E24: How to Prepare Your Business for a Profitable Sale | Tanner Noble
Many business owners face daunting questions when deciding to sell: How do you find the right buyer? What steps ensure confidentiality and maximum value?
This episode dives into demystifying the process of selling a business, revealing the white-glove service that helps owners showcase their business in the best light, market it effectively, and navigate the maze of potential buyers. Get insights on preparing a standout marketing package, vetting potential buyers, and negotiating terms to make the sale process as seamless as possible.
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Kellen Ketchersid
Kellen is a co-founder of Stag Business Coaching, business strategist, and a systems thinker. He leverages his extensive experience in biotech and consulting to empower entrepreneurs to navigate complex challenges with strategic growth solutions.
Albert Gillispie
Albert is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency expert and co-founder of Stag Business Coaching who has founded several multimillion-dollar companies. With expertise in optimizing operations and innovative systems, he mentors business leaders who want to unlock their business’s full potential.
Tanner Noble is a Senior Business Advisor with Transworld, with 16 years of finance experience across various industries, including retail, biomedical manufacturing, and commercial real estate. As a Partner in a Private Equity Firm focused on Multifamily Real Estate, he managed over $100M in assets. Tanner specializes in connecting business buyers and sellers in Lubbock, Texas, crafting personalized strategies to navigate complex transactions.
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EPISODE 24 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction to the Business Sales Series
[00:00] Albert and Kellen: Hi, we are live. Welcome to our special series, episode two. Tanner Noble, thanks for having me back.
[00:06] Tanner Noble: Thanks for being here.
[00:08] Albert and Kellen: This series, last week we went over some common myths and misconceptions about buying and selling businesses. We wanted to spend a few weeks on this topic because it's such a foreign concept and a niche not a lot of people know about. This week, we wanted to focus on the sales process from the perspective of the seller, starting with the pre-marketing activities, what’s involved in that, marketing the business, finding potential buyers, and ultimately getting to the closing table. We’ll take a journey as a seller of your business. Starting from the top, tell me a little bit about the pre-marketing process. What is involved in that, and how long does it take?
[00:55] Tanner Noble: Usually, when a seller comes to me, the first step is to come up with a valuation—what do we think we could sell this business for, and is it aligned with the seller’s expectations? To get to that first step, we need a list of several things from the seller. This includes their last three to five years of tax returns, three to five years of profit and loss statements, a balance sheet, an equipment list, and a customer list. It involves a lot of data gathering.
[02:00] Albert and Kellen1: Series acting up, sorry.
The Initial Valuation Process for Sellers
[00:02:00] Tanner Noble: It's a data gathering process at that point. Once I get all that information, I'm doing what's called a recast. In the recast, I take the financial information, comb through it, and try to get the bottom line up to the highest amount possible. In a typical business, part of the reason you own a business is to limit your taxable burden. So, for example, if you have an LLC, you're running expenses through it to lower your bottom line and profit so you don't have to pay taxes on a higher number. Some of those expenses you're running through the business are things a new buyer wouldn't need. For instance, maybe you're running your personal cell phone through the business, and the new buyer might not need that—they might already have another business they run that through, or they don't need it at all. We'll add those expenses back to the bottom line to increase its value. Ultimately, we're trying to come up with the value of the business, based on a multiple of the bottom line number.
[00:03:00] Tanner Noble: So, that's what a recast is—doing what's called an add-back, finding ways to maximize profit and the bottom line. Once we determine that number, it's typically referred to in small businesses as SDE or seller's discretionary earnings.
[00:03:34] Albert and Kellen: Definitions.
[00:03:35] Tanner Noble: Basically, that means what the seller is taking out of the business. The new buyer is purchasing the business because they want to buy a cash flow stream. So, you want to determine the exact cash flow they are buying, which is the SDE.
