August 11, 2025 • 49 mins
In the Summer of 2020, I made a huge decision…to sell my agency In Transit Studios and go full-time into web design online education.
In this episode, I’m reflecting (5 years later) and sharing some lessons learned on the things I would do again and things I’d do differently.
Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/391
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh Hall (00:00):
Hello friends, it's Josh here popping in with a
special edition episode of thepodcast.
It just dawned on me that thismonth July 2025, is five years
since I sold my web designagency in Transit Studios.
So I wanted to take some timeand answer some questions about
(00:21):
this, being that I've had, youknow, five years to kind of
reflect on that and I'm happy toanswer.
Um, lessons learned, things Iam happy I did, things I wish I
would have done differently, etcetera.
So this is real casual, canhave some fun.
I actually did a post in mycommunity web designer pro and
just ask for anyone who has somequestions, and a few members
(00:43):
ask some really good questionsPlenty to get us going here.
So that is what we're going todo Now.
I'm going to highly recommendthat you take some time and go
back through.
Either pause this now and goback to this episode or, after
this, make sure you go back andlisten to episode 53 of this
podcast.
(01:09):
Episode 53 of this podcastbecause I actually had Eric
Dingler, the CEO of my nowagency, uh, enchanted studios on
the podcast and we talkedthrough like shortly after
making the sale.
Uh, had him on the show and wetalked through this entire
experience, while it was freshand I create.
I created kind of a six phaseselling the business playbook,
kind of an action plan.
Phase one was when you knowit's time.
Phase two is finding the rightfit.
(01:31):
Phase three was making the deal.
Phase four was actuallyplanning the change, phase five
was handing over the keys andphase six was cleaning up the
tissues, I mean, following upwith your new CEO.
So, yes, because it is not aneasy thing, especially if you
actually care about your clientsand care about your work.
So that is episode 53.
(01:52):
I'm going to recommend that yougo back through that.
We will be referencing that alot because a lot of the
questions in here were kind oftalked about there.
So I'm going to try to focus onthe ones that we haven't
covered for this.
So, first off, ones that wehaven't covered for this.
So, first off, justin, a WebDesigner Pro member, came in
with some great questions.
Let me skim through some ofthese and hit some of the ones
that I think are most worthwhilegetting into.
(02:16):
Initially, as we look at thisfive years later, he asked how
does being the face of thebusiness impact things when you
sell it?
I should say too, I'm kind offighting like a slight cold, so
apologies for that.
Absolutely, being the face of abusiness makes it very hard to
sell.
I'm glad that with my businessin Transit Studios that I went
(02:40):
with that name because it madeit sellable.
As everyone with a personalbrand knows, you can't sell you
unless you just work forsomebody, so a personal brand is
virtually unsellable.
So I'm very glad that I againwent with that brand in transit
studios.
Now I was the face of thebusiness to Justin's point and a
(03:02):
lot of clients.
This has some follow-upquestions that we'll get into.
Yes, people like I've I'vetalked publicly about how like
50% of my clients didn't evenknow the business name.
They just knew Josh, their webdesigner.
So it does make it tricky buthonestly, unless you build your
web design business and oragency with the idea of selling
(03:24):
it or exiting it, it's verycommon that it's a lot of you,
so don't think there's anythingwrong with that, but absolutely
it makes some challenges.
So his next question was didclients buy into the business in
transit studios or were theyreally buying you?
It was about 50 50, to behonest.
Again, I think a lot of myclients just like working with
(03:46):
me and for all the reasons thatI found success as a web
designer, a lot of those werebecause I was a trusted person.
I really cared about my clientsand the work we did.
So I don't think a lot ofpeople really cared as much
about the processes I created Imean, indirectly, those were a
huge help but a lot of peopledid, you know, want to work with
(04:10):
me.
So, um, but at the same time,there was a lot of what made me
successful.
