Freedom Factory's Podcast

Robert Hirsch from the Freedom Factory discusses "What is The Myth of the Million Dollar Idea?."  Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory How to Build My Business Into a Machine vs. a Job - Crypto Part 1 How to Build My Business Into a Machine vs. a Job - Crypto Part 2   Transcript of Podcast Hey, it's Robert from Freedom Factory, and I want to talk to you about an entrepreneurial truth and what I call this is the myth of the million-dollar idea. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and he was looking at our company and he said, man, I wish I had that idea. And I talked to him about the myth of the million-dollar idea. And I said, that million dollar ideas don't exist. And he didn't understand what I meant. So then I asked him a question. I said, what's the difference between a million-dollar idea and $1 million? And he thought about it for a second and he said, well, I don't know. And I said, well, it's a million-dollar execution. And the good news is million-dollar execution is a learnable, teachable skill. Now, it doesn't matter if you have a business brokerage like we do, or software companies or boat manufacturers or any of the types of companies that we've talked about in the past. The difference between that million-dollar idea and the million dollars is million-dollar execution. And I want you to think about that. The great news is million-dollar execution. Is a learnable, teachable skill. All machines are the same. When we're building a machine, there's revenue, there's sales, there's marketing, there's infrastructure. You figure out what you need to do and you work on your business, not in it, and it doesn't really matter what kind of business it is. Now, if you learn how to build the machines, for example, let's say you have a sales problem. If you go out and read a How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, it's going to help you with your sales no matter what kind of business you're in, no matter how many businesses that you do. So there's a set amount of entrepreneurial lessons and it's your choice. You can learn them fast or you can learn them slow. But I would figure out what your biggest strengths are and I would accentuate those and I'd figure out your biggest weaknesses and I would either hire to address those or I would work on acquiring the skills to be able to get a complete skill set there and be able to develop million-dollar execution, because once you have million dollar execution, you can change the world in so many ways. You can build a machine, any machine, and so I wouldn't get lost on the idea of $1 million idea or the myth of the million-dollar idea. People say all the time, they say, I wish I thought of the pet rock. Well, it wasn't the pet rock. The person that started the pet rock understood million-dollar execution. And the good news is, so can you. If you have any questions about any of the things that we've talked about, why don't you give us a call it Freedom Factory. I'm Robert and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from the Freedom Factory talks about "Caution: What is the Trap of the Working Wealthy?". Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory How do I Build the Machine to Work ON My Business vs. IN the Business ? How do I Connect to My Purpose with My Business?   Transcript of Podcast Hey, it's Robert from Freedom Factory, and I want to talk to you about a big mistake that I made early in my entrepreneurial career. I fell into what I call the trap of the working wealthy. Now, when I started as an entrepreneur, it was because I had to change my station in life. I really wanted to. Benjamin Franklin defined a self-made man as someone that wants to change their station in life, and through integrity, hard work, and perseverance, they can do that. And that really resonated with me. So I pretty much worked all day every day. And entrepreneurship in the early '90s wasn't considered cool like it is now. It was, I remember, I had a girlfriend think that an entrepreneur was a shyster, which broke my heart. And I knew I wanted to change my station in life and I knew a regular job wasn't going to work for me, and I worked some regular jobs, and I would work ding to dong or all day, and I would just keep working hard. And you know, as the successes piled up, you know, I kept ramping up, and I would have more employees, and I would have more revenue, and I would have more team. But the thing that was interesting about it is, I still worked all day every day. I worked ding to dong or 9:00 to 9:00, and all I did was work. And it was interesting because, you know, the marks of my car changed. You know, I was driving a Ford, and then I was, you know, driving a Japanese car, and then I was driving a Porsche, and then, you know, and then I had more bedrooms in my house. I wasn't living in a studio. I was living in a duplex. I wasn't living in a duplex. I was living in a big house. It was a pain to take care of. And although the numbers of bedrooms changed and the mark of my car changed, my behavior didn't. I still went to work nine to nine every day, and I don't know if I was actually enjoying my life any more than I was when I was getting started, and so I was still doing the same thing, and I didn't realize that I needed to create more freedom in my life to be able to do what mattered most to me. Being able to drop my son off at school or being able to be there for a sports game or be able to be, you know, where is it important for, for a friend, whether it's a wedding or whatever the case may be. I needed to be able to have the freedom to choose, and I didn't create that freedom to choose in my life. Now, I would encourage you as an entrepreneur, not to make the same mistakes as me, and to really take accountability for your own choices because our work and our business is here to serve us. We're not here to serve them. And so if your business is no longer serving you or you're thinking about taking it to market, or you have questions about what it's worth, or you know what market conditions are, why don't you give us a call here at Freedom Factory? I look forward to talking to you soon. Thank you so much for watching. Please hit like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal

Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory, talks about business, "I Love My Business. How do I Sell My Baby? Boulder Boat Works case study". Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory What are the Secrets of Selling Your Business for Maximum Value? Seller Beware! The Big Reasons Deals Don't Close   Transcript of Podcast Hey, it's Robert from Freedom Factory, and I want to talk to you about a case study, which is on a company that I used to own called Boulder Boat Works. And for those that don't know what that is, we made the Ferrari's of drift boats. We made the best drift boats for fly fishing on the planet. One of my big passions in life for 20 years has been fly fishing. I love it and when I got a call from the former owner who said, Hey, can you help me sell my company? And I said, well, I said, in full disclosure, let me look at it and see if I want to buy it. And if I don't want to buy it, then I'll take it to market for you and we'll sell your business. Long story short, I ended up buying it and I did one of my favorite strategies in buying a business, and we'll talk about that in just a second. Now, we're somewhat restricted by our nondisclosure agreements in talking about the deals that we've worked with as agents, but we're not restricted at all in what I talked about, of what I have done personally. So I bought Boulder Boat Works, and frankly, the founder was a brilliant guy and a great boat designer, but, he owned a job. He didn't own a business. And one of my favorite strategies when buying a business is taking a business where you own a job as opposed to owning a business. So again, the litmus test I've talked about several times, and the litmus test is if you're not sure what you have, just don't show up for a month. If your income goes down, you own a job. And if it stays the same, it goes up you own a business. Well, long story short, the founder of this business was the smartest guy in the room. He was the one that knew how to build the boats. He was the one that had the expertise, and if he didn't show up at the manufacturing facility, then no boats got made. And so we bought it as a job. We bought it at a discounted rate. And we transitioned it to a business. For example, some of the things that we did, one, they had a mold for the boats. That's how they build the holes, or they mold the holes. They only had one of those, and it had been the same one for 15 years. So the first thing we did was built a redundant mold, just in case the first one, we moved the company from Boulder, Colorado, where it was up until the roaring fork Valley on the side of a river where people actually use these boats. We built a second mold. We actually built a third one out of parts that we never assembled, and we shipped them up in two different semis because if we lost that mold, we'd lose the ability for us to build boats. So we built-in redundancy there, and then we brought in people and processes, best in class for manufacturers. We separated steps one through nine and we put banners up that showed what each step did, and we color-coded all the tool sets and we just made it leaner and more efficient. And so when you buy a business, it's owning a job and to translate it to owning a business, it's obviously much more valuable. It's probably worth one to two times earnings if you own a job and it's probably where three to five times earnings if you own a business. So we bought it and then we transitioned it to a business and then we sold it. And so when you sell it, you want to sell it just slightly over 12 months, and we sold it in a little under 13 months. And the advantage of that, especially in the United States, is you take that at a preferential tax rate or what's called long term capital gains, which depending on your income level, is 15 to 20% plus 3% or 3.8% Obamacare currently. So instead of taking it at a 40 to 50% earned income rate, we took the tax rate at less than half of that. So we moved the company we sold at less than 13 months later. We went from owning a job to owning a business. And so a lot of times as experienced entrepreneurs when you look at a company and they say, well, it's a job. They haven't done this and they haven't done that, and they haven't done this. And if you know what they haven't done, then you have an opportunity. And then you say, well, do I want to buy that job and transition it into a business and sell it at long-term cap gains? And some of these strategies, before taxes have allowed us to double or triple our money in less than a year. So that was the case on Boulder Boat Works. And again, it doesn't matter what industry it's in. It just matters the company size, being able to own a job where you have a very small buyer pool into owning a business where you have a much larger buyer pool, that, of course, is going to make a dramatic impact on the sales price. So if you have questions on this strategy or what your business is worth, or how do I buy a business, or how do I sell a business? Why don't you give us a call here at Freedom Factory? I'm Robert, and we look forward to speaking with you soon. Thank you so much for watching. Please hit like and subscribe.   Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube:   Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory, talks about "Building A Business Into A Machine vs. A Job. (Part 2)." Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory How do I Connect to My Purpose with My Business? Grow a Business or Buy a Business? Transcript of Podcast Hey, it's Robert Hirsch, and this is the second part of the, how do I build a machine video? And if you haven't watched that, I'd recommend going back to that first because it's going to make this one even more valuable. So, to recap, we wanted to have exposure to the crypto market, but I wanted to think like an entrepreneur. I wanted to build a machine, which meant that I wasn't just going to go out and buy five Bitcoin like a trader and stick it in a wallet and hope it went up. So did I do that? The answer is no. What did I do? Well, that's a little bit different and you might have to follow me through the office and I'll show you what we're up to. Come on. So when figuring out the right solution, I wanted to think like an entrepreneur and I wanted exposure to the cryptocurrency market, but I wasn't 100% sure what that looked like. So we started doing some research and the result of that is this. So what you see before you is 156 GPU mining rig that is mining Bitcoin. And we talked about the difference between owning a job and owning a business. That's what we talked about with a machine. And if you didn't know which one you had, you just stopped showing up for a month. So this requires about 15 minutes of attention all month. And it works and makes money for us seven days a week, 24 hours a day. This is a Bitcoin mining rig that just, we get roughly one Bitcoin every six weeks from it, and it's pretty exceptional and it was fun to build. Now, just to be clear, I wasn't the one that built it. We've got a really smart team here at Freedom Factory, and these are some of the passion projects that we do in our spare time. So we all wanted exposure to Bitcoin. We've got an extremely talented staff that we bought these things when the price of Bitcoin went down. We bought these GPUs at half price on eBay. Not that I'm trying to create competition for ourselves where we're going out doing the GPUs, but this is really how you build a machine as opposed to just owning a job. So this is one of our passion projects here. Hopefully, this was helpful and now you understand the difference. What I mean between owning a machine and owning a job. If you have questions on how any of this works, why don't you give us a call it Freedom Factory. I'm Robert and we'll talk to you soon.   