[00:04:00] Albert and Kellen: Pause for a second. There are a couple of these unique terms. Recasted financials mean you go through their financials and look for every documented piece that the next buyer might not need, such as a cell phone, a vehicle, or paying an aunt in Georgia—anything you can document and show a paper trail for those add-backs. Then we get to SDE, which is similar to EBITDA, but essentially EBITDA after all those add-backs. Is that right?
[00:04:50] Tanner Noble: Yes. The difference between EBITDA and SDE, or I should say adjusted EBITDA—
[00:04:55] Albert and Kellen: Yeah, there you go.
[00:05:00] Tanner Noble: EBITDA is similar to the bottom line profit. And then you add back those same things we just talked about to get an adjusted EBITDA. The difference between adjusted EBITDA and SDE is usually SDE is used when the owner is very involved in the business and running it, whereas an adjusted EBITDA number is for a business where there’s a CEO in place.
[00:05:30] Albert and Kellen: And—
[00:05:31] Tanner Noble: In both cases, you add back the owner's compensation to get to the bottom line number. But in the adjusted EBITDA number, you make an adjustment, basically a negative add-back, for a CEO role. For instance, if the owner is the CEO, you'd ask, "What’s the market rate for hiring a new CEO?" If that role costs $150,000, you can’t take that out; you have to add that back as a negative adjustment to the bottom line. You add back the owner's salary and then adjust it down for the new CEO’s salary.
Differences Between EBITDA and SDE
[00:06:00] Albert and Kellen1: I get what you’re saying. Basically, if the owner is the CEO, the next buyer will need to hire a CEO, so you need to account for that in the financials. What’s the fair market rate for that position? You need to make sure that after adding back everything the owner takes out of the business, you’re accounting for what the next owner will have to pay.
[00:06:30] Tanner Noble: Exactly. The goal is to take whatever is custom to that owner and make it a one-size-fits-all scenario for any potential buyer.
[00:06:50] Albert and Kellen: That makes sense. For the seller, how long does it usually take to go through this pre-marketing process and reach that point?
[00:07:00] Tanner Noble: It depends on the seller, as each one is different. The timeline often hinges on how quickly they can get me their financial information. Some sellers need time to gather the information, especially if they’re managing things manually, like a baby boomer with records in a file cabinet. Others, who are more digitally inclined, might have everything ready to email. Typically, it takes one to three weeks to get the information back. Once I have it, it usually takes a couple of days to do a recast, with back-and-forth questions. As I dig in, questions arise, such as if there’s a line item for auto expenses and the company has 10 trucks, but the owner also has a Porsche on the books. That Porsche is likely not needed to run the business, so I have to figure out the actual business-related expenses.
[00:08:30] Tanner Noble: Each business owner and CPA handles things differently. Some CPAs advise owners to run as many personal expenses as possible through the business, while others prefer to keep everything separate to avoid IRS issues and take a more conservative approach.
Determining Business Multiples for Valuation
[00:10:00] Albert and Kellen: So a lot of questions after you've got all their financials and then you end up in this place where you feel comfortable saying, okay, and how do you determine the multiple?
[00:10:10] Tanner Noble: Yes, that's a great question. As a broker, and being a broker in the company I work for, Transworld Business Advisors, we have access to these data sources. These are a handful of different ones that we use, and whenever we sell a business, we go to this data source and input different metrics about that sale, that transaction. Things like the sales price, revenue, EBITDA, number of employees, etc. There are companies with 20, 30, 40 years’ worth of this data, and we're able to go in and find comps. Similar to a real estate transaction where you go to the MLS to find comparable properties, we have the same thing in our industry. These data providers give us comps for what a typical multiple would be for, say, a manufacturing business with $6 million in revenue and $1.5 million in EBITDA.
[00:11:00] Tanner Noble: The multiple can vary even within the specific type of business, depending on factors like geography—being on the coast might yield a higher multiple—or other unique attributes. We also have a business reference guide with typical industry multiples based on different sectors. One thing to remember is that the business itself can greatly impact the multiple. We’ve discussed this in previous podcasts, but generally, the bigger the business, the higher the multiple tends to be.
