Knowing When and How to Sell Your eCommerce Business

After 17 years of building Jersey Beauty Company from a casual conversation in a health club to a thriving multi-million-pound operation, Matt Edmundson recently sold the business. The process taught him lessons that every eCommerce founder needs to understand—especially the uncomfortable truths nobody mentions until you're deep in the sale process.

The reality of selling an eCommerce business differs dramatically from the romantic notion of receiving a cheque and riding off into the sunset. It takes longer than expected, costs more than anticipated, yields less than hoped, and proves more frustrating than imagined. Yet despite these challenges, selling at the right time to the right buyer represents an incredible opportunity to close one chapter whilst opening another.

Build Your Business With the End in Mind

Before exploring the mechanics of selling, we need to address a fundamental mindset shift about business ownership. Matt's generation was raised with a particular philosophy: you build a business to sell it. This doesn't mean treating your business as a short-term flip, but rather recognising that every business eventually transfers ownership—whether through sale, management buyout, bankruptcy, or inheritance.

Understanding this reality from day one changes how you structure operations, document processes, and make strategic decisions. Businesses built with eventual sale in mind naturally develop stronger systems, clearer documentation, and more transferable value. They become assets rather than jobs.

This perspective doesn't diminish your passion or commitment. Jersey Beauty received 17 years of Matt's energy, creativity, and dedication. Building to sell simply means building something valuable enough that someone else recognises its worth and wants to continue the journey.

The Three Essential Questions Before Selling

When considering whether to sell your eCommerce business, three critical questions determine whether proceeding makes sense.

Question 1: Are You Happy With the Price?

Valuing an eCommerce business resembles valuing property—there's market value, and there's the price you're willing to accept. These don't always align. You've poured love, sweat, and energy into building something meaningful. That emotional investment makes objective valuation difficult.

Market valuation involves engaging companies that specialise in business sales. Like estate agents for commercial enterprises, these firms assess your business based on revenue, profitability, growth trajectory, customer base, and market position. They compare your business to recent sales of similar operations and provide realistic pricing expectations.

However, market value represents just one consideration. You must also determine your personal threshold—the price below which you'd rather continue building than sell. This isn't purely financial. Some founders calculate years of work and divide by potential sale price, only to realise they'd have earned more in employment. Others recognise that selling provides freedom, capital, and opportunity that transcends simple hourly rates.

The key lies in reaching a price where you won't wake up months later wondering whether holding out would have yielded more. That nagging doubt corrodes satisfaction with even successful sales.

Question 2: Are You Happy With the Buyer?

Who purchases your business matters as much as what they pay. Different buyer types assign different values to the same operation, creating significant price variations based on their existing infrastructure and strategic goals.

Consider two potential Jersey Beauty buyers. An individual or management team purchasing the business would need to acquire everything—warehouse space, distribution systems, staff, supplier relationships. The liability and complexity of this full acquisition naturally caps what they can reasonably offer.

Conversely, a competitor or company in an adjacent market brings existing infrastructure. Gorgeous Retail Group, Jersey Beauty's eventual buyer, already operated warehouses, employed marketing teams, and maintained supplier relationships. They could essentially plug Jersey Beauty's customer base and brand into existing systems, dramatically reducing integration complexity and cost. This efficiency enabled them to offer valuations that individual buyers couldn't match.

Beyond price considerations, buyer selection involves values alignment. Will they treat your staff well? Maintain customer service standards? Honour the brand promise you've built? These questions matter, particularly when your reputation remains connected to the business post-sale. Choosing buyers who share your values protects both legacy and relationships.

Question 3: Are You Prepared to Let Go?

Selling your business means relinquishing control to new ownership. They'll make decisions you disagree with, change processes you perfected, and take the brand in directions you never envisaged. Accepting this reality before signing contracts prevents resentment and conflict later.

Additionally, buyers will impose contractual restrictions through warranties and covenants. You'll likely face non-compete clauses preventing you from launching similar ventures for specified periods. Confidentiality agreements will restrict discussing sale terms. Consulting restrictions may limit certain advisory work. These constraints protect buyer investment but limit your freedom.

Matt cannot launch a competing skincare eCommerce business or undertake certain consulting activities for defined periods following Jersey Beauty's sale. Understanding and accepting these limitations before finalising the deal ensures you're genuinely ready to move forward rather than feeling trapped by post-sale restrictions.

The Due Diligence Reality

Due diligence represents the most time-consuming, frustrating aspect of selling an eCommerce business. This comprehensive investigation verifies everything about your operation—financial records, customer data, supplier contracts, staff agreements, intellectual property, compliance documentation, and operational processes.

The process involves producing years of documentation, answering hundreds of detailed questions, and clarifying seemingly endless minutiae. Buyers need absolute confidence in what they're purchasing, whilst sellers must prove every claim made during negotiations. This verification protects both parties but demands extraordinary time and attention.

Matt planned to take August off after years of flat-out work through lockdown. Instead, due diligence consumed all but three days of his intended sabbatical. Debates over comma placement in contracts, clarifications on historical policy changes, and documentation of operational decisions stretched far longer than anticipated.

The lesson? Start preparing due diligence documentation from day one. When you implement a privacy policy, file it properly. When you change operational procedures, document the update. When you make significant business decisions, record the rationale. This ongoing documentation discipline transforms due diligence from overwhelming archaeology to straightforward file transfer.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions

Selling your eCommerce business involves substantial professional fees that reduce final proceeds. Quality legal representation proves non-negotiable—the contracts governing business sales contain complexities that demand specialist expertise. Cutting corners on legal costs creates risks far exceeding any savings.

Lawyers will review every clause, negotiate warranty terms, ensure compliance with regulations, and protect your interests throughout the transaction. Their fees reflect this extensive work. Budget accordingly, recognising that proper legal support represents insurance against catastrophic mistakes rather than optional expense.

Similarly, business valuation services, accountancy work, and potential brokerage fees all reduce net proceeds. A £1 million sale price doesn't translate to £1 million in your account. Understanding this reality prevents disappointment when final numbers arrive.

Beyond financial costs, consider the opportunity cost of time spent on the sale process. Months of focus on due diligence, negotiations, and legal work mean months of reduced attention on running the business. Growth may stall, projects may delay, and team morale may suffer as uncertainty lingers. Factor these hidden costs into your decision-making.

Lessons for Building Your Next Business

Experiencing Jersey Beauty's sale revealed insights Matt now applies to other eCommerce ventures. These lessons help founders build businesses that sell more smoothly, command better valuations, and transfer more cleanly.

Structure Cleanly From Day One

Jersey Beauty's operations overlapped with other business interests in ways that complicated the sale. Shared services, intermingled expenses, and unclear boundaries between entities created unnecessary complexity during due diligence. Clear structural separation from the outset prevents these headaches.

Establish dedicated bank accounts, separate bookkeeping, distinct legal entities, and clean operational boundaries. Whilst integration may create short-term efficiencies, it complicates long-term exits. Think about what a buyer needs to operate the business independently, then structure accordingly.

Document Everything Systematically

Create a "due diligence file" from your first day of operation. Every policy, procedure change, significant decision, compliance update, or operational adjustment should be documented and filed immediately. When privacy policies update, save versions with dates. When supplier contracts renew, file the paperwork. When staff agreements change, document everything.

This discipline seems tedious during normal operations but proves invaluable during sales. Rather than reconstructing years of history under pressure, you simply provide the file. The time saved and stress avoided justify the ongoing effort many times over.

Think Like a Buyer

Periodically evaluate your business from a potential buyer's perspective rather than an owner's viewpoint. What makes your business attractive? What concerns might arise during due diligence? What aspects add value versus merely satisfying personal preferences?

This mindset shift resembles staging a house for sale—you strip away personal touches and present the property in ways that appeal to the broadest buyer pool. Similarly, building your business with buyer appeal in mind maximises eventual valuation whilst often improving operations for current customers as well.

Ask yourself: Why would someone pay significant money for this business? What unique value does it offer? How easily could a buyer integrate this into their existing operations? What would concern them most about this acquisition? Addressing these questions proactively strengthens your business whilst simplifying eventual sale.

When the Right Time Arrives

Jersey Beauty's sale resulted from confluence—the right buyer approached at the right time with the right offer. Matt had entertained perhaps half a dozen prior acquisition conversations over the years, always remaining open to possibilities whilst never forcing a sale. Patience allowed him to wait for the right opportunity rather than accepting suboptimal terms out of impatience or necessity.

This approach requires financial security. Businesses sold from desperation rarely command premium valuations. Buyers sense urgency and adjust offers accordingly. Building from a position of strength—where selling represents opportunity rather than necessity—fundamentally changes negotiating dynamics.

The right time involves multiple factors aligning: strong business performance, favourable market conditions, attractive buyer interest, personal readiness for change, and fair valuation. Missing any element suggests waiting makes more sense than forcing a sale that doesn't fully work.

Your Action Plan

Whether you're planning to sell next year or in a decade, taking specific actions now prepares you for eventual exit whilst strengthening current operations.

Step 1: Decide If You Actually Want to Sell
Selling your business involves challenges, restrictions, and emotional complexity. Ensure you genuinely want to proceed rather than chasing a romantic notion. Speak with founders who've sold businesses. Understand what you're signing up for. Confirm this represents the right path for you personally.

Step 2: Get Your Business Professionally Valued
Engage a business valuation specialist to assess current market value. Understanding realistic pricing expectations grounds your thinking and reveals gaps between current state and desired exit valuation. This baseline informs strategic decisions over coming months or years.

Step 3: Create Your Due Diligence File Today
Start documenting everything systematically. Consult with a solicitor about typical due diligence requirements for eCommerce businesses in your sector, then begin compiling that information proactively. Every document filed now saves hours of reconstruction later.

Step 4: Clean Up Your Structure
Identify operational overlaps, shared services, and structural complications that would confuse buyers. Systematically untangle these relationships, creating clear boundaries and standalone viability. This work improves operations whilst enhancing sellability.

Step 5: Build With Buyers in Mind
Evaluate upcoming decisions through a buyer's lens. Does this investment increase transferable value? Does this process change improve sellability? Does this strategic direction enhance acquisition appeal? Let buyer perspective inform owner decisions.

The Privilege of Choice

Matt reflects on Jersey Beauty's sale from a position of remarkable privilege—no regrets, valuable lessons learned, fair compensation received, and positive relationships maintained. This outcome resulted from patience, preparation, and willingness to walk away from offers that didn't fully align.

Not every business sale achieves this standard. Some founders sell from desperation, accepting unfavourable terms because alternatives seem worse. Others rush processes, missing opportunities for better outcomes through patience. Still others fail to prepare adequately, creating avoidable complications that reduce valuations and increase stress.

Building your eCommerce business with eventual sale in mind from day one doesn't guarantee perfect outcomes, but it dramatically improves your odds. You'll command better valuations, navigate processes more smoothly, and maintain more control over timing and terms. Most importantly, you'll finish the journey satisfied rather than disappointed.

The question isn't whether your eCommerce business will eventually transfer ownership—it will. The question is whether you'll approach that transition strategically or scramble to respond when opportunity or necessity forces your hand. Start preparing today, and when the right moment arrives, you'll be ready to capitalise rather than improvise.

welcome to the ecommerce podcast with matt edmondson a show that brings you regular interviews tips and tools for
building your business online
[Music] welcome to the e-commerce podcast
wherever you are listening or watching you are very welcome you've probably already gathered that i am not in fact
matt edmondson the usual host of this podcast my name is jen and i am on
matt's ecommerce team matt usually interviews and chats with guests from all over the globe to bring
you a wealth of e-commerce wisdom but today it's really exciting because the host in
fact becomes the guest so i'm going to bring matt in and we'll introduce the podcast
well i feel like i'm out of a job now jen is this a bit strange
it's just really odd yeah yeah no it's fine uh that thank you for that introduction but i it is odd being on
the other side of the table that's for sure so i thought it might be quite fun lots of the listeners probably know lots
about you already but i thought i would just tell them a few things that they might not know
okay so do i know this yeah you do matt loves to cook up delicious food in
his outdoor kitchen that he built himself we've seen lots of lovely photos i'm yet to sample it but i'm sure i will
i said it hint yeah he's also a wiz at woodwork and can
pretty much build anything and has the scars to prove it or has lost some parts of his fingers to
prove it yeah it's probably more likely a huge liverpool football club fan and a
formula one fan how are you liking the season so far matt that's exciting yeah yeah well
football is different but yeah and the formula one season's exciting yeah yeah it's it's it's champ
uh i hope it's louis i hope he gets his you know the the record and all that sort of stuff i really do obviously i'm
english so i'm gonna i'm gonna go with lewis i'm a bit more of a verstappen fan
myself are you but we'll see okay well yeah i i hate to point out the obvious statement that actually
verstappen is is not he's not english should you not be supporting no i know he's not english but i like you know i
like red bull and stuff so we'll see okay fair enough yeah red bull is a good team i do like that uh but no i'm
definitely okay so you're verstappen and i'm hamilton one of them's good one of us is going to be happy the end of the season
yeah i think it's time for somebody else to be the champion myself but we'll see
you've had enough you've had enough of the hamilton reign yeah okay so usually the e-commerce
podcast focuses on all aspects of growing e-commerce businesses but today we're going to actually chat with you
matt about selling an e-commerce business so for listeners this might be something you've thought about doing it
might be something you've already done something you are aiming to do and matt recently sold one of his e-commerce
businesses jersey beauty so we're going to talk all about the process you went through and some of the lessons you've
learned during the recent sale yeah yeah yeah okay so before um we talk about the sale
of jersey beauty do you want to chat to us about how you got into e-commerce and then how you got involved with jersey
beauty yeah it's um it's a funny one isn't it we we got involved with the web back in the
late s um you know when the internet was just starting to take off it all happened
just because uh a friend of mine came to me and said listen i need one of
these website things because we no one had a clue what a website was back then and he said i need i need one of these
website things who can i go to and i only knew one company and they were called the web shed at the
time and they were run by you know matt anyone don't you and it was matt and ian's company
and um but there was it was expensive back then to get a website not very different to today
and so i said to my friend listen i'll tell you what if you uh buy this piece of software which i knew existed
i'll figure it out because i was okay with computers and i'll create the website and it was a cheaper alternative for him and so he bought me i think it
was like eight and quids worth of software and that started the journey and that's
that's how we got involved in all things web and it didn't take too long after that to start going oh we can sell stuff online
now uh and so back in uh which is almost years ago now
which is odd when i think about it we launched our first ever e-commerce business
we uh we sold tanning products uh is what we did we had a company called tan mad
uh and we do not know this yeah yeah know it's true tan mad it was called
tanmad.com was the web url i don't even know if it exists today but uh tanmad.com
we sold tanning products i bought them off a friend of mine uh who was a wholesaler of italian
products and we just we put them online and just started to see how it went and then six months later i actually sold
that business tam to the guy i was buying the products from it was going well and so he was like oh let me buy this and i was like okay cool so he
bought the business and that was my entrance into e-commerce and buying and selling e-commerce businesses
so how did you then get involved with jersey beauty jersey beauty was a fascinating one
to cut a very long story reasonably short um a friend of mine uh who i'd got to know
through the sauna game i used to be involved in the saunas and steam rooms i used to design health
spas that's kind of what i did when i started writing these websites on the side i was actually working at a company
where i designed and we designed and installed health bars uh saunas and steam rooms and all that
kind of stuff and one of the guys i got to meet one of our clients was a guy called andy
topman an andy south african guy lived on the island of jersey and he had a
couple of health clubs on jersey and so when i stopped doing the saunas and the steam rooms uh
for a little while and focused more on the web stuff i said to andy listen you should really think about selling
some stuff online because e-commerce is going great and because you live on jersey you
definitely need to think about it because at the time this was right just to give you a
time frame in jersey had some massive tax advantages uh when it came
to selling products online and that they didn't have to charge vat on products that would be shipped to the
uk if they retailed under a certain value and so this is i don't know if you you'll
remember this jen back in the day where you bought dvds and cds and things like that oh yeah you remember those days
well that that jersey was ideal for distributing dvds and cds because they fell under the threshold so it meant
that someone from jersey could sell to someone in the uk a dvd or a cd
below everybody else in the uk and still make the same profit margin because they weren't paying the tax and so this
whole internet business in jersey was sort of boomed out of nowhere and so i said to andy we need to take
advantage of this a little bit and uh so jersey beauty company was born it
was literally a case of uh we were in his health club and it's like well what should we sell
online and we were like i don't know let's sell that and there was dermalogica skincare products on his
shelf it was it was a conversation that was as ridiculous as that it was um
it was not thought through it was all the stuff we tell people to do now like in terms of research and all that sort of stuff didn't do a single bit of it
and we were just like let's just sell that and see what happens and we just had to go and it was um
turns out to be a very fortuitous conversation really um and so that's how jersey beauty company was born i wish i
wish i could sit here and say to you it was because of some really clever strategy on my part or a clever strategy
on andy's part but genuinely it wasn't it was just blind luck right place right
time uh just we just had a go at something and it worked yeah so you've been involved with it since
i take it it grew over the years between now and between
then and now yeah it did it um uh it
when we when we first started we decided you know what we'll build this website and we'll sell the dermalogica products on
there we went away and we then we did some research we thought well how much of this product could we actually sell
and [Music] in our research we looked at it and we thought you know what if we could sell
grands worth of product in the we launched august and we
thought if we could sell grands worth of product between august and the end of december
that would be amazing that would that would be like a you know that would start to put us on track towards a -
k turnover which is kind of what we were hoping for every year right uh nothing major nothing complex just
grand turnover so what happened was the site was launched august and we didn't sell
pounds worth of product we actually sold pounds worth of product it just blew up straight away
yeah yeah and so it was um
it was crazy from that point on yeah i mean it instantly blew up yeah yeah
okay so thinking about the sale why did you decide to sell how did you know it was time for you to sell
that's a really uh good question i think whenever you set a business whenever you start a business i'm of a a generation
which was kind of brought up with the idea that you you build a business to sell it right so
if you ever start a business you always started knowing that at some point you're going to sell that business
now who buys it is a different story it's a different question but you build a business to sell it
and
we'll edit that bit out geez my throat's going all kinds of
funny so yeah you
you build a business with this idea of selling it um
and you either buy it yourself you exchange your time for it um or
somebody else ends up buying the business from you so i always knew in the back of my head
that some point somewhere down the line the business would either collapse as it
would go bankrupt or i would sell it they would buy two exit options i suppose
um i suppose there was a third option that it did so well and i just hired management team to do it and then stayed
as a shareholder and lived off the dividends for the rest of my life uh that was never going to be an option in
all reality but you know um so so i think in terms of selling i always
knew that somebody would buy it um and over the years i mean we've been
doing jersey for years now over the years i must have been approached uh at least half a dozen times from
people wanting to buy jersey or at least wanted to have a conversation about wanting to buy jersey
and i started every conversation the same sure let's have a conversation and see if this works for you and see if it
works for me and then finally we found somebody where we thought actually it's going to work for you and it's going to work for me as
well so um yeah that's sort of how it came about really um we didn't sell jersey
out of desperation because we needed to sell it um i just i did think the last year or two
probably the last months during lockdown i thought actually this is probably a really good time for us to sell jersey now
um and also you know years doing one thing it's
it's nice to have a little bit of a change isn't it after all okay so
let's just think about if there's listeners who are running e-commerce businesses what and what should they
look out for when deciding if it's a good time for them to sell their business
so there's a number of things you have to think about i think when it comes to selling a business obviously the key one uh everybody instantly jumps to is price
right how much is somebody willing to buy your business for and is that a price you're willing to
sell your business for and two key questions you've got to ask because obviously
uh it's the main one so let's assume that um
you're ready to sell the business how do i know what price to sell my business for i think it's almost a bit like selling
your house you know you've you've got this house you've invested time and energy into it it's got you
on on all of the walls dude i mean it's it's sort of it's part of the family so selling it is not necessarily a
straightforward thing to do um so how much do you sell it for you kind of like in some respects there's a
market valuation but then there's another aspect of this which says how much am i willing to
let this go for yeah and um and so you i think you've got to be
happy with the price that you're selling the business for fundamentally because
you you don't ever want to wake up one morning and go i wonder if i could have sold it for more
which i mean i i wonder if if i'd have held out a little bit longer could i have sold it for more
you don't want things like that to eat away at you so i think you've got to get to a place where you're like okay so there's a market valuation on this
business uh and there are all kinds of companies out there that will help you value your business
uh we've had various i was gonna ask that the only thing i've sold is a house and obviously you get it valued and then
that's the price you put it on the market for and then you negotiate is it that is it similar to that you will get you
can get a company and to give you a market value yeah yeah very much so there's there's lots
of companies out there now that specialize in helping you sell your business um
they're they're like estate agents or real estate agents they okay they come in they'll give you a
valuation they'll tell you what you think you can get it for and they'll go to a list of prospective buyers that they think might buy it normally they'll
have a list um and if you're stuck if you want to if you want some recommendations on companies that you can they can do that
for you do get in touch with us we'll we'll put you in touch with a few guys as a couple of guys that we know that i think are
good at that um [Music] like i said we've had guests on the podcast talk about it
um so you're gonna have to find a valuation for your business and i think there's a reality check here
right because and it's the same with your house you have poured your love and sweat and energy into this thing so
um you know because you've heard somebody down the road sold up for crazy amounts of money you think oh i'm gonna
get crazy amounts of money but i do think there's a reality check which says um
yeah that's not always going to be the case is it so uh you know you have to have some kind of
sensible valuation i think on your business and who
who buys it depends on its value right so take jersey for example
let's say jane you wanted to buy it right you came to me and said matt we're going to do a management buyout of the
business um what's the business worth okay so that's one person buying the business you're
buying the business yeah but for you to buy jersey you've also um you've got to buy the warehouse
you've got to buy the distribution you've got to buy the staff uh as crude as that sounds
um there's a whole lot of stuff you're going to need to get because you don't already have it just what i mean yeah so the value to
you is going to be uh an amount over here but the liability to you is also going
to be greater because you're taking the lease the staff and so on and so forth
or you could sell it to somebody who is like a competitor or who is already in a similar field to
what you do so for example with jersey we could have sold it say to you or we could have you know what we ended up
doing was we sold it to gorgeous retail group and they were a competitor of ours so
they already had the warehouse they had the distribution um
they had the staff they've got the marketing team so there's a lot of a lot of jersey they didn't need they can
almost plug and play it into their system yeah so it became quicker and easier and a
lot less liab you know there's a lot less liability on them and so the valuation for the guys that
bought jersey and evaluation for you would have been different you would have not been willing to pay
the same sort of price that maybe they were willing to pay because yeah it's different buyers right so
so you have to understand i think who you're selling to makes a big difference in terms of the
value that you're gonna get yeah right so it's like with my house you know my house if i sell my house to
uh you know somebody who's got a family for example well it'll be worth a certain amount of
money or if i sold it to a developer that could cut it up into six flats and triple his money it's going to be worth
a different amount okay do you see what i mean there's yeah there's different different people willing to buy that
it's the same with your business of course i'm not willing to sell my house to a developer that wants to cut it up into
six families that's a personal thing that i have to think about it's the same with your business you know who you sell to
um and the price you sell to are the two key important things right so
number one answering your question jen this is a bit long sorry number one is obviously you have to be
happy with the price number two you have to be happy with who's buying your business uh and you
have to be prepared to let go of it and let them take the reins and i think that's super critical uh
getting someone you know who you think will manage it well who will help your customers you know if
they're taking your staff on will they treat your stuff right and so on and so forth um
excuse me coughing here as you can hear uh i have i've got that midnight radio
kind of dj voice welcome to the midnight hour uh we are going to play some love songs
going on here so yeah you know i'm not being deliberately weird so those of you regular to the show this is uh this is
actually my real voice right now and it's a little bit hoarse um so yeah so the price uh you know you've
got to think about the price you've got to think about selling and then the other thing you've got to think about um i think when selling your business is
what does it mean once your business is sold okay and what i mean by that is
uh whoever's buying your business is going to want to tie you into certain conditions and certain warranties right
they're going to say um great matt you're selling jersey part of the condition of me buying it is that
you cannot set up jersey jersey beach company in the next two years for
example and then start competing with us after we bought the business um and so there are the they call them
warranties here in the uk i don't know what they call them internationally but there are these conditions these contractual conditions that you have to
abide by which says i will uh like i'm not allowed to disclose the
details of the deal i'm not allowed to do um [Music] uh set up jersey i'm not allowed to
do certain types of coaching or consulting do you see what i mean and so you have to be prepared for those
warranties um and make sure you're you're happy with them because they're going to
if somebody buys your business without tying you into anything i'd i'll be greatly surprised
i'll be greatly surprised um especially if it's got any value to it uh so you
have to think about what you're prepared to give what you're prepared to let go of and what you're prepared to be restrained by
um when when selling your business so they would be the main things i think and then
for get yourself good lawyer they're gonna it's gonna cost a fortune sell your business uh you're gonna
you're gonna need a lawyer uh they're gonna charge you money to be a lawyer
but you're going to want to make sure that contract that you sign is good and right and healthy and righteous
otherwise you could be in a whole world of hurt right let me tell you so make sure you you've got a good
lawyer great that's really helpful advice um
so what is the what is this experience of selling jersey taught you obviously you mentioned earlier you have sold
e-commerce businesses before but thinking about the most recent sale
has it taught you anything has it taught me anything yes a lot selling the business is very
very hard work um very hard work i plan to take august off
i i i mean you know this you know i i wanted i've been working flat out all through
lockdown i was like i'm just going to take august off i want a sabbatical of some kind and
i think i ended up taking three days off in august just because just because the
the purchase took a long time the contract takes a long time getting all the information together takes a long
time and so i think i mean since selling jersey uh you know
we are now building other companies other e-commerce businesses which i think will eventually be sold so what can i learn from the sale of jersey
which is going to help me with those businesses one of the key things is get your documentation in order from day one
right yeah so there's a lot of things that um comes up in a due diligence process
that i mean and this is where you spend half your time it's like uh there has to be due diligence from the
person buying the business to and the person selling it to make sure it's clear what is being sold and what has been purchased right
um and so that whole due diligence process takes time and it's a faff and it's a
ball ache and you end up going backwards and forwards on
where a comma is in a sentence and all that sort of stuff and you kind of like what you can do to help yourself is you
can if you plan on selling your business let's say you think in a year's time or two years time we're going to sell this we have a business
you know we have a plan in mind so one of the businesses that we're involved with in about three to five years time we have a turnover goal we have a
valuation goal we want to hit so we know that in a few years time we're going to sell a company
so what i need to start doing now is making sure that everything that we do from a from a business point of view helps me
later on down the line from a due diligence point of view so the way we structure the company the
way we do reporting and recording of accounts the um the way we record information like
privacy policies you know gdpr compliance and all that sort of stuff which you'd really never want to think
about you have to get all that done now and then if in a year's time i
change that policy i need to put the updated policy in the due diligence document so that i can just hand it i
don't have to then figure it out later down the line um and so there's a lot of these sort of processes that you can go through
now which will help you later on down the line and that for me has been the big learning experiences like okay let's
take all of this and for the next business that we sell let's be a lot more prepared let's be a lot more
proactive let's start putting a lot more of this information um into a file from day one around due
diligence right so and that due diligence will depend greatly on your company but it may be
worth if you're planning on selling going to a lawyer uh and saying what sort of things do i need to think about
from a due diligence point of view that i can start working on now because trust me you don't want to leave it to the
last minute otherwise you will have no holiday in august take it from me i know
so get your house in order and keep it in order yeah and add about what three four
months onto your time frame yeah yeah it's always going to here's the thing right we're selling a business it's going to take longer than you think
it's going to cost more than you think it's going to cost you're going to make less than you think you're going to make and you're going to get more angry and
annoyed than you think you're going to get right and so i mean let's just be real this is it's not
and a lot of people said selling your company is a dream it's like you know i have this business over here somebody
has come and offered me million pounds for my business and so therefore i have a check and my bank is billion
pounds which it just that's a romantic notion you have to get that out of your head it is a lot of work it is a lot of
pain you're going to be tied in with contracts and warranties is not as straightforward as somebody just giving
you a check but if you find the right buyer and you sell at the right price and it's
the right time for you to exit the business it's a great way to end that particular chapter of your business life you know
yeah um pushing through the pain barrier yeah yeah totally like selling a house i've never spoke to
anyone that you know when they're talking about selling their house talks about it from a positive light
no one ever does but no one ever regrets well saying that a lot of people regret like selling their
house but you know i mean it's it's like you have to go through that pain to to get through the whole process and
it's the same with with your business you know um just be realistic that it's it's gonna
be a painful journey yeah okay so apart from keeping on top of the
the paperwork stuff that will benefit you in the future is there anything else you do differently next time you sell an
e-commerce business um beside the paper i would structure
the company differently um again just to make it really clear what the other person is buying um
i think you know with jersey we had a lot of overlap i won't bore you with in terms of internal work
processes but we had a lot of overlap between different companies and so just making that cleaner uh from an earlier
start would have been good and i think just make it really clean you know be really clear what what it is that people
are buying and think about the biggest thing i think you can do here is to think
think about your business as the person buying it rather than the person selling it right okay so
if you um yeah i keep using this house analogy but it's a good one right so you
see things like there used to be a show called house doctor i don't know what they call it now but it's basically my
house isn't really being sell it's not selling it's not really getting any interest so they send this american lady
into the house she dresses it up and then you know you get an offer and usually that offer is much higher than
you expect and all she did was she presented the house in a way that would be attractive to potential
buyers right so she'd decorate it with neutral colors and she'd strip all the garbage out and
she'd tidied it over and joined me and all of a sudden that's worth ten thousand pounds on the top of my asking price
same principle with your business right you as the ceo as the owner as the guy
that's running your business you have to change how you look at it so instead of looking at this business like someone
that loves it and someone that cares for it and thinks the whole thing is just totally amazing
you've got to put yourself in the position of a buyer which goes why on earth would i buy your business over
this one over here you know of your competitor why would i buy it over that one over there what is it about you that
is unique and different and so when you think about it from your customers point of view or your buyers
point of view it changes the way you view your business it's like actually some of the
stuff which you care about they don't so let's not get hung up on the details let's figure out a way to maximize the
value uh to the buyer just like that american lady that dressed up houses
um think about your business from the person that's buying it from their point that's really interesting because we spend our time as
e-commerce business owners thinking about it from through the eyes of our customers but actually you're kind of shifting
your focus to through the eyes of a potential buyer which is a yeah you are
it's a different focus for us it is i think it's just a different type of customer isn't it and so i'm not i'm
not saying you know stop focusing on your customer that's very important uh but
you've got to think about the person buying it why would they want to buy your business why would they care what would they want to see what's going to
help them buy it what's going to help them give you better value what's going to help them give you a better sales price what's
going to help the whole process go quicker how can you be helpful
to them how can you help them see what it is that you see about the i mean all of those kind of things
um what's important to them and how does your business meet that goal or that that need
and i think if you can do that um you'll be in a much stronger place when it comes to selling your own e-commerce
business yeah okay so what is your top tip for any
listener who might be considering selling their e-commerce business
i think um my top tip would be to really make sure
you want to do it um and just to reiterate some of the stuff we've already talked about make sure you
want to sell your business and start preparing for that sale from day one rather than you know when
someone approaches you if you know in three years time you're gonna start you're gonna sell your business you have
to think about that now and start making provision for that so
don't wait until three years down the line you know that's my top tip be sure you want to do it and start acting today
okay great so matt what does the post jersey world look like for you
well that's an it it doesn't look too dissimilar to the pre-jersey world to be sure
um skincare products yeah without the skincare products obviously i'm i'm i could definitely not
sell kinskin giveaways um no it's great actually we um we managed to retain our team so you
know we've still got you with us jen which is great so we're still working together which is fab uh we are moving
our warehouse premises uh we thought that would be a good idea to give ourselves a bit of a change so hopefully
in the next few weeks uh next few months certainly before christmas we'll be out of wherever we're
at at the moment um but the plan for us i think is to carry on doing what we're doing to carry
on just building e-commerce businesses we love e-commerce we think it's a great
business model for us we know it we understand it so we're going to carry on doing e-commerce businesses we are
we're involved in a company called vegetology which sells
uh if you're listening to the audio podcast i'm sorry about that i just pointed this product to the camera all you can hear is uh
uh down the microphone the supplement shaking that you can hear we're not selling shakers we are
actually selling supplements so vegetology is a company which um
sells online vegan and vegetarian certified supplements vitamins omega-that kind
of stuff and that's doing super well love those guys great company to be involved with so we're selling those online
um so we're building our own e-commerce businesses um but we're also still we're carrying on
doing the stuff we were doing before like the coaching the consulting the e-commerce services um and helping other people grow their
stuff online we've got some great courses coming out hopefully in the new year which i'm super psyched about
so yeah life is definitely busy post jersey that's for sure uh but post jersey it's all still
ecommerce why would i want to be anywhere else exactly
exactly it's that is that remember that tv commercial uh
don't say it don't say it stanley
yeah those are listening to the show thinking what are they talking about there's a tv commercial
uh on in i want to say it was the late s i don't know if it was the late s early s uh but it was when there was a
guy called ian rush that played for liverpool obviously jen said at the start of a big liverpool football club
and ian rush was probably one of their greatest players certainly one of their most well-known players for a long time wasn't yeah and um
and he was a striker for liverpool football club and there was this tv commercial which the
government ran to try and get you to drink milk and it was two scouse kids um and one of the kids came in and says
ian ross said to me if i don't drink my milk one day when i'm older i can play
for actington stanley and the other kid turns around and goes achrington stanley who are they who were
they who were they and the kid turns around goes exactly
drink your milk if you want to play the liverpool football club so that was the of course jen's a scouser uh and i'm
scouser having lived here most of my life so whenever you say the word exactly immediately in my head that
commercial comes to mind yeah you don't know what to say now exactly
exactly exactly
well thank you very much matt it's been great chatting to you and i hope and i'm pretty sure there'll be loads of useful
tips that you've given e-commerce business owners listening to this podcast and who might be considering
selling their e-commerce business in the future oh it's been great it'd like to say fascinating being on the other side i've
been on lots of other people's podcasts i have to be honest where you have an interview and they ask you all kinds of questions this is the first time i've
been on my own podcast and been interviewed so this is quite interesting so i'm
apart from the dodgy voice which again i apologize for uh if you're listening to the show and you think jen actually
makes a better host do let us know and and maybe just maybe there might be a change to the podcast uh you did very
well jen well done thank you very much it was my first time we wouldn't have known had you have not
said so no i enjoyed that that was quite good fun uh listen thanks for listening to
the show uh as always you can download the transcript to the show and the notes
from the ecommerce podcast website just head over to ecommercepodcast.net and you'll find it and uh it will all be
there but yeah thanks jenny it's been um it's been illuminating and it's always good to talk about uh
jersey and stuff and what happened there because it's just such fun memories for me you know it's it's been such a good
journey and i can sit here at the end of it and just go you know what there's just no regrets
and um that's a remarkably deliberate say that again a remarkably privileged
position to be in of which i'm for which i am very grateful
great good are we done sorry my mum's just at
the door i'll be two seconds that's going in the bloopers
you've been listening to the e-commerce podcast with matt edmondson join us next time for more interviews
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