EP 111: BizSaleByOwner: The Future of Self Directed Business Sales

Ed Mysogland  0:19  
Welcome to the defenders of business value podcast, I'm your host, Ed Mysogland. And today's a real interesting podcast because we're talking about business sale by owner. And this sale by owner is near and dear to my heart because I get the opportunity to visit with Gary Staley, who's my partner and co founder of Bissell by owner and biz sale by owner is a is a two sided platform. And we started building this thing. Cash yours, I mean, it's it's at least two, maybe even three years in the making, and a lot of money in building out. But we see as a platform that will serve all business owners. And it's a basically a two sided marketplace where on one side you have, you know, the opportunity to list list businesses. And on the other side you have professional service providers that specialize that aren't are in the exit space. But our industry hopefully specialists. And so it's like said it's a two sided marketplace. And it's so exciting because I don't think there's anything out there like this you there's pieces but not under one roof. And so my conversation with Gary, aside from walking down memory lane of of what it took to get it here. We talked about the features, and why we built it the way we did, and why business owners should you know, really resonate that if they're thinking about an exit why this might make some really good sense to them. So like I said, I It's exciting, frightening at the same time. But it's a it's a great platform. And I think it's going to do really well here and in 2023 and 2024 and beyond. So I hope you enjoy learning a little bit more about my recent project with my partner Gary Staley. So Gary, welcome to the show. Thank you, Ed,

Gary Stehle  2:43  
it's good to be here. Well,

Ed Mysogland  2:46  
what the audience doesn't know is that you and I have a long, long history together. So why don't we start there? You know, I introduced you before we came on, and you know, I guess why don't we start we're start where your practices today what you're doing, and then we can talk about big sale by owner.

Gary Stehle  3:12  
Sure. So yeah, so today I work for the largest provider of Home Services franchise or called neighborly. And I work with with our business owners, our franchise owners name really is a little bit unique in the fact that we have a whole resale team a whole resale department. So we recognize on the front end that many of the people joining are going to at some point want to sell and so we have a whole team dedicated to helping our owners that are looking to exit at some point, whether it's retirement or could be any any reason. We have the resources and the team to help the owner. So that's what I'm doing today. And it's a good fit because I've been in the space of working as you know, Ed with small business owners. Pretty much over my entire career. I was a small business owner early in my career, I was a franchise owner. And when I sold I ended up going into business brokerage, helping small business owners buy and sell businesses and and that's shortly after that time is when when we met each other. Oh yeah,

Ed Mysogland  4:34  
it's and it's been it's been it's been a good good time to know you because because like I said, you know you you broke my heart by leaving leaving the brokerage and you know, you went and but But what's interesting is, you know that everything kind of circles, you know comes full circle and so, you know I'm I'm excited about the The the work that we're doing here with the sale by owner, so you want to talk about the platform or you want me to

Gary Stehle  5:07  
go ahead and kick it off. You're irrigating speaker.

Ed Mysogland  5:11  
Fair enough. Okay, so, so yeah, this sale by owner, this goes back, you know, for me, it goes back to 20, you know, 2017 and 2018. And originally I was going to come out with a course it seemed everybody was coming up with different courses of, of things, whether it's, uh, you know, building a business or fitness or whatever. And so I was I had a course how to sell your business course.com. And I, I kept on thinking, Well, you know, this is going to be, this is going to be really hard to scale. And when I say scale, you know, the underlying message behind big sale by owners that just bought, every company can sell, and we want to provide the platform that that becomes almost a household name, kind of like Zillow, but for businesses. And I think, the more I thought of it, and that's when you and I started talking about, you know, how can we bring How can we bring the sale expertise to, to small business and have a platform. And that's where you and I started talking and exploring, and I remember, we were sitting at a at a coffee shop with, with a, with a with a notebook, you know, you know, just writing out what would eventually become the best sale by owner platform. And we we had that brainstorming session about, you know, what are all the tools that a business owner would want to, you know, have at their disposal in order to, you know, in order to effectively have a self directed sale? And, you know, by no means am I saying that, you know, there's no space in in this platform for brokers. But I do think that there are a lot of business owners that want to either A, give it, give it a go themselves, just because they're entrepreneurs or be, you know, they are more suited to have a self directed sale, if they have the knowledge that there's guardrails, you know, alongside, you know, the, the sale process. And so we can, we'll talk a little bit more about features, but yeah, so that's, that's kind of the history of, at least how I remember it. Yeah,

