesses Profitably

Episodes

  1. 03/06/2013

    How To Ask Customers For Killer Testimonials for Social Proof Marketing

    I want to talk to you about how do you ask customers for a testimonials. Using Testimonials for Social Proof [0:15] The Problem With Most Customer Testimonials [0:34] The 3 Types of Testimonials [0:46] The Step By Step How To Strategy To Ask For A Testimonial… [2:22] Using Testimonials for Social Proof [0:15] Testimonials are what we call social proof. It is a way of showing to potential buyers that other people have used our services and that they like us and that they like buying from us so that it’s OK and that they will have a good experience if they buy from us as well. Marketers have used this form of Social Proof for many years, and its been made extremely popular on late night TV infomercials as well with celebrities as well as every day people giving their experiences of using the product or service. The Problem With Most Customer Testimonials [0:34] The challenge is often so many entrepreneurs and small business owners try to use testimonials but they just absolutely suck, putting it bluntly. It will be a customer saying… “X, Y, Zed Widget is great, you should buy it.” Maybe its just me, but that’s not what I consider a very powerful testimonial. We need a testimonials that connects with other people and overcomes their potential objections of why they aren’t ready to buy right now. The 3 Types of Testimonials [0:46] Written Testimonial This can go on your web page. It can go on your flyers, it might go on your business card. Audio Testimonial This is where maybe you’ve had somebody on the phone, and you’ve recorded them giving you the testimonial. This can be used on your website. It could be sent as a CD to potential clients. Video Testimonial My favorite type of testimonial. The reason I like video testimonials is from your video you can display it as a video on a website, send it to them as a DVD, put it into your other promotional videos, but you can also extract the audio out of it and it becomes an audio testimonial, or you can get it transcribed and it becomes a written testimonial. So video gives you kind of the leverage to be all three. The Step by Step “How To” Strategy to Ask for a Testimonial [2:22] Now, what I want to do though is I want to share with you the strategy to getting great testimonials. Not just oh so and so was great, you should buy from them. We want powerful testimonials. Now I’m going to share with you a technique, now I learned this technique from a good friend of mine, Dale Beaumont, and I believe that he learned this strategy from another good friend of mine, Jesse Forest, who is a very good copywriter and it wouldn’t surprise me if Jesse also learned it from somebody else. And now you’re going to learn it from me. We’re just kind of passing it on because this is really good quality technique to getting great testimonials. So, the first thing we do is we don’t call it a testimonial to our clients. We ask them for feedback. Now the reason we do that is because if you ask someone for a testimonial, one, you’re implying that they actually had a great experience. Now, hopefully in your business you are giving a great experience and you’re delivering massive value so that’s OK, but better off not making that assumption. So, we’re going to ask them for feedback. The other powerful thing about a feedback is they’re not just going to freak out and go, “Oh, I better think of something good.” When you ask them for a testimonial they think,”Oh, I’ve got to come up with something” because when we ask for feedback we actually ask them questions, and we ask them four specific questions. Now, the reason we ask them four questions is it’s to put some structure to the answers they give back which we will later turn into a testimonial.  “Were you at all hesitant about buying from me or buying X, Y, Z Widget? If so, why? If not, why not?” We want to find out from them were they hesitant about doing business with us because in a testimonial someone else is probably going to be thinking “Will I do business, will I not do business?” So, a testimonial says, “Hey look, I was really unsure about how great your seminar was going to be, or I wasn’t sure if your product would do what I wanted it to do.” If it starts out with that, someone is going to identify with it. “What ultimately made you decide to buy X, Y, Zed Widget? Or to do business with X, Y, Zed Company?” We’re looking to connect with other potential customers and show them that while they may have been hesitant the reason they bought is because of a benefit that they saw. “What has been the biggest benefit or the results that you have achieved since attending that event or buying that product or doing business with us?” We really want to focus on the result here, to show others considering our product or service that others are getting great results. “Who would you recommend buy X, Y, Zed product? Come along to X, Y, Zed event? Do business with X,Y, Zed and why?” You’re asking them to tell you who they would recommend it to and why they would recommend it to them. So there are your four key questions. Now, I also like to also throw in a fifth question… “Do you have any comments or would you like to provide a brief testimonial?”  …this allows them to provide some extra content that might just give you more juice and hot buttons for a testimonial. Now here’s the key. Once they’ve answered those questions, you take the answers to their questions and you turn it into a testimonial. You write the testimonial for them or you edit the video into a testimonial, and you send it back to them and you say… “Hey, thanks so much for your honest feedback, I really appreciate it. I love you what you wrote so much that I’ve actually put it together into a bit of a blurb that I would love to share with other people who are considering doing business with us. I hope that’s OK, Here’s a copy of it, just send me back an approval to say yes, it’s OK to use and P.S. by the way, if you could, send me a photo so people will know you’re actually a real person. That would be fantastic.” And it’s as simple as that, guys. That’s how you ask and you get awesome, powerful testimonials. Hope that’s been helpful. I will see you soon. The post How To Ask Customers For Killer Testimonials for Social Proof Marketing appeared first on Business Builders Academy.