[00:12:00] Albert and Kellen: Right, higher revenue, higher profit, higher SDE, higher EBITDA. So, at this stage in the pre-marketing process, you're gathering financials, recasting them, cleaning up the SDE or EBITDA, and maximizing them as best as possible. If the business owner has good documentation for those ad backs, it helps everyone—buyers, lenders—get comfortable with the numbers. You’re going through comps and various attributes of the business, such as having a president in place, SOPs, insurance, and other factors that de-risk the business and can increase the multiple. Then you do this formal valuation. What's the next step after that?
Transitioning from Valuation to Marketing
[00:13:58] Tanner Noble: So then the next step is once we come to a value, we present it to the seller, and once everybody's on board with the value and the seller's comfortable with it, we sign an agreement. We sign what's called a marketing agreement. It usually has standard terms like the length of the listing period and what we’re going to list the business for, among other items. Once we come to that agreement, we start working on the marketing. Basically, up until that point, once I've started working with a seller, we spend anywhere from two to three weeks to maybe two months gathering all the information and coming up with the valuation. After that, we sign the marketing agreement and move on to creating the marketing, with the biggest part being the SIM.
[00:14:50] Tanner Noble: SIM stands for Confidential Information Memorandum. It's like a PowerPoint-style presentation that describes in detail various aspects of the business—its history, financial snapshot, strengths and weaknesses, growth opportunities, and more. Creating the SIM requires more information from the seller. We have a seller questionnaire with a ton of questions to gather as much information as possible. The goal is to know the business inside and out to market it effectively and find a good buyer. We also want to uncover potential issues early so they don’t come up later in due diligence and potentially derail the deal. For example, if a seller’s spouse is taking a salary and working significant hours in the business, that needs to be accounted for upfront.
[00:15:55] Albert and Kellen: We talk a lot about white glove service in our brokerage. Filling out this questionnaire can seem daunting, but we've done this enough to make it manageable. We can sit down with the owners, and while their accounting team might need to gather some things, we can walk through the questionnaire face-to-face and get most of what we need in about an hour. Can you talk more about the white glove service in creating the marketing package and the team behind the scenes?
The Importance of Detailed Marketing and SBA Pre-Qualification
[00:17:00] Tanner Noble: I mean, I would say that the way we've been trying to model this is based on some of the experiences we've had in buying commercial real estate. We've worked with brokers in larger cities who pay extreme attention to detail. For example, when we're walking around your business and looking at the property, we might notice the inside of the business is cluttered. Maybe you don't own the property; you just lease. But we notice you’ve collected a lot of stuff over the years, and it’s cluttered. We can make suggestions like, “Hey, you need to clean these things up.” When a buyer comes in to look at this, we want it to look presentable. That's similar to what we experienced in real estate. We're also going to pay close attention to the detail of how we market the business. We want to provide the buyer with as much information as possible so they say, “I want to buy this business.” This could include modeling out what a pro forma might look like on the buyer’s side. We'll provide the history of the financials and, in some cases, say, “If you buy this business and do X, here’s what the pro forma could look like in the next two to three years.” We might also pre-qualify the business for an SBA loan. As I've mentioned, we have relationships with SBA lenders nationwide. We’ll likely run your business through one of them to see if they would make a loan on it and what that would look like. They'll provide us with a term sheet for reference.
[00:18:55] Albert and Kellen: While you’re thinking on that, we’re putting together this memorandum that tells the story of the business, shows the financials, and outlines what it would look like with an appropriate loan. At what point do you decide, “Okay, we are now live with this listing,” and what does that look like?