Gary Stehle  7:48  
it's, it's gone on for quite some time, we've, we've hashed it out and talked, and then I think when the when kind of the world changed in 2005, with COVID, that probably had a little bit more time to think about it. And, and also, that changed the way a lot of us interact. A lot of virtual meetings, people are more used to not going to the office, they're used to working with people on other parts of the country. So that lines up for a while, I think with with with the platform. And I think I'm back to the notion about business brokers, I obviously I was a business broker. So I believe that they are valuable and have a definitely have a place. But there's also going to be a lot of instances and I see it quite a bit now with what I'm doing. Where a business may not be attractive to a business broker, maybe it's smaller, maybe, you know, there's, there's all kinds of different things that go on with a small business, that it just may not be a good fit for them to work with a business broker. And we want to make sure that those owners and those sellers have a place to define the resources and be able to sell their business because, like I said, we have a team at neighborly that helps them with that, but many small business owners don't have that and they don't know where to go. So that was kind of one of the driving forces, I think, in our discussions.

Unknown Speaker  9:22  
Well, i

Gary Stehle  9:23  
i

Ed Mysogland  9:26  
And I think we talked about this that, you know, it's not like we were making the, since we're recording close to the holiday, you know, it's not the Island of Misfit Toys, you know, it's, you know, this is people tend it and there's more of a movement into you know, the doing it yourself crowd and in our case, you know, the the self directed service, you know, having a platform that you have the you know the entire horsepower of of professional advisors at your fingertips that you can engage to help you have a successful self directed sale. That's a big thing. Now, conversely, you have business brokers where, you know, it's a, it's a full service experience you, you recognize that this is that's running your own sale process is not what you want to do. And there's nothing wrong with that. And that's, that's, you know that? Yeah, that is. Yeah, that's

Gary Stehle  10:28  
yeah, I direct, I direct business owners to quality brokers every every week. Because it could be where this business owner is running a business right there, they're busy, they don't have time to sift through 100 leads of prospective buyers to get to that one or two, that's actually serious. Many of them, they've never sold a business before. So they want, they want that comfort level. But like you said, For Sale By Owner, those that want to do more self directed, and maybe need some help along the way, whether it's valuing the business, you know, coming up, recasting financials, whatever the case might be, they're going to be able to find those resources on, on this sale by owner. So I think, I think that's really, you know, we're looking that the business brokerage world hasn't changed, and I don't know how long you've been doing this

Ed Mysogland  11:27  
31 years,

Gary Stehle  11:28  
31 years.

Ed Mysogland  11:31  
It hasn't changed, and the mechanics of it remain remain the same. And it's still a relationship business, and it's still and, and those that are those that are you know, good dealmakers will always, you know, there, this is certainly should not be a threat by any means. And in fact, this only should amplify their their practice. But I will tell you that, you know, my one of my underlying goals is the is moving the bad actors out of out of this space, I think, you know, you would think as long as I've been in the business, you would think that there would be the SEC, or some regulatory body would come over the top of this industry and say, you know, what, we're dealing with somebody's net worth here, maybe we may, we should provide some guardrails and provide some, you know, like broker check with FINRA and things like that, where you can, you can vet out those, you can vet out those bad actors. So you know, what you're getting, especially given the risk associated with with selling your business, under the Yeah, or through perhaps a person or an organization that

Gary Stehle  12:52  
doesn't scream, that's a good point. Because I know, when I talk to business owners to this day, I always tell them, you know, a business broker is as good as you know, who they are as a, as a, as a professional as an individual, they're people. So like, in anything, there's going to be good ones and bad ones. And so I think, to your point, having a platform to go to where, if they want to hire a full service broker, to be able to find a person maybe that has, you know, let's say they're there, they own a business, it's an HVAC business, and they want to find someone that's sold, you know, 1020 30, or just focuses exclusively on selling HVAC businesses, they can find that type of person on the platform, they don't have to be local, they don't have to be in their market. You and I know, plenty of people that specialize in certain sectors, and they work with business owners all over the country. So at the same time, they can see you know, they can see some reviews on them and and vet them out. So it's just like anything that a business broker is worth their weight in gold, if if they've got the experience of their high quality. But like you said, there's not a lot of it just hasn't been regulated. One of the things that I didn't mention was in between working as a business broker and and coming to where I am now, I spent about five years at a boutique investment bank. And so we were doing larger deals. So we were regulated by the SEC, and to have FINRA licensing and so a whole different world. But it's, you know, it's something that it is kind of shocking that the main street small business space is not more regulated, in some ways. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  14:51  
And to be honest with you, I mean, it's it's honestly disappointing. You would think that with as much that's on the line out there, that that somebody would come alongside and say, you know, what we probably need to, to, you know,

