Built to Sell Chapter 9: When Things Finally Start Clicking

Nine chapters in and something weird happens. Things actually start working.

If you’ve been following this series, you know Alex spent a long time in pain. Bad clients, maxed out credit lines, employees quitting, doing everything himself. But Chapter 9 is the payoff chapter. The plan Ted helped him build is producing real results.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

First six months of the year. Revenue: $1,280,000. Expenses: $995,000. Pretax profit: $285,000.

Alex is ahead of schedule on both revenue and profit margin. The new salespeople are selling under Angie’s leadership. Rhina is managing operations with obsessive attention to detail. Chris hired a third designer and keeps improving the Five-Step Logo Design Process.

Everything is clicking. Not because of luck, but because Alex built a system and let it run.

I want to pause here because this is something I see constantly in IT. People build good systems and then don’t trust them. They keep meddling. They keep inserting themselves into every decision. Alex finally stopped doing that, and the results speak for themselves.

The Bank Comes Crawling Back

This part made me laugh out loud. Remember Mary from MNY Bank? The account manager who was hassling Alex about his credit line back in Chapter 1? The one he was dodging calls from because he was bumping against his $150,000 limit?

So here’s what happened. Mary invites Alex to lunch. Not at her office. At one of the best restaurants in town. She orders sparkling water, tries to make small talk about weather and sports (awkward, because she’s never asked about his personal life before), and then gets to the point.

Alex now has $230,000 sitting in his account. Mary wants to sell him high-yield CDs. She also offers to double his credit line to $300,000. Maybe more.

Six months ago she was treating him like a risk. Now she’s buying him lunch and pitching him investment products. Alex could have called her out on it. Instead he just sat back and enjoyed being courted.

Here’s the thing. Banks are not your friends. They are businesses that want your money when you have it and want it back when you don’t. This scene captures that perfectly. Nothing about Alex’s character changed. His business model changed. And suddenly the bank treats him like a different person.

Year End and Planning for Bigger Things

Second half of the year goes just as well. Angie’s team sells one logo per week consistently. Rhina takes the process manual to what Alex describes as “lunar landing briefing” levels of detail. Chris is mentoring his growing team of young designers.

Year-end projections: Revenue $2,715,000. Expenses $2,225,000. Pretax profit $490,000.

Alex goes to Ted’s beach house for his annual planning day. It rains all day, so he gets uninterrupted thinking time. He sets next year’s target at $5 million revenue with 20% pretax profit margin. That means $1 million in profit.

Think about that for a second. This is the same guy who was dodging his banker’s calls and couldn’t keep his best designer from quitting. Same person, same industry, completely different business.

Ted Asks the Big Question

At their next Tuesday meeting, Ted does something unexpected. He tells Alex to reconsider selling.

Ted lays it out clearly. If Alex hits $1 million in profit this year, he could probably sell the business for $5 million. That was the original goal. But if he keeps the business for five more years and grows at 20% per year, it could be worth $12 million or more.

He pulls up a spreadsheet with two columns. Sell now for $5 million, or sell in five years for $12 million. He tells Alex to go think about it for a week.

This is good mentoring. Ted is not telling Alex what to do. He’s making sure Alex understands his options before making a decision that cannot be undone.

The Starbucks Decision

Alex goes to a Starbucks near Ted’s office. Orders a Grande Bold. Opens his notebook. Does what his mother taught him: draws a line down the middle of the page, writes Pros on one side and Cons on the other.

He runs the math. $5 million after taxes would give him enough to draw a six-figure income from investments for the rest of his life without touching the principal. His kids wouldn’t go to private school, but they’d have their dad around. His wife Pam would be happy the bank guarantee comes off their house.

Then he thinks about $12 million. He could pay off the mortgage and travel. And then his imagination just stops. He can’t think of what he’d do with the extra $7 million that would justify five more years of risk. The economy could crash. A competitor could start doing logos. Angie could leave and open her own shop.

He decides: $5 million now beats a chance at $12 million later.

I respect this. People who always chase the bigger number usually end up with nothing. Alex knows what financial freedom looks like for him. And it’s $5 million, not $12 million.

Choosing the Right Adviser

Ted agrees with Alex’s decision and says it’s time to find an M&A adviser. A broker to represent him in the sale. Not a small-time business broker, but a boutique mergers and acquisitions firm. Someone big enough to be taken seriously but small enough that Alex’s deal actually matters to them.

Alex meets two candidates.

Mark Travers at Travers Capital Partners. Fancy downtown office. Aeron chairs. CNBC on a flatscreen. Perrier with neatly cut limes. Mark immediately says he knows the perfect buyer: Multicom, the largest agency holding company in the world. He charges 5% with no retainer. Says he’s doing Alex a favor because of Ted.

Peggy Moyles at EMG Capital Partners. Much more thoughtful. She actually understands what Alex built. She points out that big agencies like Multicom would force a long earn-out and wouldn’t appreciate his specialization. She suggests different buyers: maybe a tech company with printing hardware, or a large printing company wanting access to Alex’s clients. She charges 5% plus a $7,000 monthly retainer.

When Alex asks Ted, the advice is clear. Mark is likely trying to gift-wrap Alex’s business for Multicom because Multicom is Mark’s biggest client. No competitive tension means Alex gets a worse deal. And once word gets out you’re selling, you can’t take it back. Employees hear rumors. Clients get nervous.

Peggy’s retainer is actually a good sign. It proves she’s serious and it proves she wants Alex to be serious too.

My Take

This chapter is about two things. The flywheel effect, and knowing your number.

When you specialize, build a process, hire well, and get out of the way, everything reinforces everything else. Good work brings repeat clients. Repeat clients bring referrals. Consistent revenue makes planning possible. It feeds on itself.

And then there’s the number. Alex could have chased $12 million. But he’s honest with himself. He wants financial security, not a yacht. There’s nothing weak about that.

There’s also a quiet lesson about choosing advisers. The person who promises it will be easy and fast is usually not working in your best interest. The person who charges more but thinks about your specific situation is the better choice. I’ve seen this in IT consulting too. The cheapest bid rarely delivers the best outcome.

Alex has his number, his adviser, and a business that runs without him. Now comes the hard part: actually selling.

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