Sample
  • Built to Sell

  • Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You
  • By: John Warrillow
  • Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
  • Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (2,480 ratings)

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Built to Sell

By: John Warrillow
Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
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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

What listeners say about Built to Sell

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,886
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    407
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    28
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    31

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book!

I really enjoyed the story while learning new business skills.
The concept of teaching using a story is new for me, specially for professional business books.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book terrible narration

I found the solution to the terrible narration. Speed up the audio to 1.5x and most of the annoying enunciations go away! It’s still bad but it’s bearable.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Treasure if Insighs into Selling business

Simple presentation & useful information, just what any business owner needs to know for selling business

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Extremely informative

Loved the information told in the form of a story. The main characters journey is extremely relatable.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Accurate and easy to understand!

It’s a great audio book! I bought a business and this is exactly what I should have read before I bought it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great starting book for entrepreneurs

Great starting book for entrepreneurs and agency owners. Also liked the story telling nature of the book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Dare I say it... Better then E-Myth

I have over 280 Audible titles 95% of theme are business\personal Development related and I review very or rate very few as many are the same after awhile. This was a stand out title and now has become an absolute favorite Top 3 by far. I just finished my 1st listen and I will be going back over and over again. Anyone is business to sell or not should own this book. There are many easy to follow actionable items that will give great freedom in your business. If E-myth is the entry class this is the advanced course.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Overall good advice

The book contains overall good advice. I appreciated the way that it illustrates concepts via a story, so the reader can intuitively learn, though frankly the story was obviously contrived and overly predictable. But that’s not why you buy such a book. Additionally, the narration was pretty terrible.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great audiobook but a little slow

Loved the book and felt it was very informative but didn’t care for the narrator. Felt the storyline drug on a bit slowly. The info however was great.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Real, clear and didatic

I loved It. Extremely useful for my current time. every one should read this book

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