Gary Stehle  15:07  
to protect the

Ed Mysogland  15:09  
this sale because not only is it a taxable event, but but it also is a life changing event for that person that selling. But no, I don't know, I, with the new recent regulation change that it even broaden the scope of what what brokers can do as far as size and stock sales and things that, that historically they've they've not been able to do. You know, without, you know, invoking the SEC no action letter. That's, uh, you know, they're the barriers to entry are even lower now. So, but yeah, let's, let's talk about why we're here. Yeah. So the platform, you know, the funny, the funny thing, I was thinking about this RF, our, our interview here, and, and I was thinking about how far we've come. And I don't think, you know, you alluded to it, you know, throughout COVID, you know, it took, you know, it, it changed the world. But it also enabled us to, you know, while we were shut in with our home, in our homes, it also helped us start, you know, start this thing, and, and, and work with a developer that are a development team, I should say, and we kept on, you know, it was kind of like the, you know, the wish list of, of everything a business buyer, seller and advisor could possibly need and, and it's, you know, you hear, you know, I do some I do some, as you know, I do some work over at Butler University with the entrepreneurship program, and, and one of the things is, you know, you release an iterate as fast as possible. And for us, you would think you would think that

Gary Stehle  17:05  
we were, the professor asked

Ed Mysogland  17:09  
you, if you would think that I would, that I would subscribe to my own medicine, but no such luck. But, you know, what, I, I think what we found is we found, you know, as we got into it, I think we learned more about,

Gary Stehle  17:26  
about what, you know, what we,

Ed Mysogland  17:31  
what we wanted, what, you know, what, what a business owner would need not, and I and while I regret the delay in releasing it, I do think that the timing works out well. So you're so big sale by owner. So this is, the big overview, is that it's a two sided marketplace. Alright, so the first side, you know, for those of you listening, you know, it's almost like a big sale, or, biz buy sell. So it's a marketplace, you know, so

Gary Stehle  18:04  
down the road, it's almost like a big sale by owner.

Ed Mysogland  18:09  
Right. So it's a, you know, like an axial a, biz buy, sell a, you know, a platform that you have, you know, listing by listing, you know, listings and engagements that are on, on one side of the platform that buyers can, you know, can see. And then on the other side, which is is unique and different to the to this entire space is it's almost like an Upwork, but only for exit eight people involved in the exit. So, for those of you not familiar with Upwork, it's also a marketplace, but the marketplaces for, for, you know, graphic designers, podcast editors, you know, you can hire computer programmers, you can just about any kind of, you know, contractor, you know, in the creative space, you can go to Upwork and hire

Gary Stehle  19:11  
any type of service that can be provided remotely, right, right. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  19:16  
And people from all over the world. And I've engaged with people from, from Italy, Ukraine, Switzerland, as well as domestic and so Upwork so the the two sided platform is when a business owner requires that support, they can within the platform, raise their hand, create a creative job, I need help with and then pick the pick what you want, what you need help with, whether that's valuation, legal county financing, all those things that you typically would have, you know, potentially need professional guidance on, it's right there and available. So that's the platform. So you want to talk about features,

Gary Stehle  20:12  
I would love to I would add one more thing in when you're talking about up work, which is the same with biz sale by owner that, you know, it has to, it has to be secure. So there has to be, you know, the, the buyer or the seller that's engaging. One of the service providers on the platform, wants to know that, hey, if I pay whatever the X amount of money is that we agreed to, that I'm gonna get the work. So we I'm sure that that's one of the things we'll talk about. But I just wanted to add that in there that we have a partnership with, with escrow.com to help manage that security. Yeah,

Ed Mysogland  20:49  
um, for for both sides. I mean, it's, yeah, well, let's just talk about sellers. So let's just dive into it. So. So the background of any brokerage, or the sale of any company is confidentiality. And so we've layered on a number of failsafes. From anybody that's going to inquire on in the business has to be registered. Alright, that's the first thing, anybody that that is going to have a interaction, meaning we'll talk about our messaging on the backside has to be registered. There is a a built in confidentiality agreement, as part of as part of, you know, the, the inquiry process. So, so with all digital

Gary Stehle  21:47  
online,

Ed Mysogland  21:48  
it's all it's all digital. And, and it is. It is it makes competent, every everybody understand that this is a confidential transaction. So that's the first thing you want to talk about. Second, or do you want me to keep going?

Gary Stehle  22:06  
What's what's on the second list?