That was just a part of thebusiness, which was the website,
my chops, my processes, my the,the type of websites that I
built over the years and learnedto build, which were then now a
part of our portfolio and apart of my SOPs, which became my
(04:30):
courses, which Eric wentthrough and then eventually by
the way side note, if you didn'tknow, and you'll learn this
when you go back through thatprevious episode, episode 53,
eric was a student of mine and Isaw him build a sixure business
on the side and I thought thisis the kind of guy who I feel
comfortable because he was verycare-oriented, very
(04:50):
customer-focused and very, veryentrepreneurial Pros and cons to
that in transparency, but Ithought that Eric's going to be
the kind of guy who's going tobe able to take this and not
fall into the trap of just doingall the work and being a
freelancer but actually being abusiness owner.
So that's, in short, what mademe feel like Eric would be a
(05:10):
good fit.
And at that time my courseswere just taken off and I just I
was doing it for 10 years atthat point and I just wanted to
focus on coaching and doingcourses and eventually creating
Web Presenter Pro full time.
So when the business wastransferred, justin wanted to
know was there a negative sideto clients expecting to work
with you and now working withEric?
(05:30):
I think for sure there were alot of people who were probably
bummed and nothing against Eric,but people were.
They did enjoy working with me.
So I mean I, of course, whowouldn't be bummed?
They're not going to get anemail from me as much I would be
bummed.
Um, no, but in like, in serious, yeah, seriously and in full
transparency.
Yeah, I think a lot of clientswere probably like oh dang Um,
(05:55):
because you do build that trustup now.
I w that episode previously.
Episode 53 gets really in depthon the entire process of doing
this.
So we'll scratch the surfacewith some of that here, but I'm
not going to take another hourjust to go through the process
of that, because that is why wehave that previous episode.
But let's just say it's notsomething that I rushed, it's
(06:16):
not something that I did lightly, and I went for about a month
straight.
Virtually the only thing I didwas work on the transition of
the business and try to do itvery tactfully, and it was not
an easy thing to do.
I think newer clients wereprobably the ones who are most
like oh all right, I think a lotof my clients knew I was
(06:38):
teaching and knew I had foundsome success on YouTube and had
a podcast going, but I do thinkoverall it was probably a
surprise.
Knew I was teaching and knew Ihad found some success on
YouTube and had a podcast going,but I do think overall it was
probably a surprise.
So the only negative side therewasn't any negative side in the
fact of like literally not oneclient reached out and said oh
my gosh, josh, I'm very upset bythis.
(06:58):
I was expecting to work withyou.
I'm very disappointed.
It's a testament to the amazingclients I had, and a lot of
them are still with the agencybecause I had so much positive,
like wow, josh, that'sincredible.
And a lot of them had neveractually seen my YouTube channel
and my podcast at that pointand so when they checked it out
they were like holy cow, I knewyou were doing some stuff on the
(07:19):
side, but I didn't realize itwas at this level.
So everyone was sooverwhelmingly positive and I
think a lot of my clients werekind of like cheering for me and
rooting for me, so, um, thatwas huge and I also let them
know like I'm not completelydisappearing, like it's not like
they're never going to be ableto contact me, like I'm still in
very close contact with a lotof those clients, so, um,
(07:42):
through social media and throughemail and and I'll end through
local partnerships andconnections.
So, um, the only negative sidewas, I think, probably just the
feeling of you know, a bummer.
Um did being in the front manof the brand create any
challenges for the transition,for Eric?
So there was definitely I don'tknow about challenges, but
there was a lot of work for Ericto do to introduce himself and,
(08:04):
um, this is going to sound sodouchey, but he, he did have,
you know, fairly decent sizeshoes to fill um with with my
communication, and it's it'svery hard to and this is one of
the reasons I chose Eric as theCEO to step up for the agency is
it's you can't find somebodyand then have them like learn
(08:25):
how to care.
That is just.
You just have to.
And Eric, luckily, is someonewho is mission focused and
really does care about peopleand care about the work.
So, you know, I didn't findsomebody who was like, okay,
they're really savvy.
But we got to you know, stopbeing a hustler and actually
worry about caring about clients.
I, the care was like the mainthing I looked for.