    6 min

  2. 01/31/2013

    Convincing A Seller Their Business Is Worthless

    I want to talk to you about a question that a Business Builders Academy student recently posed. He asked me, “When You’re Negotiating To Buy A Business, How Do You Convince Them Their Business Is Worthless?” This question actually threw me back and little… Destroying People Won’t Make You Successful [0:39] Is It Really Worthless? [0:57] What You Need To Do [1:37] Always Look For The Win-Win… [2:10] Destroying People Won’t Make You Successful [0:39] As many who know me personally would attest, I never ever condone destroying people and their views, you must always come from a genuine place of assisting and helping someone else. So when I answered my students question, the short answer was… “You Don’t Convince Them Its Worthless” Your job is not to convince a seller the business is worthless, your job to is have a conversation and try to find a way to help them. If during that process you can save yourself some money then you’re heading towards a WIN-WIN scenario. Is It Really Worthless? [0:57] The other reason you shouldn’t be convincing the seller their business is worthless is because you need to realise it may not actually be worthless. Just because you don’t see value and it doesn’t represent much to you, doesn’t make it worthless. You can’t just take the financial performance into consideration. Consider YouTube for a moment. Google paid $1.65bn to buy YouTube when it wasn’t making any money. It took Google a few years to monetize YouTube with its advertising model. What about Instagram? Facebook purchased Isntagram for $1bn and Instagram did not, and as far as I’m aware still doesn’t, make any money what so ever. Not a single cent in revenue. As an inexperienced buyer you might look at Instragram and think its worthless but the team at Facebook, they saw value worth over $1bn. What You Need To Do… [1:37] What your job as a buyer and negotiator is to do is to build rapport. Get to know the sellers situation, ask questions and then reflect on their situation while you look at your own personal circumstances. As my good friend Ari Galper from Unlock The Game says you are looking to “Find The Truth” You want to discover what value does their business represent to you, and your situation. Nothing more and nothing less. Once you understand the truth, all you need to do is present the facts. Always Look For The Win-Win… [2:10] When presenting the facts, show them how it has no value to you, show them where the additional costs are for you due to the way they have run the business and remember to show them where you acknowledge that value does exist in their business. Then come to a mutual agreement and understanding about their business for sale. Create a win-win situation. Make sure that they feel they are winning, and make sure that you are also happy and feel like you’re winning. At our 3 Day Business Builders Bootcamp our students learn over 15 different tactics and strategies for negotiations, and focus on creating a WIN-WIN. Not only do they learn the theory, they practice the negotiation skills live at the bootcamp so it becomes a part of who they are. Remember its Not All About The Money! If this has been of value to you, type your comments, questions and feedback below. **UPDATE – SLIP OF THE TONGUE** A slip of the tongue on this video made me say Google paid $165bn to buy YouTube, this was incorrect, but the text overlay and information in this post represents the true figure of US$1.65bn that Google paid to buy YouTube The post Convincing A Seller Their Business Is Worthless appeared first on Business Builders Academy.