Ed Mysogland  22:09  
No, I was going to talk about that, as far as cost. So the the cost to the to the seller is nothing, there is no, there is no fee, to to put your business on the market through the sale by owner. There is a fee, however, we have an if you for whatever reason, you as a seller choose to raise your hand and say, You know what, I will pay a referral fee. For anybody that sends me a buyer, so that for a $20 a month charge, you can put a badge on your profile that will signal to buyers and advisors that you're willing to pay a referral fee. So that's the only cost that you have. Now, I say that and I do want to, to also share that we do have you know, when you do have a you do create a job, say you have a business valuation, you want to know, you need you need some valuation guidance or some tax advice, base, whatever and use it you create a job that says I need some help. Well, there's a cost to that. And, and so you will pay that contractor or the advisor on the other side of the platform for that. So but as far as to use the platform, there is no, there is no there is no charge.

Gary Stehle  23:48  
Yeah, I would add guy add a couple things to what you just said. That's why you're here. All right. So on the badge, I think just to highlight that. The reason for that is obviously to get more exposure. So if you're saying, let's say you have a business and you're set you're you're you're listing it on the platform for $300,000. That's that's the asking price. And you're saying I'm willing to pay a referral fee to someone who brings me a buyer that ends up buying my business, I'm willing to pay and you set whatever that amount is that you're willing to pay, whether it's a percentage, or a flat fee. What often happens is advisors are working with potential business buyers in a particular market and they're trying to find or help them find a business or a lot of times business brokers will maybe have sold a business in your market recently and they have a list of buyers that are looking for similar type businesses so they're gonna they they want to find opportunities for those potential buyers. because they've already qualified, they've already, you know, they've already qualified them to an extent, and they know that they're good quality buyers, so they're trying to find them a business. So if, if you mark that you're willing to pay this referral fee, that's likely going to attract them to introduce their buyer to you. So for for the minimal amount to put that on there, and it, you know, it's going to, it's going to expand your potential buyer pool. So, just wanted to kind of add that, add that kind of color to it. Well,

Ed Mysogland  25:36  
one of my favorite features across all the, all the crazy things we decided to add on my favorite is the, the communication feature, the feedback feature, and, you know, if you, for those of you using Facebook, or Twitter or whatever, and you have the like and dislike buttons, you know, we built that into this into this, because for one of the one of the biggest complaints that business sellers have, with the people that advise them, when they're selling is a there's not a whole lot of feedback that ever comes from a broker. And, and again, you know, the brokers out doing their job look for looking for buyers, but, you know, the best brokers are able to give feedback, even if it's bad feedback. And so we we built into, into the sell side, that, you know, a buyer or registered buyer can like or dislike, the engagement or the listing, they can, they can create public facing comments. So if, if you're 10 times

Gary Stehle  26:56  
overvalued, you know,

Ed Mysogland  26:58  
somebody's gonna, somebody's gonna say something and hope and, and again, and at the same time, we also have a misconduct button, meaning, you know, we're not going to allow someone to operate another on the platform, just because they aren't necessarily versed in business valuation, we'll, we'll put a stop to that. And we'll encourage ourselves side, you know, no user to engage in an appraisal. But for me that that should provide a lot of of ancillary guidance that a business owner would need. And then the third thing is that there is direct messaging, just like you have on your phone, there is direct messaging with registered buyers, all right, and so, so you can you can share files, you can communicate, you can add a team, if you wish, you can add a group chat, you can add advisors, to the conversation, you can have advisors, talk on your behalf, all those things are what we we, we baked in to communicating with the you know, with the the seller communicating with the interested party. So that's, so I'm stoked

Gary Stehle  28:26  
about the feedback. Yeah, I add on the feedback to a lot of owner a lot of sellers. You know, we hear I know, you do too, as is, you know, I'm out there on the market, I have, I'm not hearing anything, what's going on, whether they're listed with a broker, or not listed with a broker, a seller always wants to have some feedback, like you said, even if it's not the most positive feedback, if more information is better than no information. So I think that's really, that's really the value that we see here. And, and like Ed said, it's, it's, if it gets, if it would get to the point where it's, you know, it's, in forbid, you know, it's feedback, that's just not productive, you know, there is misconduct button for that. So,

Ed Mysogland  29:15  
yeah, and, and to round out the, the sell side stuff. You know, I am proud of the help desk, you know, there is a help desk that if you get into any kind of jam, whether it's on the platform or or and just the whole sale process, that's a really good tool for for the for sellers, that you know, they can there's a variety of different ways to get the help that they need in order to successfully so so I'm, I'm proud of that. The escrow.com That is that is a big win now. I will I will for the service provide So the advisor, I mean, it is a, they verify who you are, you know, and there's a couple steps that you have to do once, but after that, it is it is a, it's nothing. And for on the sell side, you know, when you're looking at when you have a job, you know, there is you, you have to get satisfaction in the work that was done, there is the opportunity to dispute the service. Now. Yeah, do we envision that's going to happen? Probably not. But just in case that my point is that every, you know, the engagement as seller puts out there, you know, they are, they are assured, A, that the transaction that's being created is, you know, is secure, and be the service that's going to be provided you, you as the seller, have to have the have the control to release the funds to the service provider, that that's what if