So I think that helped in thetransition for Eric and I
(08:49):
thought about having Eric onthis podcast, but we're gonna
have to do a follow-up one, Ithink, for both of us, cause I
have a lot of questions to getto and I can talk, you know, as
you know, for plenty of time.
So, um, yeah, I think thechallenges were just, you know,
you don't want to be the nextJosh, but you don't want to.
Um, clients don't want to havelike a less version of an
(09:11):
experience as far as clientcommunication and feeling of
being supported.
So a lot of that was covered inthe transition to which is how
I operate, and I basically justsaid you got to over communicate
, um, and you got to reallyfreaking care.
Have you seen other step backfrom their businesses
intentionally to make it morebrand driven or transformable?
Uh, was that something youconsidered?
(09:33):
Yeah, for sure I think I had.
Well, it's interesting is onthe broader entrepreneurial
stage I'm actually seeing peopledouble down into their personal
brands.
Folks like Russell Brunson ofClickFunnels.
Amy Porterfield just went allinto her brand.
My previous business coach,james Schramko his brand used to
(09:53):
be called Superfast Business.
He's actually gone all in onhis personal brand.
So it is kind of interesting.
But those they don't reallyhave like sellable businesses.
They may have sellable assetsin their businesses but it is
kind of interesting that thatworld may be different than
actual agencies.
Yeah, I have seen agency ownerstry to productize as much as
(10:13):
possible and step into more of aconsultant thought leadership
kind of role.
Um, actually, greg Merrily isthe owner of studio one design.
I had him on the podcastrecently.
They're out of Australia.
He's a great example of a trueagency owner and from what I see
from him is he's at a pointwhere he's still doing some
sales calls and stuff, but he'sreally embracing being the owner
(10:35):
of that business and he has anew book that is maybe out by
the time this comes out, kind oflike sharing his expertise and
really putting himself as moreof like the true founder and
starting to step back from theday to day, from what I see.
So I do think that's becomingmore common.
Um, good question Did Eric feelpressure?
(10:55):
Justin asked to to fill yourshoes by doing the same things
like podcasts, youtube tutorialsor networking.
I don't know if he felt thesame pressure.
It helped that he was alreadydoing a lot of these things.
Um, eric is, for better or forworse, a like zip zap, zip zap
entrepreneur, so he likes to doa lot of things.
It's actually a challenge.
I have to kind of reel him inand let him know when we do our
(11:16):
little quarterly check-ins, likejust stick with this, stick
with, stick with this for alittle bit first, because he's
just a.
You know, eric, just like a lotof entrepreneurs, likes new and
likes to do a lot of differentstuff.
But, um, so it wasn't a problemfor Eric to like do a lot of
those things.
It was actually a challenge tolike keep him focused on just in
transit studios so, or, youknow, just the main offers.
(11:39):
So, and I can say that Eric andI have a great relationship.
I can anything I say here, ericwill, I guarantee, would say
yes, guilty, so, but again,aren't we all as entrepreneurs?
Um, but it was different.
Eric did have to because he'snot local in Columbus Ohio.
He actually has roots here andhe has some clients previously
in Columbus.
(11:59):
Um, he couldn't do what I did,like he couldn't go to my
networking groups.
He couldn't, you know, doexactly the same thing and he
didn't.
He didn't do like YouTubetutorials.
He did some stuff on the intransit YouTube channel, but it
was more about for clients.
Um, and his podcast, which doesfeed into in transit studios
today, is more about his digitalnomad lifestyle.
(12:21):
Him and his family literallytravel the world.
So that was a difference therewas.
He's a very different kind ofbusiness owner.
He's not like local boots onthe ground, he's remote, but he
is very good at communicationand he will do as many calls as
you need to kind of guy which Iappreciated communication, and
he will do as many calls as youneed to kind of guy which I
appreciated, and yeah, no, hedid not.
(12:45):
He did not continue the Joshbrand, exactly which I wasn't
expecting.
He kind of created his ownidentity.
For sure he created any.
In transit studios has evolvedin the way of it's now more of
an agency than it was, more of asmall studio.