    3 min

  3. 10/22/2012

    The Biggest Mistake You Can Make When Negotiating To Buy Or Sell Your Business

    Today I want to talk to you about negotiation skills and techniques, specifically the biggest mistake you can make when they’re negotiating to buy a business. Let’s Paint The Picture [0:00] The Mistake Is Focusing On ONE Thing [0:43] Have An Abundance Mindset [1:49] Negotiations, are really… [2:18] Let’s Paint The Picture [0:00] Let’s say you’ve gone out and you’ve found a business for sale. You’ve then gone and you’ve evaluated it. You’ve worked out that it’s a great business, it meets your rules, it’s perfect for you and you move on to negotiate, a really fun, exciting and energetic time in the whole business buying process. It’s time to put your negotiation skills and techniques to good use. The Mistake Is Focusing On ONE Thing [0:43] Now here’s the thing, the biggest mistake that everyone makes when they go in to the negotiations is they think about one thing, can you guess what it is? Yourself – The biggest mistake you can make when you’re negotiating to buy a business is only think of yourself! Many people come to my How to Buy a Business for a Dollar intensive and some people seem to think that I must be teaching my students to screw other people over, that I’m giving them questionable negotiation skills and techniques – this couldn’t be further from the truth. When all you do is think about yourself, you will end up in what I call a lose-lose situation. If you’re talking to someone who wants to actively sell their business and you’re actively searching to buy a business, if all you do is think about yourself, I guarantee you, that you will end up in a lose-lose, where you don’t buy the business and the vendor does not sell their business or they sell and hold a grudge against you for the rest of their lives. When this happens you’ve both lost. Have an Abundance Mindset [1:49] What I teach my students, is to come from a place of “do not screw people over”, have an abundance mindset, a WIN-WIN attitude. Every situation in business, in life, I believe everyone can win in every situation. There is win-win available in everything. You just need to know how to find it. That’s what I teach. I show you how do you find the WIN-WIN. Negotations, really are… [2:18] … about building rapport. It’s about getting to know the other party’s situation, their needs, their wants and everything else that’s going on. The more you understand of their point of view and where they’re at, the more you can find a win-win that is over and above the fact that they wanna sell their business and you wanna buy a business. So when you go into your negotiations, even if you forget any and all negotiation skills and techniques you know just remember one thing. It’s not about you! Focus on both yourself and the other party. The more you understand the other party, the more you’ll be able to work out how you can help them and solve their problem and come to an understanding that you both. Both the buyer and the seller, walk away from a successful transaction happy and there’s no bad blood. The post The Biggest Mistake You Can Make When Negotiating To Buy Or Sell Your Business appeared first on Business Builders Academy.

    3 min

  4. 10/14/2012

    How An 18 Year Old Can Borrow $1 Million Dollars From The Banks to Buy A Business