[00:20:00] Tanner Noble: Yeah, so this whole SIM process will take anywhere from, again, it depends on the business, but it could be as soon as two weeks or it could extend out to a month or two depending on various variables. Once we have that cleaned up and it's ready to go, it becomes a polished piece of marketing material. You, as the seller, will have reviewed it, given your input, and said, “Hey, maybe add this here or change this there.” We go back and forth and edit it accordingly. Once everyone has signed off on it, then we go to market. Like I mentioned, this could take between two weeks to two months at the most. At that point, we take it to the market. What does that mean? There are many different ways we try to sell your business. One primary source we use is business marketplaces. These are online platforms where buyers are actively looking to purchase businesses, similar to Zillow in real estate. These are major websites that facilitate a lot of business transactions, so we syndicate our listings across about 20 different websites. We also have our own database of buyers who have shown interest in purchasing businesses. These are individuals who have looked at our listings in the past or have even bought businesses from us before. Transworld as a whole has a database of about 400,000 buyers globally.
Managing Confidentiality in Business Sales
[00:21:00] Albert and Kellen: How do you balance confidentiality with listing a business? I'm sure most business owners don’t want it widely known that they’re trying to sell their business. How do you manage confidentiality with 400,000 people?
[00:22:00] Tanner Noble: That's a great question. I'm glad you asked that because that is a huge concern for every seller. They don't want their employees to know. They don't want their customers, vendors, or even family to know sometimes. We take confidentiality very seriously. The way we market our businesses is that we don't reveal certain details. First of all, if a buyer inquires about a business we have listed, they will only see a general location of where the business is. That could be as general as “in the United States” or as specific as “Lubbock County, Texas,” depending on what the seller wants. They do not know the name of the business. On our listings, we do not list the name publicly on the websites. We only provide high-level information. If a buyer is interested based on that, they will click a button or contact me, expressing their interest. At that point, I send them a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This NDA states they cannot share any information they receive about the company with anyone else.
[00:23:00] Tanner Noble: They must sign the NDA before seeing detailed information, including the SIM we talked about earlier. Even in the SIM, we do not include the business name or address. The buyer receives comprehensive information about the business but not specific identifiers. If the buyer is still interested after reviewing the SIM, we then move to a vetting process. The level of vetting depends on the seller and the business. Some sellers may not be as concerned about confidentiality, while others are very cautious and want to know who is looking at their business. We use a form for buyers to fill out, which includes contact details and sometimes proof of funds. We may ask for documentation showing they have the cash or are pre-qualified for an SBA loan, ensuring they are serious about purchasing.
Vetting Potential Buyers and Ensuring Serious Interest
[00:25:00] Albert and Kellen: Pause right there for a second. So this, I'm thinking of this white glove service that we pride ourselves on bringing to the brokerage and staying with what you said earlier about even going on site. When it comes time for a potential buyer to come on site to your business and get a look behind the curtain, we are walking through the business with the eyes of a potential buyer. We're going to plan, “Hey, I want them to walk this path. I want them to see this first, then that, and then this.” We create a customer experience that showcases your business in the best light. We ensure you're not hiding anything, but we're paying attention to detail for the potential buyer. When we're talking about vetting these people, as a seller, you have someone on your team while you continue running your business full throttle. We're handling the vetting process, making sure potential buyers are capable and not just tire-kickers who might go to the local golf course and gossip. We filter out those types. There’s a lot involved in vetting potential buyers because there’s so much at stake. Sellers don’t tell their employees or friends for a reason. Of course, they find out at an appropriate time, but during the early stages of the process, there are too many unknowns. It’s not appropriate at that point. We take confidentiality very seriously, and this white glove service is everything.
[00:27:00] Tanner Noble: Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up. What we do is we advise our clients, our sellers, not to tell their employees or customers because we don't want them to leave, thinking they’re going to lose their job, which could negatively impact the business. Depending on the listing, you could have hundreds of buyer inquiries. For a seller, handling that on their own would be really difficult, and that's why we're here. We call some of these people tire kickers. It's someone who shows interest, wants to know more, but never ends up buying. We vet those people out.