I purely just focused onwebsite designs with three
ranges and then our maintenanceplan and then some SEO and
consulting for the growthcategory.
(13:06):
He's got it much more to aplace where he's really kind of
marketing focus first and thenthe website is a big part of
that which some clients havereally liked.
I've got some clients that Ikeep up with who do appreciate
that approach.
Some probably just want a webdesigner and some want more
marketing help.
So there's always a bit of agive and go when you step into
(13:28):
somebody else's clientele andsomebody else's business and I
let clients know it's not mybusiness anymore, it is Eric,
and I told him it's not mybusiness anymore.
It is Eric and I told him it'snot my baby anymore, it is yours
.
We're handing that little webbaby over.
Take care of it.
How did the brand transitionactually work?
Did Josh quietly disappear fromthe business or was it more of
(13:49):
a handoff.
It was more of a handoff.
Yeah, I did not make it vagueor ambiguous.
Um, that did I say that.
I'm so proud of myself forsaying that word correctly.
I did not, like you know,sleazily sneak out.
It was a very clear.
Like guys, I'm actually movingon to a different role in the
(14:09):
business.
I'm a founder, I have a new CEO.
He's going to be doing all theday to day.
Um, and then I really didn'tget that much contact from the
clients because I think therewas so much time in investing in
Eric and we intentionally madethat period of time where Eric
had a lot of time he needed todedicate, to have calls with
clients and introduce himself.
So it was honestly kind of easyfor me because it was kind of
(14:33):
like the announcement and thenEric took it over from there.
Was there any downside to havingbeen the prominent personality
when it came to came to an exit?
So, yeah, I think we coveredthat for sure.
Um, yeah, I mean in an idealworld what I have got myself
even more out of the sales callson day to day before exiting,
for sure, but uh, it did comepretty quick in the way of like
(14:57):
I just got to that point where Iwas like, oh my gosh, I think
I'm.
I'm not burned out, I'm just.
I want my focus is is elsewhere.
Like, I want to do my courses,I want to do YouTube, I want to
do my podcast, I want to docoaching, I want to build a
community, and I am just a monobusiness guy.
I just cannot run twobusinesses at the same time.
Plus, I'm a father work fromhome enthusiast, balance
(15:19):
enthusiast.
So I'm not working 90-hourweeks.
Ain't going to happen.
Looking back, do you thinkthere's a double-edged sword in
building a personality-drivenbrand versus a business-driven
one?
And again, this kind of getsinto that.
Yeah, for sure.
The thing is, I think it'salways good to build your
business with your personality,even if it's whether it's
personal brand or like me, where, like, I'm the very clear face
of the brand.
(15:40):
But I probably would have if Icould go back.
I would have started to, evenif I didn't think I would
eventually sell.
And this is something Irecommend all my Web Designer
Pro members think about is tobuild your business as if you
can sell it regardless.
So, even if you're thecraftsman and you love doing the
work and you're a solopreneurand you're a proud freelancer.
(16:01):
It's still good to startbuilding a business, because you
just never know what's going tohappen.
So it's always good to getyourself into that position or
even start to dip your toe intothose scaling waters.
That way, if you do feel like,oh my gosh, I think I might want
to like, maybe I'm just donedoing the sites now I just I
(16:22):
really have found a love formarketing and that's what I want
to focus on.
That gives you the leeway to dothat.
Great questions from Justin.
We're going to move on to somequestions from Alexia.
Now Alexia, good ones here.
What parts of selling abusiness surprise you
emotionally versus strategically?
(16:42):
So yeah, two camps here, or twocategories.
Emotionally, I was not surprisedby this, but well, the surprise
emotionally.
There was two big emotions thathappened during that period.
The first emotion was theliteral tears when I was sending
out individual emails toclients, because I had very
(17:03):
close relationships with a lotof clients.
I am such a people-pleasingperson.
Letting people down istraumatic to me.
So with clients, I wasterrified of that.
I was terrified of gettingemails from somebody who'd be
like Josh, I'm reallydisappointed in you.
I thought you are a website guy.
And now what are we going to do?
