[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital

Todd Taskey is an M&A Advisor for CEOs and Entrepreneurs at Potomac Business Capital. He has been an entrepreneur, business owner, investment banker, and business finance advisor for more than 20 years.

In addition to M&A advice and investment banking activities, Todd has been a founding investor, board member, or part of the management team of several business ventures. He helps CEOs and entrepreneurs develop a successful exit strategy by understanding the mid-market investment banking process.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Todd Taskey talks about the most valuable thing an agency should know when selling their company
• What’s a second bite when acquiring a company?
• Todd talks about multiples and what people can sell their agency for
• The finer details and terms to pay attention to when selling your agency
• Why acquisition deals fall through
• A big point of contention to keep in mind when trying to sell your agency
• What’s a good size of EBITDA to consider selling your agency?

In this episode…

What’s the most valuable thing you should know when selling your agency? Beyond that, how do you navigate the entire process, knowing that the buyer is coming with a team whose job is to close that deal? But you, on the other hand, are an expert at running your business and not much else. How do you ensure you’re not blindsided?

You’ll get answers to these defining questions and more, as Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital reveals the intricacies of an agency acquisition process. From the reasons why many deals fall through to knowing how your company is valued, Todd spares little to the imagination providing the finer details of selling your agency.

Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring M&A Advisor for Potomac Business Capital, Todd Taskey. They discuss the most valuable thing an agency should know when selling their company, second bite, multiples, and how to determine what your business can sell for, why some acquisition deals fall through, and lots more. Stay tuned.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Potomac Business Capital
• Second Bite Podcast
• Todd Taskey on LinkedIn

Special Mentions:

• New Mountain Capital
• Tinnitus
• Entrepreneurial Operating System

Books Mentioned:

• Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
• Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman

Related Episode(s): 

• ‘The Pixar Story: The Letter of a lifetime That Started Everything With Alvy Ray Smith, Co-Founder of Pixar’
• ‘Negotiation Tactics From FBI Agent Christopher Voss, Founder of Black Swan Ltd’

 

Episode Transcript

Jeremy Weisz 0:19

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. You know, Todd, I always like to mention past guests and some episodes people should check out actually, this one hasn’t come out yet. But maybe by the time this comes out, it will. But I had the Co-founder of Pixar on I’ve been working on in communicating with Alvy Ray Smith, he told stories about Steve Jobs and George Lucas, it was a crazy amazing episode talking about like real living history, and the founding of Pixar. And I, you know, suggest people check it out. And I’ve been communicating with him, I think for nine years. Todd, so, you know, sometimes people that you reach out to will come on, and sometimes it takes nine years to communicate with someone before they come on. And so check out that many others I was talking to another one today, which I guess relates to Todd, you know, I’m gonna formally introduce Todd Taskey in a sec, you know, in a second with Potomac Business Capital, he is the Second Bite Podcast, which is amazing. If you’re an agency owner, you should check it out. If you are anyone thinking of selling your company or buying companies, you should check it out. But Chris Voss, I interviewed Chris Voss from now, if anyone’s read the book have Never Split The Difference. One of my favorite ones, he was a ex, FBI hostage negotiator. I listened to it, Todd because I wanted to learn how to negotiate with my kids, because they’re like, terrorists, sometimes they refuse to do things. So I listened to it from a parenting perspective, but it’s got a lot of business applications. So check that out the interview I did with Chris Voss, as well. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25. And if you listen to any episodes we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships. And we do that by helping you run your podcast and Todd, you know this, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my relationships, how can I profile them, put them on a pedestal. So there is no better way I found that to have your own podcast and be able to feature and talk to the companies and people you admire. And that you want to shout from the rooftops of what they’re doing like Todd’s company. Like, I think if you have an agency, just like if you have a business, you should have a podcast, you have an agency, you should and you’re at a certain level, you should talk to Todd Taskey because eventually helps you sell your agency but not sell it. So you can retire on a beach necessarily, but sell it so that you can continue doing what you love doing. So I’m gonna introduce you to, but I know we’re we’re friends now because of podcasting. And Todd is a 20 plus year entrepreneur, business owner, investment banker, business advisor, and he gives amazing m&a advice. And he basically helps agencies sell their business and you can check it out. PotomacBusinessCapital.com check out his podcast, Second Bite Podcast.com And basically, you know, go listen to what a second bite is, if you don’t know, if you do, you know, second bite can be bigger than the first bite. So, Todd, thanks for joining me,

Todd Taskey 3:31

Jeremy, happy to be here. So always good to be with you.

Jeremy Weisz 3:34

So I kind of want to do you know, Mike, the question in my head is, what’s the most valuable thing an agency should know, when selling their company? And I kind of want to flip that also, at some point and say, what’s the most valuable thing someone buying an agency should know and buying company, maybe it’s same, maybe it’s different. So since you’re an expert in you, this is what you live and you breathe every single day. I just want to start there with most valuable things for an agency when they’re such you’re thinking about selling their agency or even before they’re thinking of selling their agency.

Todd Taskey 4:10

Yeah, I think you know, from the beginning, you know, the question is always how do you how do you add maximum value to customers? If you’re adding maximum value to your customers, and you’re running a good business and you’ve got a valuable business, then, you know, that’s where everything starts from. So I’m assuming you have that. And as you and I’ve talked before, most of the clients that we serve, have even between 1,000,005 million dollars. And when you’re in that category, the question is, starts to become what is the best path forward for my business. And when guys tend to look at that, they come to a conclusion that to grow the business, many times to get to that next level, it’s about hiring more salespeople investing more in your marketing and having additional service or product lines? And then the question becomes, do you want to do that and make those investments on your own. Or if there’s an opportunity to plug into an organization that has all the things that you want already, and instead of spending your money, you can actually take some chips off the table and de risk a little bit, that becomes a pretty compelling story, especially when you can do that with people that you like, and respect. And that’s what we help people do. Timing to that is, is important. You know, it’s interesting, because, you know, we did a transaction earlier this year, my clients about a million dollars a week. And he would love to run and grow a big business and have private equity support him in doing that. And for a whole bunch of reasons we can cover later on another time, private equity won’t really make an investment unless you’re above 2 million of EBITDA. And he’s almost at a million. And it’s taking him five years to get there. So he’s a few years away. The transaction that we did for him, he got a very nice multiple for his business took half in cash, and half in stock company, he took stock in his was it acquired by private equity less than a year ago, he is the first acquisition from that company. He’s about as ground floor, as you could be in a private equity backed enterprise. So he’s thrilled with that, we essentially accomplished something for him that he wasn’t gonna be able to accomplish for quite a while number one, and he got cash number two. And he’s, he is with a group of entrepreneurs, and financial guys that are well above his pay grade, that will lift and rise Him. And He will make an important contribution, the success of that business, a fantastic fit all around. So that was terrific.