You also need to be cautious about competition. Sometimes a competitor hears you’re selling and, whether for malicious reasons or not, wants to get more information. We try to keep an eye on that and manage it as best we can. In small towns, word can spread quickly, so it does happen sometimes, but we do our best to keep things confidential.
Considering Competitors as Potential Buyers
[00:28:00] Albert and Kellen: Something you said surprised me: keeping an eye out for competition. Are there instances where you'd say, “Hey, that’s great,” and maybe they just want to absorb the competitor and take on the business, so they could be a great buyer?
[00:28:30] Tanner Noble: When I mentioned that, it was more about if a seller knows one of their competitors could be malicious and they inform us ahead of time, saying, “We don’t want this person to know anything about this.” That’s what I meant. But you're right; there are definitely times when we proactively reach out to competitors and ask if they'd be interested in buying the business, especially if they're looking to expand into our market.
[00:29:00] Albert and Kellen: So, it all comes down to what the seller wants and how comfortable they are with potential buyers.
[00:30:00] Tanner Noble: Which exactly goes back to how we market the business, right? I mean, that's another method we use, going through our list of people in the industry or buyers in the industry that we know of through our database or ones we are actively seeking out. For bigger deals especially, we use that as a marketing tactic. We proactively reach out to people who are buying these types of businesses and present them with the opportunity.
[00:30:40] Albert and Kellen: Okay. So we've launched the SIM, we have all these buyer inquiries, and we are vetting the potential buyers. Now, we're at the point of negotiating the price. Tell me about that process. Is it similar to commercial real estate where there is a best and final round? Do buyers put forth their best offers? Walk us through the negotiation process until the purchase and sale agreement is executed.
[00:31:00] Tanner Noble: Yeah, so every business is different. On the smaller side, with a sales price of around a million dollars and under, it's more like selling a house. A buyer decides they want to make an offer, and we negotiate back and forth with the seller until we come to terms. For larger M&A-type deals, which are typically $5 million and up, but sometimes a bit less, we might run a process where we don't have an advertised sales price but instead ask for offers. It's similar to an auction. We tell buyers we need their letter of intent (LOI) by a specific date. The LOI is non-binding but outlines their offer. We gather all the LOIs, present them to the seller, and then go back to the top three to five offers, asking them to sharpen their pencils and submit their best and final offer. We guide them as needed, pointing out areas where adjustments could make their offer more attractive, like reducing the transition period they’re asking the seller to stay for.
[00:32:50] Albert and Kellen: You touched on something interesting—there are concessions beyond just the purchase price, such as having the previous owner stay on for a transition period. Can you discuss common requests from buyers and what sellers should consider?
[00:33:00] Tanner Noble: Yes, absolutely. Many buyers, especially in M&A-type deals, might request the seller to stay on during a transition period, which can vary from three months to a couple of years. This helps ensure a smooth handover of operations and relationships with key clients or employees. Other concessions could include non-compete agreements to ensure the seller doesn’t start a competing business nearby or consulting agreements where the seller provides advice post-sale for a specified time. Sellers need to think about these aspects early on. Staying involved can be great for continuity and buyer confidence, but it may not align with what every seller wants. Understanding these factors and being clear on what you’re willing to do will help when negotiating with potential buyers.
Common Buyer Requests and Seller Considerations
[00:33:00] Tanner Noble: Thank you for asking because I'd love to talk about that. One of the biggest things is how long the seller will stay in the business. Most of the time, the buyer wants the seller to stay on for a training period. For larger businesses, they want the seller to stay longer. This could mean anything from two months to two or three years. There are various ways to negotiate what compensation the seller gets for that or how it's structured, including the time involved. All of those aspects can be negotiated. The second biggest thing is owner financing. In the vast majority of business sales, there's a seller financing component. It’s very common in an SBA loan situation for the seller to finance up to 10%. Typically, a buyer will bring 10% as equity, the seller will finance 10% of the sales price, and the remaining 80% will come from a loan. Sellers should be prepared for at least 10% in seller financing. I have a seller now who is willing to finance 50% of the sales price, which is very attractive to buyers because they need less money upfront. This shows the seller believes in the business's success and is willing to take payments over time. Sometimes, from a tax perspective, seller financing can be advantageous. I'm not an accountant or lawyer, so always consult your CPA. Seller financing and the consulting period are two big negotiation points that can make an offer more attractive.