And uh, luckily that again thatwas not the case.
(17:25):
I literally didn't get one ofthose emails.
I could sense disappointmentand like, oh, just more out of
like the bummer of like man, wereally enjoy working with you.
We're going to miss workingwith you.
But I've learned that at thatpoint in my career there was a
lot of business owners I wasworking with who had been
through exits and who had beenthrough this kind of stuff.
So they were like, oh well,congrats, it's business.
(17:47):
Like, good on you, do what youlove, do this new endeavor,
that's awesome and thank you forjust not disappearing.
I think that was another thingthat I was surprised by was a
lot of clients were verythankful that I didn't just burn
them, because I could have justsaid like I'm out, peace.
But no, we like it was reallyreally an intensive process to
(18:07):
make sure the handover was asgood as it could be, which is
again what we covered in episode53 of the podcast the emotion.
So that was the emotion thatsurprised me.
What did not surprise me or Ishould say that's the emotion
that did not surprise me was thefeeling of the clients.
But what did surprise me wasthe emotion after, because I
(18:30):
thought I would feel free as abird and once I sold in transit,
I'd be like, oh my gosh, I justwake up and have coffee and can
work on my courses and justkind of not lollygag around but
just have a much more like, oh,like free flowing week, like
week schedule.
That is not the case.
In fact, I felt overwhelmed.
I felt completely overwhelmedbecause I had built up
(18:52):
joshhallco and my suite ofcourses with very up joshhallco
and my suite of courses withvery, very strict, regimented
time, which was actually a giftwrapped.
It was a blessing wrapped up indisguise, because once I had 40
hours a week to dedicate to thisor more, it was like, oh my
gosh, I have so much to do and Ionly say I have so much to do
(19:14):
because I had so much I could do.
My mind was just like it waslike free, it was like you know,
you know roaming free.
And then I'd like really reelmyself into like, okay, what do
I need to do this week, what Iwant to get done this month?
And I've had to continue tolearn how to balance that
Because when you are um clientfacing and you're doing client
work, it's actually a lot easierto get stuff done sometimes
(19:36):
because you got a deadline andyour client's like, hey, we need
this by Friday.
So you just get it done ideally.
But when you have a businesslike I do, where I can pretty
much do whatever the heck I wantit, the overwhelming nature
comes when I need to be my ownboss and set my own deadlines
and set really, really stricttimetables on stuff.
(19:56):
Otherwise is it Parkinson's lawwhere if you don't set an
allocated deadline or time onsomething, that task will just
expand and you'll never get itdone.
It could just go forever.
So that was the big surpriseand that came into strategically
.
That's probably what that ledto is I had to be really
strategic now about creating aclearer vision for my schedule
(20:21):
and my outcomes as a creator andcoach and community builder and
course creator.
Did you ever feel an identityshift or who am I now after the
sale?
It is kind of interesting.
Luckily, I had already startedrealizing that like, oh my gosh,
I'm a course creator.
At that point courses were it.
(20:42):
And I did realize like, holycrap, I am like doing way more
course creation work and I and Ilove this just more just
because, again, I was not burnedout from my agency.
I love my clients.
I absolutely would have keptdoing that had I not started
falling in love with courses.
It did feel a little weirdbecause those first few weeks I
(21:02):
was just like, oh my gosh, Idon't have any sales calls, I'm
not managing projects forclients, I'm not worried about
hitting deadlines, I'm notchecking subscriptions.
So there was a little bit ofthat.
It wasn't like a completeculture shock, just because I
was essentially managing twodifferent identities, as the
business owner of InTransit andalso course creator.
(21:23):
But it just gave me theopportunity to 100% go to course
creator.
But it did feel weird.
It felt weird not having thosecalls.
And the networking group was aweird one because I went to my
networking group every year foreight years, or every week for
eight years.
That was a weird one because Iwent to my networking group
every year for eight years, orevery week for eight years.
Um, that was a weird onebecause I was like, oh my gosh,
it's Friday morning and I'm notgoing to the networking group,
(21:44):
I'm not selling web designcourses to them, so I don't need
to go.