    Today I want to talk to you about a question I was recently asked by Troy in New South Wales. He asked… “I’m an eighteen year old, and can I get a loan from the banks for a million dollars to buy a business?” The Short Answer Yes, but without knowing your specific situation my guess is it will be challenging. The Longer Answer I recently had a financial expert, Kevin Lee, come in and speak to my class at Buying a Business Master Class because he’s written over a billion dollars worth of loans and he deals with the banks every single day. And this is what he shared with the class. There are 4 Questions You Need To Answer To Get A Bank To Loan You Money 1. Can You Service The Loan? [1:04] 2. What’s Your Risk? [1:32] 3. Who Are You? [2:14] 4. What Can They Take? [2:46] 1. Can You Service The Loan [1:04] Do you have a job that’s paying you an income that will continue to be received once you buy the business? Do you have investments that are bringing you an income? What cash flow, profits and take home income can you pull out of the business you’re gonna buy, and combining all of that, can you service the loan repayments? If you borrow a million dollars over 5 years, you need to be able to pay the monthly repayments somehow. Because you are buying a business this is a good start, unlike starting a business you will most likely have cashflow from day 1 in the new business, but is it enough to pay the expenses and the loan as well or will you need to fund the repayments from some other type of income? 2. What’s Your Risk? [1:32] A bank is not going to give you a million dollars to buy a business for a million dollars. Why you might ask? Because you haven’t put any skin in the game, the banks want you to show how serious you are about buying this business and they want you to do that by putting your own money into it. Think about it from the banks point of view – if you don’t put any of your own cash in, what’s to stop you from buying a business, they put all this money up, and then you decide that actually you don’t want to do this business thing anymore and walk away from the business. The bank’s now stuck with a business that they’ve got to try and get rid of. So they want to know what skin are you putting in the game to show your commitment. 3. Who Are You? [2:14] The next thing a bank is going to look at when you want to borrow money to buy a business is what is your character like. What is your history? What is your credit rating? Have you been late in paying credit card payments? Have you defaulted on loans in the past? Have you declared bankruptcy recently? Have you successfully run a business before? What preparation have you done to ask for the money to be lent to you? If you’re going to go ask a bank for a million dollars, you’re going to have to do a very thorough business plan to show your character and show your ability to research and understand the industry you’re about to buy into. Banks aren’t just lending on the business, they are lending on you as the entrepreneur. 4. What Can They Take? [2:46] When borrowing money from a bank to buy a business the banks want to know what can they take if you don’t pay your loan. What are they going to be able to do to get their money back? Now thinking about if they take your business off you but the business doesn’t have a lot of assets, thats going to be worrying for them as they’ll wonder how easily can they sell that business again and make their money back. When there is a lot of stock and assets in a business, they can possibly liquidate and quickly make all or at least some of their money back. Remember To Be Creative [3:12] Now the thing is that I teach my students here at Business Builders Academy that as entrepreneurs we are creative. And as such, I teach creative strategies to financing buying a business. At my How to Buy a Business for a Dollar intensive, I actually share five different ways that you can creatively buy a business without requiring the money from the banks, either at all or in a lot less. So be aware that as entrepreneurs, you are creative, think creatively, think how could you buy this business without involving the banks. The post How An 18 Year Old Can Borrow $1 Million Dollars From The Banks to Buy A Business appeared first on Business Builders Academy.

    4 min

  5. 10/10/2012

    The Secret Language Of A Business Broker

    Many people have been asking me about some various acronyms they have seen while browsing the business for sale websites, the newspapers and business for sale magazines. They see terms like WIWO, SAV, TOL, NDA and wonder… What Does It Mean? Today I’d like to explain 4 of the most common acronyms you’ll see in business for sale advertisements and what they actually mean. What Does WIWO Mean? [0:56] What Does SAV Mean? [1:14] What Does TOL Mean? [2:48] What Does NDA Mean? [3:17] W.I.W.O = Walk In Walk Out [0:56] One of the most commonly used and least understood acronym is WIWO, so what Does WIWO Mean? W.I.W.O means Walk In Walk Out. And to understand what Walk In Walk Out really means you need to understand Stock At Value first. Often people think WIWO means there is no hand over, and they would be correct however it’s actually referring to that when you walk in to the business, the other owner completely walks out and there’s no time taken, and there’s no stock take made. You see sometimes when you buy a business you will buy on a certain price plus stock at value, which would mean when you come in, you need to take a stock take and actually make sure that if you’ve paid $50,000 for stock at value that you have $50,000 worth of stock. In a walk out walk in walk out situation, they’re saying look the business is $500,000 WIWO. There’s no stock take to check how much value there actually is of stock to then readjust the price, there’s very little – if any – handover training from the previous owner. You’re going walk in and the current owner is going to walk out. S.A.V = Stock At Value [1:14] Another common acronym which you may have seen which had you asking “What Does It Mean?”… is SAV and that stands for stock at value. After reading about WIWO you should feel that Stock at Value is a little more self explanatory now. If you pay a certain price you’ll sometimes see it’s like lets say $100,000 plus stock at value. You do need to be careful with this because you might think the business is only $100,000 – $150,000 to purchase but because they have been slow at moving stock or they way over invested in stock they could have half a million dollars worth of stock in the purchase, bringing their asking price closer to $600,000 instead. T.O.L = Take Over Lease [2:48] This acronym is not as commonly seen, but can be used in business for sale documents and even email communication with a business broker, accountant or real estate agent so it is important you understand it and that is TOL. What does TOL mean? TOL stands for take over lease. That means that the sale of the business requires you to take over the lease, either as part of the purchase or as being the only element of the purchase. What you’ll sometimes find is businesses who are struggling with rent payments, are willing to pass on their business just for taking over the lease and while its less likely to be advertised when it is this is an acronym you’ll come across. N.D.A = Non-Disclosure Agreement [3:17] A term that you may already be aware of, but if you’re not, it’s an important term to know – that is an NDA. Now an NDA stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement and essentially whenever you inquire to buy a business privately or through a broker, the seller will usually get you to sign an NDA. This is a document designed to protect both parties although never assume be sure to read it carefully as you want to make it is a mutual non-disclosure agreement. Once signed both parties are agreeing that they won’t share any private and confidential information you share with them, and you won’t share any private and confidential information that they share with you. It’s to protect both the buyer and the seller, like when the seller is disclosing a lot of financial information, and more often than not the buyer finds the business is not in as good shape as they’d thought, now obviously the seller doesn’t want their competitors to necessarily know this and have it broadcast to the world. This is why the NDA is used so the buyer agrees that they aren’t going to call up the competitors and tell them the situation that the business is in, they’re only going to share the information with relevant people as outlined in the non-disclosure agreement. To learn more about terminology like this and how to find good businesses, negotiate the best price, avoid getting ripped off and access templates and checklists including a Non Disclosure Agreement, check out the Buying A Business Homestudy Program The post The Secret Language Of A Business Broker appeared first on Business Builders Academy.

