Sold the business today, feels a bit odd

[andy-xr]

I think you've done yourself a massive favour

The problem at the moment, and UC/Comms isnt really my space, is that everyone can get anything anyone's selling from their offices over the phone, they can get it online and cheaper. Personal customers cant afford the install rates you'd need to charge to make it worthwhile building a wraparound service and businesses should have someone in house that could take care of it. So you're losing a services revenue stream that used to come in when people were moving from some old crap in the corner onto a nice new SIP trunk or something. All that's left is product choice, availability and price.

I guess the GP or kickback on each deal with the brands you have was worthwhile, but the choice that's out there makes it hard to push a customer decision towards what you've got, when there's every man and his dog out there doing the same thing. So what you're left with is loyalty of existing customers or referral customers and that gives you the ability to sell-in what you've got for a price that's decent enough for everyone. A new call centre operation or something.

I wouldnt get into Comms for love nor money unless it was purely a services angle, medium scale, no small businesses. It's just too much hassle for too little gains otherwise and you'd be trading on rebates while having to stock/trade so much stuff to get the % margins

Please, though - keep an eye out for your staff

Edited by andy-xr on Tuesday 21st July 10:47

[bad company]

I sold my recruitment agency in 2012 at age 56. It was the best decision I ever made. Now having lots of fun riding my bike and keeping fit during summer and travelling to warmer places in the winter.

Mrs BC and I were able to spend 5 weeks 'doing' route 66 (with some additions) for example.

Enjoy!

[Digga]

Frimley111R said:

DSLiverpool said:

I will do a write up on "so you want to sell your business" because after searching all of PH no posts tell you exactly what the process is and a lot is assumed.

It'd be good to hear your story but selling a business can be complex and certainly has many variations. It'd take up a whole thread to cover the process.

True enough, I'm sure, but I bet there'd be a good few 'universal' bullet points - some not always mentioned on the self-help sections of the usual broker's websites - that other business owners would no doubt find useful.

A few of my older friends and also my father's have been through this process and I always find the whole thing fascinating. Would love to hear DSL's take. on it, as I'm certain others here would.

Very best of luck with your next venture DSL.

[fellatthefirst]

Congrats on the sale!

I have bought 2 phones from you in the past 6 months and had very good seamless experiences both times 👍🏻

Looking forward to reading your write up on the sale...

[Insidious]

I must admit nearly all comms companies aren't that good compared to your IT co.

[Andrew[MG]]

Congratulations on the sale!

I think it's a good decision and it's a good market to get out of. One of my gigs is running a tools and hardware business and it's a pointless industry to be in really - there are so many competitors selling the same stuff that profits have been reduced to zero and the big (online) players like Toolstop and FFX seem to be mostly trading on rebates which is no way to run a business imho. We're launching a more specialist ironmongery site but even that will be a struggle.

If your business is just selling the same stuff as 10 or 20 other companies and you don't have any added value then it's pretty tough going. People talk about using customer service to differentiate yourself but this only works on a small percentage of the market. John Lewis like to pretend they trade on this but they trade on price just like everyone else.

Looking forward to seeing your new ventures....

[trowelhead]

Congrats - would love to read your take on the process of selling your business.

Just a couple of questions spring to mind that would be useful to those of us who may be considering this in the future:

How long did it take you to go from the decision to sell to the sale completing?
Did you have several parties interested, did you sell to a competitor or a private individual?
Is there any future earn out clause, or are you now free to leave whenever? Have you agreed to stay on as consultant for X months?
How did you go about restructuring the business to prep for the sale?
Do you have plans to take time out or are you moving straight onto another project?
How do you feel? Total freedom or a loss of purpose?

Congrats and best of luck for the future!

[twoblacklines]

Grats!

I don't actually know what you do/did but it sounded like you were in competition with Babz on the other thread. Good idea moving out of that business. I moved out just over 2 years ago, I still have 100% feedback on Amazon store which I worked hard for.

I am thinking of getting into FBA and white-label goods but you have to be super careful when doing this because of the way FBA is run inside warehouses - Amazon just put all items in one bin and if a customer orders from you and one of your competitors fake items gets to them, YOU get done for it.

At the moment I am in the digital goods business and it is epic compared to dealing with physical goods.

