Built to Sell

Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

By: John Warrillow

Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

A business parable about how to create a start-up that won't trap you when you want to sell it. According to John Warrillow, the number one mistake entrepreneurs make is to build a business that relies too heavily on them. Thus, when the time comes to sell, buyers aren't confident that the company-even if it's profitable-can stand on its own. To illustrate this, Warrillow introduces us to a fictional small business owner named Alex who is struggling to sell his advertising agency. Alex turns to Ted, an entrepreneur and old family friend, who encourages Alex to pursue three criteria to make his business sellable:

• Teachable: focus on products and services that you can teach employees to deliver.
• Valuable: avoid price wars by specializing in doing one thing better than anyone else.
• Repeatable: generate recurring revenue by engineering products that customers have to repurchase often.

©2011 John Warrilow (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

Listen to the preview first

The narrator drags words out and it makes it hard to listen to. I’d listen to the sample before buying

Good, but wish somone else was the narrator.

It's a good book but the person reading the book gets annoying after a while

Great basic suggestions for scattered entrepreneurs

A lot of good knowledge and suggestions provided at a basic level. I chose this book to reengage with the basics of discipline and I believe it hit the nail on the mark.

Loved this!

I’ve recommended this book to only the people that can appreciate and learn from its context. Thank you!

Clear concise and very practical. <br />

I enjoyed and learned from every chapter. A must read if you want your hard work passion and dedication to generate a great ROI.

Perfect for agency business owners! Exactly what I needed to hear

For an agency owner myself, this served as motivation to focus on one offering and strip away from all the crap. I'm shifting to a product instead of a service and only one instead of many. If you're a business owner working more than 40 hours a week, then listen to this. Yes you're probably thinking, of course I work more like 80 hours! Well, then listen to this now. Great listen!!

Comically bad narration, but excellent content

Comically bad narration, but excellent content. this book opened me up to some new ideas.

Story good, narrator is annoying but I got used to

I am a small service business owner and read lot of business books. I think this is one of the most important books I have read. I wish I had read it earlier. It is time to do some tough decisions.

As others have mentioned, Narrator has this very annoying habit of stretching end of the words. it was really hard to listen at first.

Novel effective teaching tool

The story format is very smart. It teaches you the list you will take away in a 3 prone approach.

The Narrative: 3-4 hours
John's Experience: ~1 hour
Ted's Tips: ~5 min

It lets you connect "the list" to different scaffolding from the first two portions so it is easier for me to recall the list and more importantly recognize when they are present.

A must buy for anyone building and selling a business

Great book. A must read if you plan on selling your business or even if you do not. I wish I bought it 10 years ago.........