Gary Stehle  31:10  
we get, for example, and we don't envision this happening, but if if we we get the same complaints, you know, about a particular advisor, time and time again, well, you know, then that's, that's what we, you know, platforms going to have to step in. So, yeah, there's, you know, there's security and knowing that the advisors that are being brought on the platform, are going to have to maintain certain standards, just to get on the platform, but once they're on as well. So, yeah,

Ed Mysogland  31:46  
well, let's move on to buyers. You know, the, the feedback from buyers, over the years is, Boy, wouldn't it be great if if a platform was was proactive in helping me find a deal. And, you know, we've seen some some new platforms, birthed out of COVID, you know, where there's now you know, emails that are going out, where, you know, there's some services that are scraping the various websites and sending sending them out to prospective buyers, on the sale by owner, you know, you fill out, you know, this is what I'm looking for. And you can have as many profiles, as you want any, you know, this this type of business profile, I'm looking for HVAC company, one to 5 million within, you know, in Florida. You know, and, and as soon as something like that comes on board, it's going to immediately send you a notification that, that there is one available. So, so regardless, I'm not going to, you know, we consciously made the decision, we don't, we know, this is about time. And we, we want to, we want to be able to support the buyer, that, you know, you don't have to come crawl over our website, you know, every every other day. So to ensure that you're going to get an opportunity to deal we'll, we will be more than happy to, to do it for you. All right, you guys, you

Gary Stehle  33:21  
guys, I would just add and talking to a number of serious buyers over the years, the fret, a little bit of frustration on their part, whether it's going to some of the platforms or directly to brokerage in their local markets, is that their, you know, by the time they see it, or get a call back, if it's listed with a broker, for example, there's already an offer on it, you know, these are the businesses that that are, are priced right, with a good cash flow. They're going to attract attention. So there's frustration that I've heard quite a bit from buyers that hey, I'm, you know, I'm getting into late, I'm not seeing I'm not seeing these opportunities. So, again, with the theme of why this was built, kind of leveling the playing field and allowing, allowing the buyers to have that access. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  34:26  
One thing we failed to mention on the sell side that just I'm gonna revisit just for a second is that you don't have to be a self directed seller the entire time. You can say, You know what, I've tried it, it didn't work, or I don't want to do it or it's taking too much time. And you can spin out of it. And you can hire a full service broker, regardless of where you're at in the process and, you know, either there on the platform or we'll help find a forum. Alright, yeah.

Gary Stehle  34:56  
Sorry. One other thing on that is is As a, you might be a seller that already has a buyer, but you still need help. So you may create come to the platform, not to find a buyer, but you may come to the platform, because you need, you need help in certain areas, you may need help drafting documents, you may need help and due diligence, you know, there's all kinds of things, you know, we always say, you know, when you get to the point where you have a buyer, and you have an accepted letter of intent, or offer, you know, you're you're only part of the way there to get to closing, there's a lot of things that need to be done. Right. So I just want to add that is there's plenty of times when, you know, seller has a buyer, and they still need the resources that this sale by owner is going to be providing.

Ed Mysogland  35:49  
Yeah, well back to buyers. So one of the more interesting things is, you know, there's the feedback that we talked about with with the seller, you know, that that you can, as a registered buyer, you can provide feedback to that seller, public feedback, that is the other thing that that I like, you know, certainly an NDA is able to be executed on the fly, that, that, that the friction, you know, that historically has been there, where somebody's gonna email you an NDA, or send you a DocuSign or whatever, in this on this platform, you know, it's embedded, so the businesses that you're taking a look at, you know, there will be an NDA that, that that is prompted, and is required to take that next step. The other thing is being able to communicate with the, with the seller directly, alright, so that you will have on platform messaging, where you can begin that interaction, and of course, at some point, it's going to it, it may come off, you know, come off platform. And, and that's, and that's fine, but at least the initial conversations will likely be within, within the proverbial formal virtual walls.

Gary Stehle  37:12  
The seller has, you know, the seller has control over, you know, continuing that communication or not. So, yeah. And,

Ed Mysogland  37:20  
yeah, you know, and the other side is, again, we talked about misconduct. Now, the, the chats are monitored, you know, and so they are, can't go, you can't get on the platform beat up on a seller, just, it's just not gonna, that just doesn't work. The other side for buyers is that you too, can can create a job. And if you need help, as, as a buyer, whether it be financing, or valuation, or legal or whatever, you you, too, can create a job and say, Look, I need this kind of help. And, and an advisor will raise their hand and say, I can help you, and this is, this is where we go. So that's it about for about buyers. So the big thing with buyers, again, is, you know, a proactive are the platform is proactive and helping you identify, you know, identify the businesses that are just come on the market. So you, you will have a first look at, at those, you do have direct feedback with for the seller, you do have direct messaging with the seller, and you do have the opportunity to have be able to create a job and and get additional support for for the acquisition or an X, either an on platform or off platform acquisition. Alright, moving on to buyers are moving on to advisors. So when we talk about advisors, and this problem, this was this was probably one I was most excited about, you know, when because this is I think one of those big differentiators amongst all of the marketplaces that are out there.

Bruce Mack  39:13  
And, you know, I think over the years, and, and I and I

Ed Mysogland  39:24  
know you have some stories about it, too, but you know, they're somebody that has particular expertise in a domain is a superior adviser in a sale, alright. And that's not taking away from the generalist, but somebody that has the more reps doing a particular type of business, whether that be in valuation, legal counting, brokerage, or any other franchise, franchise. Yeah. Or any other support Word, exit support service and exit ecosystem. All of those people collectively, should if you assemble a team that has expertise in a particular domain or an industry, I think it's pretty, you're pretty much unstoppable to get not get your deal done.

Gary Stehle  40:22  
You agree? I would agree, I would agree I, I always like to use the story of, you know, just going back to being at the brokerage where we get a, you know, if we get a business referred and and I'm not just speaking particularly at yours at any brokerages, you know, when a business gets referred, and let's say it's a smaller business, let's say it's gonna be a $200,000, sales price, or $150,000, ask price. And it's, you know, it's probably gonna get put with the newer guy, the newer broker, he or she, at the firm, maybe overseen by one of the senior brokers. But at the end of the day, that seller that, again, that sellers, that's the most important thing that they're selling right now. So we want that seller to have control over who's going to be helping them sell that business, not to say that the new guy's not good, he's probably very hungry, but like you said, he doesn't have the experience. So we want, we want to put the control back into the business owners hands to where they can control, you know, they can control who they're going to work with, essentially. And just like you said, if I own a, if I own an HVAC business, or I own an electrical business, I, I prefer to work with somebody that's at least sold a few of those. And I don't necessarily no offense against the new broker, but I don't necessarily want somebody that's never sold the business before. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  42:01  
And and again, and everybody has to start some somewhere, I get that. I just don't want them. I think there's a lot. Yeah, I don't want to be I don't want to be the guy that you get your practice on. And again, you know, and there may be, yeah. I, even though we're all dealing with numbers and financial statements, and so on, so forth, there are nuances amongst businesses that, that I think, if you have particular domain expertise, Will, may get you a premium. You know, and I just think that that's, that's important. And

Gary Stehle  42:44  
I would also add, like I mentioned, franchising, before franchising is kind of a whole nother layer, you're dealing with the franchisor. And there's approval process, there's things that need to be done, there's extra steps that need to be done, where I know for a fact some brokers just don't want to deal with that. But then there's some brokers that that's, that's their niche. They, they, they know not only franchising, but they have maybe niches within franchising and, and so to be able to find quality advisors that are working in your space, I think, is invaluable. And, and again, we go back to the fact that technology is open this whole world up. It's like we said, business brokerage, for example, hasn't changed. In years and years and years. You don't have if you're a business owner in Atlanta, Georgia, you don't necessarily have to work with a broker in Atlanta, Georgia, you know, you want to find the best person or the best advisor to represent you and they don't have to be in your hometown.

Ed Mysogland  43:51  
Well, and that's a it's a good segue regarding the advisor. So, so the, the professional advisors that we're looking at are, you know, accountants, attorneys, bankers, brokers, appraisers, equipment, appraisers, real estate, appraisers, franchise support folks. And the, like, those that serve in the exit ecosystem, as we call it. And those those service providers, you know, we're the hope is that, and coaches, I forgot coaches and those people, we want those people to be on the platform and saying, you know, here's, here's my body of work, here's what would I do, here's my, here's my LinkedIn profile, you can learn about, here's reviews that I've received. And so, we want, you know, those advisors to be able to, to be able to post to, to the platform, and a and we know that there's a there's a lot of people that that you know, the sole practitioners that have domain expertise, you know, they're, you know, they're They're fighting an upstream battle to for visibility, and we want to provide that, you know, regardless of the size of the company, you know, you can or, you know, you can come on the platform and and raise your hand that I have, you know, I have domain experience in selling pig farms, you know, I say pig farms only because or pig pharmaceutical company only because I did some value work, you know, recently on on, on that Not For Sale purposes, but for the state purposes. And, and I mean, what's the likelihood that somebody is an expert in that, but believe it or not there is and, and so, you know, you This enables you a to work from anywhere be you get to you have either you know, this can become your primary source of income or supplements, your existing income, you get to work on the jobs you want to you don't you know, there's a job that comes across the the platform, you don't have to raise your hands out, I'll work on it. You get the opportunity to to say yea or nay? No, I think I think that they'll be like, especially like for attorneys, I think the platform creates a lot of long term opportunity. Same thing with accounts, I guess. Yeah,

Gary Stehle  46:30  
I think just having subject matter experts, you know, our goal is to have, you know, that have them be contributors to as far as information and sharing information. And it's like you said, it's, it's a way, it's a business development piece for them, as well, especially if they're smaller, and don't, you know, their one man operation or, you know, a smaller, smaller shop, providing those services, this is a good way. And I can tell you, the, you know, the advisors, the good advisors out there that I work with, they are particular, they're not just going to take anything, because they want to make sure number one, it's within, within their scope, but they also want to make sure that they're spending, you know, they're spending time wisely.

Ed Mysogland  47:24  
Well, and, and, again, I think the goal with this is that, that, that anybody that's in that supports, exits, no matter where you are in the industry, right? No matter what industry, we want this to be the place that, that you hang out to find good, rewarding engagements that you're passionate about. And that's, that's really, you know, that's really what the future of work is working on the things that you really want to work on. And hopefully, that we're creating this this ecosystem, where that if you're, if, if you really are the expert in your industry, you really want to make it a point to show up here, because this is this is going to give you the greatest at bats. So and then lastly, on the advisors, as you know, we've got you alluded to it earlier, we've got escrow.com layered over, you know, over the, you know, the whole process, you know, to ensure that you get paid, and that's most important is a secure and b you know, that you can you are able to control, you know, the projects you work on. So for the enterprise, we wanted to come alongside franchise, and this is the latest speed bump that we took a little extra time on, on getting into place before, before this release. So for enterprises, you know, franchise, you know, there's a lot of franchises that don't have resale divisions, there's a lot of brokers that, you know, that that, that have the opportunity to work with, perhaps, you know, businesses that aren't, you know, their ideal business, but they still don't want to turn them away, because of size or, or let's just use size for a moment. This is a platform that they can create an enterprise account. And so there's a sub domain, so it would be no, because, you know, franchise dot biz sale by owner.com. And so, so you and your team have a heaven a, a, basically a platform within a platform, a white labeled platform that you can, you know, run shotgun and help this these business owners that have come through your practice. And you can charge whatever you want that that doesn't mean anything to us. But you can work with these, these business owners, and put them on the platform and help them sell. And you have all the same tools that we talked about before. But you have a an admin, so the business, the business owner, or the practice owner, is the admin, then you have the sales organ, the sales people, and then you have the actual sellers. And so you have inner intercompany. Communication, you have custom branding, you have all like I said, all the same tools that we've already discussed, but you now have basically a brokerage within a a self directed sale platform demonstrating Yeah.

Gary Stehle  51:00  
Yeah, no, I think the point really is anybody that's working with multiple business owners or sellers, that is helping advise them could set up an enterprise account on the sale by owner. So that could be like I said, it could be a franchisor that, that has resales and they have a point person at the franchise that oversee you know, in most cases, it's the person in charge of development that their their real job is to go out and sell new franchises. But nevertheless, you can't ignore the resale, especially with established franchises, there's going to always be resale. So that point person can establish and set up an enterprise account and help manage and help guide the resales within their system and help us the platform and the resources to get them through that process. business brokerage, like you said, same thing. I know, you've you've alluded to me about all the money that's spent on advertising to find sellers. And I don't know what the percentages are, but it's a big percent that of these people that raise their hand, you don't end up taking on in a full service exclusive arrangement. So your point is that all of these other businesses still need help. And so the brokerage firm could set up an enterprise account of this sale by owner and come alongside for again, like Ed said, you can charge whatever you want, but a monthly fee, let's say, and maybe you know, a small retainer fee to be there as a resource to help them through that process. And then it could be accountant, accounting firms that do a lot of work with sellers that want to come alongside them, I think, for accountants and attorneys, if if they're, if their client is selling their business, you know, what's attractive to them is is to number one, obviously help their client through that sales process. But number two, maybe you have the opportunity to continue on with that business with whoever buys it. So they're not necessarily losing a client. So I think there's, there's a lot of those types of opportunities. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  53:22  
Okay. So as we're kind of coming to the end, as far as fees you want to talk about, you want to talk about fees and the mechanics or you want me to

Gary Stehle  53:34  
go ahead, and you've been done good. I mean, I know we are we already covered in seller, salaries, there's no fees to list.