Thank you so much for watching. Please hit like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers- video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory, talks about "Building A Business Into A Machine Vs. A Job. (Part 1)" Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory Key Difference Between Owning a Business and Owning a Job How do I Connect to My Purpose with My Business? Transcript of Podcast Hi, Robert from Freedom Factory. And a lot of these questions that we're getting are coming from our previous videos where I talked about owning the machine as opposed to owning a job. And if you didn't know what you had, the litmus test was don't show up for a month. If your business makes more money or stays the same, you own a business or a machine. If it goes down, you own a job. So how do you own a machine? And so I wanted to do a little two-part series and talk about how I own a machine or how we own a machine here at Freedom Factory and how do we think entrepreneurially. So there's going to be a great opportunity for you to participate in this and I'm going to need your help. So if you don't have a pen or pencil, I'd go grab one now. Awesome. Now that you have that, I want you to think as an entrepreneur. So, and this is not investment advice and it was just something that I chose to do for myself. So I'm not advising you to do any of that, but I knew crypto got big. I knew I wanted to have exposure to cryptocurrency. I didn't know a Bitcoin from a blockchain. I wasn't sure what anything was, but I knew I wanted to get exposure to it. So what a lot of people would do is they would just go out and they would buy the Bitcoin and it would go up or would go down. And the two days that matter, the days you buy it in the days you sell it, well that's one way to do it, but that's not owning a machine, right? That's, it's like gambling or owning a stock. It just doesn't make sense. So what would be the entrepreneurial way to get exposure to crypto? And that's what I want to talk about today. So I want you to think about it and how would you own a machine around crypto and what does that look like? So do I run out and buy Bitcoin? I'll give you a hint. That's not what I did. Or do I think about it as an entrepreneur and do I build machine that gives me exposure to the crypto market? So that's what I wanted to go do. So think about that. Tune in to part two, and I'll show you exactly what I did to get exposure to the crypto market, how I built the machine and how I thought like an entrepreneur. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube:

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory discusses "How do I Build the Machine to Work ON My Business vs IN the Business".   Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory Should I Hire a Consultant or a Business Broker to Sell My Business? How do I Leverage Other Peoples' Money For Buying a Business?   Transcript of Podcast Hi, Robert from Freedom Factory here, and I want to talk to you about something that is entrepreneurs we hear a lot, but we don't necessarily think about a lot. And I'm sure we've all heard the analogy of working on your business as opposed to in your business. And this is especially true when you want to go sell your company. So if you're this highly specialized piece and you have to, you're the only person that can make it rain. Your business is going to sell for a lot less. Then if your business ran even better when you weren't there. And so something to think about here is instead of being in the machine, work on building the machine to work when you're not in it, and you need to resist the urge to jump in, and there's oftentimes that maybe you're the best at it in your company. It's a small company that you want to jump in and do it. Well, I would suggest not doing it and really training your team to be able to do it. And a great way to set your altitude correctly is to revisit your operations manual. And if you don't have an operations manual, it's a great thing to get done before you go to sell, because you're going to need to sell it. But if you revisit it or create it, look at it from the operations manual perspective. Dial-in your processes so that your business operates even more efficiently when you're not there. The reason this is so important is this is going to change the multiple of your business dramatically and also is going to create more competition among buyers. If you have questions on any of this, why don't you give us a call it Freedom Factory. We look forward to seeing you soon.   Thank you so much for watching. Please hit like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal

Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory, discusses whether you Should Hire a Consultant or a Business Broker to Sell Your Business? Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory Seller Beware! The Big Reasons Deals Don't Close What are the Secrets of Selling Your Business for Maximum Value?   Transcript of Podcast   Hi Robert Hirsch again, and I want to talk to you about something, which is a question that we get a lot, which is small business consultants. Should I hire them? Do I hire them before selling? And I must admit I've got a bit of a conflict on this. I was a consultant for a long time, both a management consultant as well as the liquidity consultants. So just understand my bias before we get too far into it. So a lot of consultants have relevant experience, but what very few consultants have relevant experience in is selling their business. So what hasn't worked well that I've seen in the past is when someone has a general advisor and they're giving them general information, which may or may not help the valuation. And usually in that handoff is where we lose a lot of value, meaning the advisor gives the advice, the company implements it, but it doesn't make any difference in valuation. So if I was to hire a liquidity consultant, I would make sure that they sell businesses full time and don't do anything else. I would make sure that they're a licensed broker and I'd make sure that they can take you from consulting before you take it on the market all the way through a successful sale. And so I would find a licensed broker and be able to do that. The other thing that I think is pretty critical is I would make sure that someone speaks your language. For example, I've seen a lot of miscommunication when an entrepreneur tries to work with a banker and they find out that entrepreneurs don't speak banker and bankers sure don't speak entrepreneur. So find a broker that is an experienced entrepreneur that's been doing it for a long time, that speaks your language and that's going to give you the best results, which is going to maximize your sales price. Now, if you have questions on this or anything like it, feel free to reach out to us at Freedom Factory and we'll see you soon. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. Tyler Tysdal, News TriCityDaily.com

Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory discusses 'How do I Connect to My Purpose with My Business'. Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory How To Prepare My Business To Sell What Type Of Contract Do I Need To Sell My Business?   Transcript of Podcast Hey Robert from Freedom Factory, and I want to talk to you about something today that's part art and part science, but probably more art, which is how do I know when the time is right to sell my business? The first thing, which is are you as passionate about your business as you used to be? What I mean by that is, is it the last thing you think about when you go to sleep? Is it the first thing you think about when you wake up and there’s certain times that your passion is going to ebb and flow in your business and that's normal, but if you're not feeling connected to it, that's a really good indicator that maybe it's time to sell. And another indicator like that is when you hear a new idea, do you immediately contextualize it within your business? Meaning, if you hear an idea, do you think, how can this serve my team and how can it serve my company? And if you're thinking about it that way, then you really locked on and connected to your business. it's probably not the right time to sell. If you're not doing it that way, if you're not doing it at that time, probably something to think about. And then the third, and I always think about it in terms of myself is, are we connected to our purpose? And so as entrepreneurs, my businesses are really just a Trojan horse for my purpose. And my purpose here is to help fellow entrepreneurs change their family's lives and help them with the biggest deal of their life. And that really motivates me and gets me up in the morning. Now, if you don't feel as connected to your sense of purpose through your business, that's probably a good sign that it's time to sell or time to re-engineer it. Now, if you have any questions about what's my business worth or how do I sell it, or how do I connect to my purpose? Why don't you give us a call here at Freedom Factory? We look forward to speaking with you soon. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. Tyler Tysdal Soundcloud

How do you sell your business  for maximum value? Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory, discusses the Secrets of Selling Your Business for Maximum Value". Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory What Are the Types of Business Buyers? Seller Beware! The Big Reasons Deals Don't Close   Transcript of Podcast What are the Secrets of Selling Your Business for Maximum Value? Hi, it's Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory. And I wanted to talk to you about a really important subject. And these are really the secrets of selling a business for maximum value. And so, at Freedom Factory, we do a lot of the work for you in terms of what it takes to be able to sell your business. And we have a great partnership, and I'll get into that in a little bit, but more than anything else what we do is help you craft your best story, and when you're crafting a story, it needs to make sense to buyers. It needs to make sense on why you're selling, why you started it, why the business has grown. What are your sustainable competitive advantages or your key differentiators in the marketplace? Some people call that unique selling proposition, but we need to create a story that answers more questions than it creates. When you create stories buyers hit the brakes and it slows down. As we've talked about a lot, time kills all deals. So it's really working with the right broker that's going to help you craft that story. Also, when you're selling your business, be super authentic and true to who you are. We're in my backyard now in the mountains of Colorado, and it is a gorgeous, yet slightly chilly all day. I was up here and we're thinking about it. I'm answering these emails and I'm like, . Why don't I just go outside and shoot a video and I'm not in the office. I put on a sport coat because it was cold. But I get to authentically be myself. And when you're authentically yourself, people can feel it and hopefully you feel that now. And when you're selling your business, we want to make sure your buyers feel that. That's unbelievably important. And so I often talk about when you pick a broker, it's a partnership. You need to make sure the business is going. The number one reason that deals fall apart is because something changes. Your sales drop off a cliff. You don't hit your projections, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You want to make sure that every time you give a buyer a set of projections, you need to have an already hit. I speak virtually, but you want to make sure that you're going to hit it otherwise, just be a little less optimistic. But we want to create a track record of success with our buyers where we systematically exceed their expectations. I've had sellers tell me at the end, they say, Robert, this is my best sales month ever. Do I really want to sell it? And I'm like, Huey, this is exactly the time to sell it. You're on a high, you're on the home stretch, you're selling it for maximum value. And this is just making the buyer feel more comfortable with their decision. And not only are you getting paid once, but you're getting paid once, plus your multiple, right? So if you sell it once, you get the money from that. If you sell it on a four times multiple, you're actually making five times that. It's great. These are the best problems to have. When you have a business broker, you want to make sure that you find the best one that's going to be able to drive the most value. We've taken businesses and been able to reposition them. We've been able to recast their