[00:35:30] Albert and Kellen: If I’m a seller and I'm confident in the viability of my business and the buyer’s competence, it might be to my advantage to offer higher financing, right? I could get a better price for the business.
[00:35:40] Tanner Noble: Potentially, yes. By offering higher seller financing, you’re signaling to the buyer that you believe in the business’s future. You’re essentially risking your own money to let the buyer take over, showing you trust the business will continue to succeed.
Preparing for Closing: Expectations and Timeline
[00:36:30] Albert and Kellen: Okay. So you've agreed on terms, signed a purchase and sale agreement, and now we need to get to the closing table. Walk me through that process. What does that typically look like for a seller? You've agreed to this price, so how long is a typical closing, and what does that look like?
[00:36:50] Tanner Noble: Yeah, let me backtrack one step to say that the marketing process and finding the buyer to get to the offer is currently taking an average of eight months in the U.S.
[00:37:00] Albert and Kellen: Okay.
[00:37:02] Tanner Noble: So we were two weeks to two months in the pre-marketing stage, and now we've spent time marketing the business, which could be an average of eight months or even longer. It could be a year or more.
[00:37:10] Albert and Kellen: That's hundreds of conversations the brokers are having with potential buyers.
[00:37:15] Tanner Noble: Absolutely. But we finally found one, and we're eight months in. Now we need to get to the closing table. That process, at a minimum, is going to take 30 days, and that's really pushing it. It's hard to get something closed in 30 days right now. More realistically, it’s 60 to 90 days. Depending on the size of the deal, how many attorneys are involved, and the financing structure, it could extend up to six months. We have a colleague in our Houston office who has been working on closing a $20 million deal for a year. That deal involves overseas manufacturing and other complex negotiations. That's an outlier, but it shows what can happen. During the typical two to three-month period of getting to the closing table, most of the time you’ll be working with a lender.
[00:39:00] Tanner Noble: The buyer is going to have a lender, and as you mentioned earlier, Albert, having clean financials that the lender can review quickly and understand without many questions is going to help immensely. The lender is going to make the loan based on your tax return, so you need to have a clean tax return. We talked in our last episode about cash and the complications that come with it, so refer back to that for more details. There's going to be a lot of back and forth between the broker and the buyer because now, after signing the agreement, it's on the buyer to handle everything with the lender and the closing company to move forward. One thing the seller will need to provide is a certificate of no tax due. This document from the state, for example, in Texas, verifies that you don’t owe any taxes. We need a clean certificate of no tax due before closing, and this can often be delayed until the last minute. It’s important that your sales tax is paid, and there are no outstanding issues. If you have a loan or other obligations that show up on this certificate, those need to be addressed before closing. The closing company will check for these issues. If there is any negotiation involving the consulting period where the seller stays on, that may be finalized during this phase. I realized I skipped an important part. Right after signing the agreement, the buyer has a due diligence period. In our agreements, this is usually 10 days but can be longer for larger deals. During this period, the buyer will dive deep into the information, gain access to the tax returns, ask any questions they need, and thoroughly vet the business. That is the first step, and during that 10-day window, depending on the buyer, you may have a lot of questions to answer.
Due Diligence and Broker Support During the Sale
[00:42:00] Albert and Kellen: Yeah. And talk through the white glove service for the seller in that process. How are you and your team walking the seller through that due diligence process? What are you doing to help quarterback through that?
