I revealed last season that Brent was getting set to update his book The Messy Marketplace, and I’d like to think that putting that little bit of public pressure on him was helpful to him getting the project over the finish line. Because he did it! The second edition was published earlier this week, and you can get your copy here.

But why a second edition?

The first edition was written in 2017 when Brent and our team had been at this for about 10 years. Since then the marketplace and valuations have evolved, we’ve all endured a pandemic, and Permanent Equity has made more than a dozen new investments. In other words, we know a little bit more than we did back then and wanted to publicly update our thinking on what it means to successfully do a deal.

As for all that’s changed, well, buy the book! But an example of something we’ve learned is that there are a lot of nuanced reasons why someone might be looking to sell a business and/or bring on a partner. Whereas the original version assumed sellers were ready to exit, or slow down, or were in over their heads, we know now there is more to it than that. So the new edition recognizes some additional profiles:

The Seller: You are ready to personally exit your business both as an operator and as an owner. 

The Scaler: You have one or more significant growth initiatives on the horizon and want some combination of diluted risk, more resources, and strategic support to take them on.

The Stabilizer: You have no intention of leaving tomorrow, but want to begin separating your personal timeline from the needs and ambitions of the broader organization. 

Every owner wrestles with when to sell, what to sell, and to whom. I can’t answer those questions directly, but I can help you understand the landscape of options available to you depending on your personal priorities and the needs and goals of your company. 

The reason it’s important for a business owner to reflect on what kind of seller he or she might be is because if you don’t know who you are and what you are trying to achieve with a transaction, you won’t get what you want out of it. A Seller who misidentifies as a Scaler, for example, will likely end up leaving a lot of money on the table. And a Stabilizer masquerading as a Seller might get forced out of an organization long before he or she is ready.

The challenge with selling a family business is that you’re likely to only get one shot at it, so it’s worth doing research ahead of time to prepare. Our hope at Permanent Equity is that the second edition of The Messy Marketplace is an indispensable part of that process for anyone going through it. So, again, get your copy here and also give it as a gift.

Thanks in advance, and have a great weekend.

-Tim

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