financials. We've been able to literally over triple the selling price of the business to what they expected coming in from their EBIDTA. This is really different than a realtor or a broker for real estate. Ultimately when you're selling real estate, you're limited by the appraisal value. So even if you have the greatest broker in the world, it's not going to make that much of a difference compared to at an average broker, maybe five or 10% but when you're talking about doubling or tripling your price, you need to take all the information that's available to you. Put it together. Find the right partner, and then go to market together. The broker, he or she is going to be selling your business. And that's all we do here at Freedom Factory. You the entrepreneur, are going to be running your business and making sure that we stick the landing to drive it through to a successful completion. If you have questions on this or anything like it, why don't you give us a call here at Freedom Factory? We'd love to talk to you about it. I'm Robert Hirsch. Thank you so much for spending your valuable time with us and we'll talk to you soon.   Please like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers- video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. More information about Tyler Tysdal

Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory discusses 'How To Leverage On Other Peoples' Money for Buying a Business'. Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory Seller Beware! The Big Reasons Deals Don't Close 3 Ways to Maximize Your Company's Value   Transcript of Podcast   Hey everybody, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory here, and I want to answer a question that we get a lot, which is, how do I pay for a business. Now after doing this almost exclusively for 20 years, all you do is see these deals go through. And what looks normal to me is really different to a lot of my fellow entrepreneurs. And so I was with a group of entrepreneurs speaking to them last night. And what they told me is they said, Robert, I don't have 2 million sitting around to buy a business, you know, maybe a private equity guys or venture capital guys, or more successful entrepreneurs. But that's not me. And I thought about it and I gave a little bit of a chuckle and I realized that they're probably not the only entrepreneurs that think this. And so I wanted to talk about different ways to pay for a business. So there's a couple ones that are pretty interesting. You can do it either through equity or through debt. Right? So let's start with equity. So equity, you can put together an investor round to acquire a company. You can secure it by the business. For me, I do better with just a few investors, not a lot of little ones - the friends and family. And that can be nice for smaller things. But for me, I like one or two sophisticated investors if I'm going to raise an equity round. But the reality is, I think for most businesses this size, I liked debt for in 90% of applications, and we can talk about what the difference looks like in a little bit. So there are different types of debt. My favorite kind of debt when I'm buying a business is seller financing. So if the seller is selling a great business, and you've probably seen some videos of mine talking about the difference between you'd rather buy a great business at a good price and a good business at a great price. So if you're selling a great business and the seller is confident in their business, they'll be happy to take a note on it. Sometimes it's as little as 10 or 20% when you're trying to bridge the gap. Sometimes it's as much as 90%. I've seen 90% solid carry just secured by the business, and if you're not successful, the business goes right back to them and they like their business. So they're happy to do that. There's also bankers, but it's so funny, the old Axiom about bankers wanting to lend you money, when you don't need it, and don't lend you money when you need it. In my experience, that's been true. If you've got a successful business, the lending of money on it, but they're going to want you to collateralize it with your other business in most circumstances. So bankers are there, and if you've got a great banking relationship, maybe it works out well. But what I've seen work out the best is small business loans or SBA loans, small business administration loans. And you can do it as with as little as 10% down. So if you're buying, let's say you're buying a business three X and it's 2 million, that means it throws 666,000 a year in free cash flow. And if you can buy that for $200,000 you look at stock valuations and things along those lines, but when you're buying a business at three X and you're putting 10% down, as an entrepreneur, I can't think of a better deal than that. An SBA loans had their own restrictions. You have to put a personal guarantee on it. I think they cap it at $5 million currently. We can talk you through all the complexities of what that looks like, but SBA loans are great. And then, the big thing in terms of the plan that you put together is talk about your stupid human trick or the one thing you do better than anybody else. I've talked about it many times in the past and I'm pretty good at sales and marketing. That's all I do. All I do is sell businesses. And if I look at a business that has a superior quality product but a sales problem, well that's a great fit for me because I can fix it like that. Or maybe you're a software engineer from MIT and you can build great software programs and you've got this business is on fire, but your software program is held together with duct tape and bubblegum. Well, you can come in and solve that problem right away. So when I buy a business, I try and be strategic about buying a business that fits my skillset. And remember, when you're buying a business, you don't have to have $2 million to write a big check. And sometimes ironically, buying a business is cheaper than building it yourself. If you're buying 666,000 and free cash flow for 200,000 I would have a hard time building it for that. So I hope this stimulated your creativity. If you have any questions about that, why don't you give us a call up, freedom factory or anything else and we'll be happy to walk you through it. I'm Robert Hirsch. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe and we'll see you soon.   Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. Tyler Tivis Tysdal