Ed Mysogland  53:41  
So look, at the end of the day that the trouble with a marketplace is the chicken or the egg. And so for the time being, I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot that's free here. And as far as sellers, you know, our hope is to help the sellers keep as much in their pocket as possible for the buyers at some point, you know, and there has to be some critical mass as far as is the number of engagements on the platform. But at some point, there'll be a fee to, you know, to be to, to, you know, to use the platform, I don't I don't know when that's going to be out but suspect when we get to 250 to 400 businesses on on the platform for advisors, there will be I think the first 100 advisors, we're doing free and then it's $49 per month to be on it. The other thing we forgot to mention is that there is an affiliate link, and if anybody wants to be an affiliate of the sale by owner they can get a free months You know, on the on the platform by using their affiliate link back to fees for enterprises, the the cost will be $199 per month. And that will give you a for now, you know, up to I believe 25 I think we said 25 engagements. Yeah, go

Gary Stehle  55:26  
ahead. I was just gonna say and on the enterprise side, we imagine there's going to be some customization to so depending on what, you know, what that particular enterprise customer wants, you know, there'll be some variations there. But I think the point being is, we want it to be a situation where it's, it's, it's going to be well worth the fee. And, and it's gonna be revenue generating for for those enterprise clients.

Ed Mysogland  55:59  
Yeah. And I forgot to mention on the on the advisors mean, so there is a 10% fee for us, as well as there's a nominal fee from escrow.com. To use their

Gary Stehle  56:14  
jobs. Right. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  56:17  
So that those are, are the fees. You know, right now, though, we're, it's, we're welcoming everybody to come, take a take a good hard look, and, and give us some, some feedback? The Good, good, bad end, you know, yeah, I would prefer the bad I want to know, I want to create a platform that you know, is is absolutely best in class that will help more people be able to sell their company. So, as we're wrapping up here with anything else you want to go on, discuss?

Gary Stehle  56:58  
No, I think we've, I think we've covered covered the basics. And I think at the end of the day, you know, through our, our careers, it's sort of hard to imagine how long we've been doing this. But I think at the end of the day, we just felt like there was that the business buying and selling sector, I guess, space hadn't changed much. I'm talking more mainstream. And with with advances in technology, and the more acceptance of remote virtual meetings, this is this, this is a great time to launch this type of platform. And at the end of the day, we want, like Ed said, We want to help sellers, be in more control and have a self directed process if they choose or, like Ed said, maybe they choose to start that way. And they figure out, well, maybe I do want a full service be able to find that as well. So at the end of the day, it's just putting more control, both in the buyers, sellers and advisors. And so I think that's, that's that's the end goal for what we're trying to do here. Yeah,

Ed Mysogland  58:16  
I agree. I think the only thing I would add is, you know, there is, this is an enormous problem. And most business owners, you know, they don't know it's a problem until they know it's a problem. And I, I'm hoping that, you know, this, this platform is, as well known as your Zillow shows that, you know, that there is a marketplace that you can go to, whenever you want to solve your exit problems, whether that's a, a pre sale, or an execution of a sale, or a post sale issue that there is 111 Stop ecos exit ecosystem that you can go to that,

Gary Stehle  59:07  
you know, that

Ed Mysogland  59:09  
will make all the difference in the world. And you don't have to go, No, you know, I can tell you, you don't have to go to Google. You don't have to go to Google and hope that you know, the number one, you know, the number one listing on Google is the right person for you. I'm hoping that when when it's all said and done. Everybody knows the sale by owner and and knows what we're about and you know, how we're trying to serve the small business community. So for me, that's, that's where I'm gonna leave it.

Gary Stehle  59:46  
Well, it's been, it's been fun visiting with you again. Yeah. So and it's it's always fun to kind of talk about just the history of entry kind of bringing this thing together. So

Ed Mysogland  59:58  
it is It's funny you say that because I was thinking I'm like, wow, we have. We have covered a lot of ground in the last few years. So all right, my man. All right. Well, I appreciate the time and I'll see you soon. All right,

Gary Stehle  1:00:13  
take care, and we'll see ya.