    4 min

  6. 10/03/2012

    Courts Rule Against Banks In October Liquidations

    In the October 2012 Business Builders Update we cover Court Ruled Liquidations On The Rise [0:28] Banks Now Siding With The Business Owners [1:20] The Current Business For Sale Market [1:54] What’s Happening in October [3:00] Court Ruled Liquidations On The Rise [0:28] A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald was talking about Insolvencies at Record Highs. In fact this year in particular there’s been a massive rise with Taylor Woodings back in May, releasing statistics that showed nine thousand and seventy four businesses had gone out of business this year alone. That was back in May talking about up until February 2012 only and a large proportion of them had been liquidated, and an even larger portion of those liquidations were court ruled liquidations. What this has meant is that banks and the ATO have basically taken the business owners to court and the courts had ruled that the business needs to be wound up and put into administration. This means there has been a huge glutton of businesses on the market for sale and a lot of liquidated businesses. In fact there are now more businesses for sale than there are buyers looking to buy, which is making the sales cycle a long process, making it hard for liquidators to cash in quickly. Banks Now Siding With The Business Owners [1:20] Because of this slow moving market, the focus is moving away from court ruled liquidations and banks are actually now opting to negotiate with the business owners to try and find a way to keep them in business longer. The banks are finding it hard to actually sell these businesses because of this highly competitive market and they’d now rather see the businesses stay in business a little bit longer and maybe be able to fix their problems and get themselves out of trouble, so that the banks can get their money back. The Current Business For Sale Market [1:54] Currently what is the state of the market if you’re looking to buy or looking to sell? Well its good news for buyers and bad news for sellers because it is very much a buyer’s market right now! As previously mentioned, there is a huge amount of businesses for sale and there are more businesses for sale than there are buyers and there is a couple of reasons for this; First there’s these court ruled liquidations and the fact that because the economy, especially the retail economy, has slowed down and so a lot of businesses are finding it tough. It’s meant that it’s a lot of businesses that are deciding to sell, or they’re sadly going out of business and are trying to sell to get some quick cash rather than shut the doors. Then there’s also the fact that we’ve got a rising population of Baby Boomers. A lot of 50+ year olds who started their own businesses over the years and they’re now looking to get out, and more and more of them are looking at ways to sell. What’s Happening In October [3:00] This month I’m coming to Melbourne on the 16th of October and I’m coming to run my popular How to Buy a Business for a Dollar intensive. Be sure to register and come along. I would love to see you there. In November we also have our 3 Day Business Builders Boot Camp, I would love to see you there as well. Until next update, go out and live life 110%. – Carl The post Courts Rule Against Banks In October Liquidations appeared first on Business Builders Academy.

  • 6 Episodes

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How To Buy, Build and Sell Businesses Profitably

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  • Creator
    Business Builders Academy
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2013
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
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    © Business Builders Academy
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