Do you own a job or a business? Many entrepreneurs don't recognize the difference between the two. If you are a businessman, it is essential to know how your company performs if you're physically there and if you're not. That way, you can find out if your business continues to profit or not. There's a litmus test to find out if what you have right now is really a business or just a job.  Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory Strategies for Getting Your Company Ready to Sell How are Brokers Different from Investment Bankers?   Transcript of Podcast Hi, Robert Hirsch here from Freedom Factory, and one of the most frequent questions we get is, can I sell my business? And the answer is always yes. It just depends on what's the price. And if you own a job, it's very difficult to sell. And the multiple is usually one or less. And if you don't know whether you own a job or you own a business, there's a really easy litmus test to find out. Just don't show up for a few weeks. If your income stays the same or goes up, you're on a business. If it goes down, you own a job. The good news is there's a lot of value to be created by taking people that own jobs and transition to them, to people that own businesses. And what I mean by someone that owns a business or a business that holds its shape, if you will, when you're not there, when you're not the primary entrepreneur, you have systems and processes and employees and team that makes sure that you generate as much value as you can. So let's jump into that. Let's jump into what that looks like. So again, if you're not sure if you own a business or you own a job, just don't show up for a couple of weeks. If your income stays the same or goes up, you own a business. If it's lower, you own a job. The good news. If you own a job, you can transition it to a business pretty easily. What you want to do is build your operations manual, your systems, your processes, and your team to get yourself out of the traditional workflow. So you're working on your business and not in it. If you need any help with processes like this, just give us a call at Freedom Factory. Thank you so much for watching. Please hit like and subscribe and we'll see you soon. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Freedom Factory - Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow Freedom Factory us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect with Freedom Factory on Linkedin Freedom Factory Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Freedom Factory Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. Tyler Tysdal

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory "Seller Beware! The Big Reasons Deals Don't Close" Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory How Do I Sell My Business? When is the Right Time to Sell My Business? Transcript of Podcast Hi everybody. This is Robert from Freedom Factory and I want to talk to you about it a pretty serious topic today, and it's the biggest reason that deals don't close. Now, personally, my close rate on deals has been really strong over the last 10 or 15 years, but I see a lot of people, you know, the industry standard, they close less than 50% of deals. So, it's almost unbelievable when you think 50% of people that agree to pay a price for a business don't actually buy it. And I want to jump into why that is, and more importantly, how can you can make sure that doesn't happen to you. So first of all, when the biggest reason that I see that deals don't close is usually when the numbers drop off a cliff. And the reason that happens is because the entrepreneur is trying to do too much. So as running a business as an entrepreneur takes a lot of work, and when we sell a business, we're partners for a short period of time. I talk a lot about our 147-day selling process and a lot of times it works in that time. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer, sometimes or even faster. But the number one thing when we're selling your business is to let us do our job as you have to do your job and make sure the numbers are still going on the same trend line that they were. If you're growing at 3% a month. The this time can be the absolute most important time for you to do it. Not only because you get paid the best. What that means, for example, let's say, you're selling your business on earnings and you're getting a multiple of five times earnings. When you sell it, you're actually getting paid six times on every sale you ever make, which means you're getting paid once in the cash and five times you're earning is when you sell it. Now, if you were making six times your usual value when you sell a business, do you think you would sell harder? I sure would. And having the right broker and the right partner to be able to sell it for you, we're going to handle the process. We're going to handle the phone calls. We're going to handle the Q and a, the diligence. We're going to prequalify your buyers. We're going to take all that off of your plate. In fact, until the buyers had been prequalified, and we have an LOI on the table, we don't even put them on the phone with you. We want to preserve your time as much as you can so you can run your business as profitably as we can, and we can do our job. And again, what we do at Freedom Factory is make sure to build as much deal tension as we can. So that's getting the most people introduced to the business, either through a combination of inbound or outbound and marketing materials going through a Q and A process and getting all the buyers to go to our process, meaning the sellers process. We do Q and A here. We do prequalification here; we do LOI's here. We start to go through and we get the funnel and we find the perfect buyer and the perfect fit for you. Bottom line is the partnership's pretty simple - for the next year, you run your business, we focus on selling your business. When you're talking to a broker, you're making the right decision. Try and find somebody that's not just a sales guy or just sells businesses for a living. Find a career entrepreneur; someone that speaks entrepreneur, somebody that understands that. Just because you've built the business and got it to here doesn't mean that you want to run it for the rest of your life. Sometimes as entrepreneurs, I look at us as the producers or the builders or the contributors, and, and if I'm not on point and on passion in my business, you can feel it. And it's not the same thing. And so if you're an entrepreneur that has a business that you're no longer passionate about, just because you took the train to Chicago, doesn't mean you want to drag the train around with you once you get there. Give us a call and we'll be able to help figure out the best way for you to transition to something you are passionate about so you can build massive, massive value. One other truth is that time kills all deals. And every deal goes sideways. We have buyer's remorse. People often talk about it's the