Turning an Earn-Out into a Warranty Holdback

Murray Kent had no background in electrical conduit fittings when he paid $40,000 for a four-person business that, as he put it, looked like a bit of a crack den. What he did have was Value Builder's 8 drivers -- pinned to the wall next to his desk as a literal road map for every decision he made.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to negotiate a clean exit with no earn-out complications and no equity rollover.

You'll learn:

• Why posting the eight drivers next to your desk changes the decisions you make every day

• How Murray reduced his biggest customer from 50% of revenue to the low 20s -- and why even that required extra meetings to satisfy the buyer

• The counterintuitive reason a surprisingly high offer should make you more cautious, not less

• How Murray turned a proposed earn-out into a simple 12-month warranty holdback worth less than 5% of the sale price

• Why Murray broke the news to staff in small groups rather than a town hall -- and how he kept each group from spoiling it for the next

• Why open-book management and profit sharing made his team part of the business, not just employees of it

• What Murray wishes he had known going in: the one negotiation skill no podcast can fully prepare you for