[00:42:15] Tanner Noble: The first thing is, as I mentioned earlier, we have the seller questionnaire and interview that we conduct in the beginning. A large part of that is to alleviate a lot of the due diligence questions. We aim to find out as much as we can during that phase, so we can be prepared to answer those questions later. That's part of that white glove service — making sure we do a thorough job at the start. As the exchange of information begins, especially in larger transactions, the buyer might have an acquisitions team, including a CPA and a lawyer. They might request contracts, in-depth financials, accounts receivable, aged receivables, and aged AP reports. We act as the middleman during this process. Sometimes a seller can get frustrated with the volume of requests, and a buyer can get frustrated with a seller’s lack of cooperation. We serve as a buffer to keep the process smooth and ensure the momentum stays on track, preventing it from devolving into conflicts.
[00:44:00] Albert and Kellen: Yeah. And so, so much of that is this delicate dance where the lender has a set of a hundred questions, the buyer has a long list, and if they have investors, they have their own list of questions. A lot of what we're doing is consolidating all of that. Maybe 30 percent of these questions are already answered in the seller questionnaire. We help them reference that, easing the burden of going through this transaction for both parties. For the seller, it's about making the process as easy as possible. We simplify the questions, ensuring the same question isn't asked three or four times. We get one answer and communicate it effectively. This process is stressful for the seller — this is your baby, something you’ve built for decades. We're here to help hand it off in the best, easiest, most professional way possible, thinking two, three, four steps ahead. We know what's appropriate and help keep the train on track and moving forward.
[00:45:00] Albert and Kellen: Yes. The closing, getting to the closing table. I want to save some of this for the next podcast, which will cover the process from the buyer's perspective, but give me the last pieces of this from the seller's perspective. What does the final part of this closing look like, getting across the finish line?
Final Steps to Closing and Managing Lease Issues
[00:46:00] Tanner Noble: Yeah. So, you know, it’s like I mentioned, getting all the information to the buyer and the attorneys or the closing company. We use an attorney-based escrow company. It’s about getting those last-minute things. On the real estate side, if you own the property, it’s a bit easier because you’re motivated to sell and easy to reach. If you lease the property, it can be more difficult. I did a deal this year where the landlord owned a grocery-anchored retail strip center. They were based in Maine, and getting hold of the right person to sign documents and the lease assignment was tough. If you can, start working on your relationship with your landlord now. I’m not saying tell them you’re selling, as that’s not always the best idea. You want to be in good standing with them. That’s why I handle those conversations to keep things on track.
[00:47:00]Tanner Noble: If you lease, be prepared for some back and forth as landlords often need to vet the buyer and go through their own process. On closing day, in most cases, it’s virtual. The escrow company will send an Adobe eSign package for you to sign. The money is wired, and once everything is signed and funds are in place, it’s a done deal. That’s a good day, a great day. Leading up to this, it’s about getting the paperwork ready. Similar to buying a house, there’s a settlement statement. We make sure everything is included, like prorated rent, taxes, and even things like gift cards. We ensure everyone agrees, and once everything is set, you sign, and it’s done.
How to Contact Tanner
[00:48:30] Albert and Kellen: Pop the champagne.
[00:48:32] Albert and Kellen: Pop the bubbly. Well, Tanner, I know you've already said this on some of our previous podcasts, but I think it's worth repeating. How can people find you and get in touch with you? Someone out there wants to sell their business. How are they going to get you?
[00:48:45] Tanner Noble: Really simply, my cell phone is (806) 853-0833, and my email is tNoble@tworld.com, T-N-O-B-L-E@tworld.com.
[00:48:55] Albert and Kellen: All right. Gimme a shout. Thanks for being on this one. We got one more, and thanks for having me.
[00:49:02] Tanner Noble: Yeah, let's do it again next week.
[00:49:04] Albert and Kellen: All right. Thank you, Tanner.