[gvij]

Very interested in knowing what the turnover was, gross profit margin and net profit margin in last few years and whether they were up or down. Were rent/rates/ employee costs taking a high cut of the gross profit?
What were you thinking of systematizing? Was it the installation of handsets prior to them leaving you or was it online installation at client site once they had plugged them in?
I cant see what else you can compete on its either price or service.
Employees at the end of the day are employees, they have no vested stake and never will and will do the least work possible in their mind to fullfil their contract. Work requirements and flow needs to be systematized prior to ever employing anyone otherwise instead of an asset an employee is a massive liability imo.

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 15:30

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 15:31

[bad company]

gvij said:

Employees at the end of the day are employees, they have no vested stake and never will and will do the least work possible in their mind to fullfil their contract. Work requirements and flow needs to be systematized prior to ever employing anyone otherwise instead of an asset an employee is a massive liability imo.

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 15:30

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 15:31

That's a very cynical view IMO. I had some first class people who would always 'go the extra mile' without being asked.

Sounds like you have had some bad experiences.

[bad company]

gvij said:

Employees at the end of the day are employees, they have no vested stake and never will and will do the least work possible in their mind to fullfil their contract. Work requirements and flow needs to be systematized prior to ever employing anyone otherwise instead of an asset an employee is a massive liability imo.

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 15:30

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 15:31

That's a very cynical view IMO. I had some first class people who would always 'go the extra mile' without being asked.

Sounds like you have had some bad experiences.

[gvij]

bad company said:

That's a very cynical view IMO. I had some first class people who would always 'go the extra mile' without being asked.

Sounds like you have had some bad experiences.

Look, why take a chance? They are paid to do set tasks, a systemised workflow with flowcharts and daily ticksheets is what is needed. Its up to management to do this or owners. No one bothers as they think there is no point and it will be ok but my experience is it wont and is very worthwhile.
If it all goes tits up the employees will just shrug their shoulders. There are some great workers out there too no doubt but these days you cant be too careful

Edited by gvij on Thursday 23 July 19:12

[anonymous-user]

gvij said:

Look, why take a chance? They are paid to do set tasks, a systemised workflow with flowcharts and daily ticksheets is what is needed. Its up to management to do this or owners. No one bothers as they think there is no point and it will be ok but my experience is it wont and is very worthwhile.
If it all goes tits up the employees will just shrug their shoulders. There are some great workers out there too no doubt but these days you cant be too careful and

Is this relevant to the OP?

[gvij]

desolate said:

Is this relevant to the OP?

Yes I believe so, op said that it was easily a million quid thing but he didn't have the employees and systems. Ie the employees were crap. My opinion is there is no crap employee. They need simple written flowcharts and they need to be checked they are following them. The more technical the business the more relevant this is.

[Rowley Birkin]

gvij said:

My opinion is there is no crap employee.

I think most employers would differ with you on this point.

[bad company]

Rowley Birkin said:

gvij said:

My opinion is there is no crap employee.

I think most employers would differ with you on this point.

Virtually all employers would agree with you.

[Digga]

bad company said:

Rowley Birkin said:

gvij said:

My opinion is there is no crap employee.

I think most employers would differ with you on this point.

Virtually all employers would agree with you.

I can see two sides to this.

Whilst a student, I worked a summer as a grill chef in a busy high street McDonalds and was impressed by the way the 'regime' got repeatable, consistent work out of, frankly, some pretty crap human resources (I include myself in this).

As an employer, I also saw a very poisonous shift in attitude and mentality in some low-skilled warehouse type staff around 2006-7, all of which I attribute to changes in, for want of a better word, the national consciousness largely through New Labour. In (rough) summary, the issues included:

• The 'nomadic' worker attitude - people prepared to move from one job to another, none of which they were prepared to graft at or commit to and often being sacked for various issue; timekeeping, attitude, absence without leave etc.
• The entitlement culture, reinforced by the benefit system (many only wanted/needed to work a few hours to protect benefits).
• The "I deserve to be a manager" attitude. Along with the "everyone's a graduate" idea came the parallel that some people believed they 'should' be managers. No one wanted to be a worker.
• Lack of fear of unemployment - this changed radically and whereas people would generally never previously risk losing a job, or quitting a job without already having secured another, some people began to think getting employed was easy.
• Resentment of employers and/or lack of loyalty was, in a limited number of cases, an element.

We saw an enormous turnover of both office and warehouse staff during this period. Now, I should point out that, at the same time, more than 50% of the people in the business prior to this period are still with us and also that, people we've since recruited are immeasurably better. We did not change recruitment processes much, other than to completely and totally stop any use of employment agencies.

[BrabusMog]

Digga said:

bad company said:

Rowley Birkin said:

gvij said:

My opinion is there is no crap employee.

I think most employers would differ with you on this point.

Virtually all employers would agree with you.

I can see two sides to this.

Whilst a student, I worked a summer as a grill chef in a busy high street McDonalds and was impressed by the way the 'regime' got repeatable, consistent work out of, frankly, some pretty crap human resources (I include myself in this).

As an employer, I also saw a very poisonous shift in attitude and mentality in some low-skilled warehouse type staff around 2006-7, all of which I attribute to changes in, for want of a better word, the national consciousness largely through New Labour. In (rough) summary, the issues included:

• The 'nomadic' worker attitude - people prepared to move from one job to another, none of which they were prepared to graft at or commit to and often being sacked for various issue; timekeeping, attitude, absence without leave etc.
• The entitlement culture, reinforced by the benefit system (many only wanted/needed to work a few hours to protect benefits).
• The "I deserve to be a manager" attitude. Along with the "everyone's a graduate" idea came the parallel that some people believed they 'should' be managers. No one wanted to be a worker.
• Lack of fear of unemployment - this changed radically and whereas people would generally never previously risk losing a job, or quitting a job without already having secured another, some people began to think getting employed was easy.
• Resentment of employers and/or lack of loyalty was, in a limited number of cases, an element.

We saw an enormous turnover of both office and warehouse staff during this period. Now, I should point out that, at the same time, more than 50% of the people in the business prior to this period are still with us and also that, people we've since recruited are immeasurably better. We did not change recruitment processes much, other than to completely and totally stop any use of employment agencies.

I think there is also a slight "level" issue here. badcompany ran a recruitment agency which, having sold, I'd presume to have been successful. Whatever your personal views on recruitment consultants, the good ones are VERY good at what they do and can be invaluable to a business. Someone stuffing things into boxes isn't motivated in the same way, both in terms of bonus/commission and clinching a deal. That doesn't, however, stop them taking pride in their work.

I'm responsible for a sales team and a team of drivers - our drivers are all paid a considerable amount more for what they do than the industry standard which means 9.9999 times out of 10 they will go the extra mile for us which they rarely need to do as they are usually done 2 hours before their day is supposed to end. But you can still tell the more motivated ones, the ones that will wash their vans without being asked, the ones whose vans are clean inside without having to ask, the ones who ask if we want them to do anything else, not "can I shoot off now or do you still need me?"

I guess my rather convoluted point is that you can make staff an asset to your business - pay above market rate and offer good conditions in what are deemed to be lower level jobs and people won't want to leave and will want to keep their boss happy. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

[Digga]

BrabusMog said:

Someone stuffing things into boxes isn't motivated in the same way, both in terms of bonus/commission and clinching a deal. That doesn't, however, stop them taking pride in their work.

Our current warehouse team are excellent. We're investing in vertical storage machines (one of the biggest in the UK) and they took to the idea immediately, with enthusiasm, to the point that the space needed for installation next week was cleared without any management input.

BrabusMog said:

I guess my rather convoluted point is that you can make staff an asset to your business - pay above market rate and offer good conditions in what are deemed to be lower level jobs and people won't want to leave and will want to keep their boss happy. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

Agreed, although there are times where - when the government goes on a huge ('manager') hiring spree, whilst also increasing benefits, some of which actually deter people from working longer hours - the rate of pay is incidental.

[gvij]

Imo , if employees need to keep the van clean and the interior clean, then there should be a ticksheet that this is done as part of standard operating procedures. It will get done then!!
I can see the other side of the coin too where workers need to do flexible jobs and no one has time to do a standard operating procedure like the vertical stacking machines.
Its a difficult balance but Im of the opinion that a SOP is needed with a ticksheet for activity anything else over that is a bonus. Thats HR in my opinion in a nutshell.