house as the biggest purchase you ever going to make. Well, that's not true if you're buying or selling a business. Often for me, buying and selling a business is the biggest purchase, or is the biggest purchase or sale that my clients are ever going to make. And the more time you have, more likely the buyer is to have a little bit of buyer's remorse. Or if one little thing goes wrong, maybe they latch onto that, we have a bad month or bad week, and they use that as an example of why the business isn't as good as they thought they would. So at the best-case scenario, they're going to try and buy it for a little less of a price, which isn't going to feel good to you, the seller, or to me, the broker. And the worst-case scenario is they just back off and they go dark and they don't want to do it and they pull it out of escrow, and then we have to begin the process all over again. So again, when you, when you look at these types of things, what I've found in 20 years of doing this is every deal is going to go sideways at least once. And that's where my experience comes into play. That's where we can get it through. I've seen deals go sideways for every reason you can think of yet I still get surprised and see new deals go sideways all the time. We'll get you through it. We'll keep a smooth, steady hand. You keep running the business and keep the fundamentals going up and up and up, and we're going to sell your business for more than anybody else in the marketplace. Now, if you have any questions on selling your business, why deals go sideways or what the process looks like. Why don't you give us a call at freedom factory? We'll talk you through that and any other questions that you might have. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe and we'll see you soon.   Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Facebook.com Contact on Linkedin Youtube Videos Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Robert Hirsch Tyler Tysdal, Business Broker

Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory talks about whether you should 'Grow a Business or Buy a Business'.  Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory What is Entrepreneurial Freedom? What is Your Stupid Human Trick? Transcript of Podcast Hi Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory, and I want to talk to you about something that's pretty important for an entrepreneur. And frankly, I don't think most entrepreneurs consider, which is when they want to grow their company, do you want to build it or do you want to buy it or growth by acquisition. Now, historically, a lot of entrepreneurs haven't really considered it, and the reason for that is that buying and selling small businesses has been a pretty inefficient asset class. It's hard to find the right one. It's hard to find a real one. It's hard to know what business you're in. Not a lot of brokers really disclose a lot of meaningful information and unless you're applying EBITDA of 5 million or more, you don't necessarily view it that way. But I'm here to tell you that that's not necessarily the case anymore. Money is made on the buy and you want to, you want to find something at a fair valuation. Warren buffet said it, I think best. He said, I'd rather have a great business at a good price than a good business at a great price. I think what he means by that is an exceptional business with this sustainable competitive advantage will always be worth more than an average business. Again, when you're looking at it, you're trying to think, okay, how do I find a great business at a fair price? So at Freedom Factory, we really specialize in selling great businesses. If you can find a great business at a good price, it can make a ton of sense. There's two other points of leverage that you might want to consider. One is if you have a complementary product set or a complimentary customer set. And what I mean by that, let's say you sell phones and you're looking at buying the headset company, or buying headsets to would plug right into your phones. Your existing customers would be interested in it. And if you could get a 10 20% take rate on that, you might be able to pay for your business in less than a year if you bought it at three, four or five times earnings. The other thing which I talk about more in other videos is what I like to call your stupid human trick. Or really, that's the one thing that you do better than anyone else. And everyone's heard of the 80 20 principle, right? 20% of your work delivers 80% of your results. Well, when you get to an expert level at something, in my experience, it's really turned into 95 -five. So 5% of my work delivers 95% of my results. Now, that can really multiply your efficiency and efficacy in your business. And what I mean by that is if I could do that 5% 20 times, I could deliver 20 times the business results that I could otherwise. So let's land the plane and talk about exactly what I'm saying. So let's say, for example, for me, my background is in sales and direct response marketing. So if I can find an engineering company with a superior quality product that's extraordinary, that has a sales problem, I can probably dramatically shift the line by focusing on fixing the sales and marketing problem, which comes really naturally to me, and allows me to make huge differences in your company. So for example, we've had clients that have bought companies at four times earnings, and they've paid for itself in less than nine months because you use that stupid human trick to really dramatically shift the line on your business. Going back to build versus buy. I know it's been an inefficient market class, but you don't always have to build organically. Money's made on the buy. Look for great, great businesses. See if you can find businesses that are complimentary to yours. Maybe it's a luggage company and you have a travel site. See if you can plug it into your existing customer set, or you can plug your products into their customer set. And finally, as entrepreneurs, we all do a lot of great work on figuring out our stupid human trick. And there are a lot of tools for that - Kolby, Meyers Briggs, figuring out your profile and what that looks like. A lot of people like the enneagram model, but whatever you can do to sharpen and hone that edge of figuring out what you're best at and making sure that you can leverage that in a business, can provide dramatic results and make buying a business really makes sense. If you have any questions on a great business for you or under stupid human trick, why don't you give us a call it freedom factory? Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe and we'll see you soon. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Tyler Tysdal News Available on Youtube:

Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory discusses 'What is the Process to Sell Your Business Quickly'. Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory How do I sell my business? Strategies for getting my company ready to sell Transcript of podcast Hi, Robert Hirsch here from Freedom Factory. A question that we get a lot is, how do I sell my business quickly? So if you've come to the decision to sell your business, as soon as you make that decision, you want it to happen as fast as you can. There are a couple of things that we've done to really optimize the process. And when we do it here, we've compressed it down to the 147-day timeline. And we've done that by really being able to control the seller's process. For example, if you're selling your business and every buyer that calls, they have different questions and they want to talk to you and meet your management team, that becomes a big distraction. What we do is we create a timeline where you submit your questions. For example, let's say you submit six questions and you get 50 responses. Well, all of a sudden you know that it's, there are other buyers looking at it. It's a competitive process. And then only after we pre-qualify the buyers and get their letter of intent do we ever offer them a management meeting. Now, the number one reason that businesses go out of contract is generally per se, dropped the ball. So if they're doing a baseline revenue and all of a sudden you have a second job, which is selling your business, you take your eye off the prize, your revenue goes like this. If you do have a buyer that's going to spook them. So we want to do is make sure to have the right partnership. One side of the team is focused on selling your business, and the other side is focused on optimizing it and running it. Now another thing that really helps the process is with enough deal experience, you know what's going to be requested. You know what information, the financial recast, you know all the information that they're going to want and what you want to do is get that together before you even take it to market. Because when you sell a business, it's kind of like playing a game of tennis and you're always hitting the ball over to the other side. As soon as they requested information, you want to have it ready to go so you can pass it right to them and it's going to increase your value and maximize the value of your business. So there's two things. One, the smoother it goes from the buyer's perspective, the more desirable your businesses, and two, the more complete your paperwork and documentation, the higher the sales price. If you have any questions on how to sell your business, or what does this look like, please give us a call at Freedom Factory. We look forward to speaking with you soon. Thank you so much for watching. Please like and subscribe. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory her Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Additional information about managing partner Tyler Tysdal

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom "Factory discusses 3 Ways to Maximize Your Company's Value", frequently asked by business owners, and people who want to start a business. Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below. Additional Videos From Freedom Factory What Does Freedom Mean to me to Sell my Business? What is My Business Worth? Transcript of Podcast Hi, Robert Harris from Freedom Factory here again, and today I want to talk to you about the three ways to maximize the value when you go to sell your business. The first is to maximize your multiple, and what I mean by that is there are different multiples for different businesses and we can talk about what that looks like. But for example, I had a company come to me to sell and its name was something excavation, and it started off being an excavation company, but in the last 20 years, it really turned into a construction company, but 80% of its revenues were construction. Now it turns out that multiples are this size business and multiples, meaning how much times earning is your company worth? If your multiple is two and your earnings were $1 million, your company would be worth 2 million plus whatever your capital assets are. And so the excavation company, the multiple was roughly two to two and a half, but if it was a construction company, which it really was, is four and a half to five, so it changed the branding of the company. We changed the positioning and we were able to tell it in the construction multiples, not in the excavation multiples. Point two is recasting your financials. Now you have to pay your taxes and you have your EBIDTA and your EBIT is designed to be minimized. And what we do is we do a pivot table and we translate that to seller's discretionary cash flow. And it accurately reflects all the cash and value that your company creates. And so by adding back your board meetings in Hawaii and maybe your health club memberships and your vehicles, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you really get a capture all that value. So recasting your financials is really important. The third piece is maximizing your intangibles. And what I mean by that is when we have a buyer that comes to look at your company, they're going to ask questions. And if we have those questions answered beforehand and they say, well, how does the company work? And he said, well, it's A, B, C, and D, and we can send you the operations manual following this call, and he can get back to us with any questions. An approach like that is going to answer more questions and it's going to create, and let's say the multiple range was three to five times earnings, meaning if it was $1 million of earnings, if it were three to 5 million, when your intangibles are there, you're going to really get on the upper side and get a net over four, four and a half, five. When everything's in disarray, you're really going to be on the lower end of that. So getting your intangibles in place is really important. And remember, when you go to sell your business, it's a team sport. If you need any help, just give us a call at Freedom Factory and we'd be happy to help you and walk you through the entire process. Thanks for spending your valuable time with me. Please hit like and subscribe and we'll see you soon. Contact Freedom Factory Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver Also, Follow Freedom Factory here  Best Business Brokers - video portfolio Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook.com Connect on Linkedin Youtube Channel Available on Youtube: Managing Partners Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal