You’ve invested a lot personally and professionally in growing and sustaining your firm over the years to make it the thriving business it is today. When it comes to selling your business, however, the value for prospective buyers is not how the firm has performed in the past but what prospects it has for the future. To get the most value for your business when you’re ready to sell, make sure it’s in tip-top condition to set up the buyer for success. In this episode, Gail talks with Kirsten Kaplan, founder and former owner of Haus Interior Design in Rockville, Maryland. Kirsten just recently sold her firm to one of her employees. It was part of her plan from the beginning when she decided to start her own design business. Gail asked Kirsten what steps she had taken to prepare her business for sale. She said that she had started four or five years ago, knowing that she wanted the financials to be really strong at the time she put the business up for sale. In addition, she focused on what she referred to as the four pillars of maintaining a healthy business: Finances - making sure finances are spotlessly clean, with no intermingling of personal and business expenses or other questionable practices Operations - everyone on the team is consistently performing every task correctly, in the same way, and according to company policies and procedures Team - making sure there is proper alignment of personnel with duties, responsibilities and level of expertise and experience Client - providing a high level of quality service, maintaining contact and clear communication, ensuring clients know they matter and are valued Gail asked if there were any lessons learned or unexpected developments Kirsten had encountered during the selling process. She said she had underestimated how important the quality of the buyer’s legal and accounting team was. No matter how good your team is, she said, if the buyer’s team is not as good or experienced, that will slow down the process and can result in delays or dead ends in the negotiations. Asked for her advice for other designers who may be thinking about selling their businesses, Kirsten offered: Be really clear about what you’re selling. It’s all about what future you’re offering the buyer. Never stop marketing and growing the business during the sales process (which can take years to complete). You want the business to be as healthy and strong as possible at the time of sale to get the most value for yourself. Document the value of the business, both tangible and intangible. Don’t expect a broker or evaluator to tell you what the business is worth. You need to explain to them why the business is worth what you think it is. During their conversation, Kirsten also talked about some of the professionals she engaged to help her with the selling process, what type of sale and what method of evaluation she chose, and why she decided to stay connected to the firm as a consultant and advisor post-sale. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast. If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e6-shownotes Mentioned in This Podcast For more information about Haus Interior Design, go to the firm’s website at www.hausinteriordesign.com. Kirsten mentioned that she chose to use a method called Seller Discretionary Earnings (SDE) to evaluate the firm’s worth and what advantages it had for her as the seller. For more detail, you may find this article helpful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLIqabeif00 Episode Transcript Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors. Click to show transcript Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. Kirsten, it's so great. Great to have you on today. It's nice to here. Yeah, it's so fun. And you went through our program a few years ago. And I remember pretty early on that you wanted to sell your business,