That was a hard one too,because I have a lot of close
personal friends in there and,um, luckily, I've stayed really
close with a lot of them.
One of them is my realtor, oneis my financial advisor to this
day, one is still my automechanic, one is actually my
(22:05):
daughter goes to kind of acommunity-driven preschool to
one of those folks.
So we've still stayed close.
But it was weird.
And then this is kind ofunrelated to this but really
interesting question here fromAlexia what would you say are
the top one to two coreprinciples that have really made
you successful over the years?
I would say number one is care,because people really can sense
care.
And actually Alexis, who hassome questions up shortly, told
(22:28):
me at our recent in-person event, WDP con.
She said that, uh, cause it waslike one of the last
conversations before we left andit just sticks out to me.
She said I've seen a lot of webdesign coaches and course
creators and she's like I feellike you are, the are one of the
only few who genuinely care andwe can sense it.
She said, like you can sense itand you can see it in our over.
(22:50):
Um, I think just a doggedpersistence is also key.
Um, I, and this is why I say noto a lot and don't commit to
too many things, Um, but I amvery persistent when I commit to
(23:13):
something, which is why thispodcast is going on its sixth
year, because I knew when Istarted my podcast the reason I
delayed on doing it for a year.
A lot of people said just startyour podcast.
I was like I I'm not ready tocommit yet and I wait until I'm
ready to commit because I knowit's going to be a commitment,
it's going to last a long time.
It doesn't mean I move on fromthings, but it does, uh, like it
(23:36):
won't move on if I feel it'stime.
But it does mean that, like,I'm going all in on something,
I'm going in on something andI'm not going to half-ass it.
So I think that like I guess Idon't know what to call it
Persistence Um, yeah, thatdogged.
Like this, I'm doing this andit's going to be successful in
some manner.
Hopefully it's successful inthe books, hopefully it's
(23:59):
successful for people I'mteaching, and even if I just
like it and consider it asuccess, then that would be a
success.
The other thing I think if Icould choose a top three, it
would be care, the persistenceof commitment.
So maybe just commitment.
That's probably the second one.
If I could just choose a wordcare, commitment and well, now I
feel like I need to have a Cword at principles on these,
(24:21):
because you have to be able toadapt to market changes and
fluctuations.
(24:42):
You have to be able to adapt tonew technologies, like we're
dealing with AI.
I went through a big adaptseason when I pivoted from the
course first model to WebDesigner, pro and the membership
first model A couple of yearsago in 2023, I've talked about
that extensively.
It was a painful pivot but itwas the best thing I could do
(25:02):
for me, my family and all themembers of Pro in the long run.
So that was almost like therewas more emotional swings and
moving from courses tomembership model than there was
selling my business, quitehonestly.
But I learned, I.
I learned like I just sensed Iwas like I think I'm ready to
change this up, like I know mypeople are getting success when
(25:24):
they have courses, community insome level of coaching, and I
just realized that, yeah, Iwould just wanted to move to the
recurring revenue membershipmodel over the bigger one-off
course sales, just because itwas, I mean, yeah, recurring
revenue was a big, the biggerone-off course sales, just
because it was.
I mean, yeah, recurring revenuewas a big part to that, but it
was also just like what wasworking and I sensed that.
(25:44):
And I also sensed that courseswere getting harder to sell.
And man, was I on the money onthat one?
Because over the next year, Imean, when's the last time
you've bought a thousand, 2000,$3,000 course, unless it was
like a like a, a more cohortstyle thing?
But you know, just as a peerand I'm just talking like a pure
(26:06):
like people used to just sell a$3,000 course.
It was like here's the accessto all my information.
Now, typically it's like aprogram or it's a live cohort
style type of offer backed inwith the actual course, but just
pure courses, because I neverdid a cohort lifestyle model,
pure courses.
Um, that was a shift I wassensing and I'm so glad I
(26:28):
trusted my Spidey sense on thatone for sure.
Um, yeah, alexia says I know myperspective of business has
changed since just this firstyear.
I can't imagine how yourmindset has evolved over the
years.
For sure, yeah, completelydifferent person than I was,
even, you know, when I sold intransit.
Um, all right, whitney.
(26:50):
Whitney Bates, an awesomemember of pro, was also on the
podcast recently.
Um has echoes all of the nextquestions that we're going to
get to, which were from Dylanmember, awesome member of pro
and she also wondered about theneed to have people on a longer
term contract.
All of mine are month to month,especially for recurring revenue
(27:12):
.
Yeah, so mine were month tomonth as well, although I did
have a balance.
I don't know the percentage, itwas probably about 25% who were
on annual monthly recurringrevenue plans with our
maintenance plan and about 75%month to month.
I don't know the exact rate onwho stayed and who dropped from
that, but from my understandingwe did not lose many clients
(27:35):
over the first year inparticular, like I'm pretty sure
it was.
I'd say I can follow up withEric on this, but I'd say 95%
folks stayed within that firstyear and of course, we had
projects that were still beingbuilt out through that time too.
So Dylan wanted to know whatprofit or what revenue multiple
did you use when you sold thebusiness?
So I sold for three times theamount of recurring revenue I
(27:59):
had, uh, monthly recurringrevenue so, and that seems to be
pretty industry standard.
Now I will say Eric got apretty dang good deal.
Uh, I was just making so muchmore with courses at the time
where I was like I I washonestly fine with devalue out,
undervaluing in transit, just tofree up my time to be able to
go with courses, and that wasstill the best decision.
(28:20):
Could I probably have gottenmore?
Yeah, but then I realized likehow much work in time is it
going to take for me to reallyink out a couple extra hundred
thousand?
Or you know, like am I going todouble this?
Like I'd rather just just getme in the place where I am just
the founder of the agency and Ihave my check-ins with Eric and
(28:40):
I'm kind of consult like aconsultant and then I can focus
on courses and really grow thatthing.
Because, as many of you know, Iwent full time shortly after
COVID hit, so um.
So that's one reason courseswere just booming for me as
people were in the middle ofbeing home and starting their
businesses on the side.
So I felt like that was theright time and I backed that
decision five years later.
(29:02):
So typically it's three X theamount of of revenue.
From what I've seen.
There may be different views onthat, but essentially what I
sold was our maintenance planand a list of clients and our
SOPs and our processes and oursystems, which Eric had access
to by being a student of mine,anywho.
So that's essentially what Isold and what seems to be common
(29:24):
.
So yeah, that's how that was.
The valuation of in transitstudios was three X the MRR and
could I have charged more?
So, for example, if you'redoing 50,000 with MRR, you
should be able to confidentlysell for one 50.
And then, if you, you couldprobably charge more for a
client list.
Again, I could have done more,but I was fine to just go full
(29:45):
full-time forces.
Uh courses.
Um, was it a full-time lump sumor installment plan?
I would have loved for it to bea lump sum for sure, but it was
not, and I knew that, andEric's really transparent.
He was like, listen, man, Idon't have the capital or access
to do this in one payment.
So he said, if we're going todo it, it's going to have to be
a percentage type thing andinstallment plan.
(30:06):
I said, cool, I'm fine withthat.
Again, I just I didn't need thelump sum right then.
So while, yes, I did lose therecurring revenue, I was
confident with how much coursesales I was doing, and later
that year I created the firstversion of Web Designer Pro,
which was called the Web DesignClub.
And so it was just a few monthslater, after selling in transit
(30:27):
, that I built up recurringrevenue with my, my first
iteration of the membership,which was called the Web Design
Club.
So basically, what we workedout was the amount I sold for I
get within a 10-year period andI get quarterly payments based
off of a percentage of theprofit of what Intranet Studios
(30:50):
takes in.
So would I love for it to bemore?
Yes, for sure, but I still amgetting ongoing payments every
quarter.
That's how that works out, andI'm sure Eric would like to get
me paid fully.
And yeah, that's kind of whatwe worked out.
So really the goal is, as longas in transit studios grows, and
with big waves, I'm gettingmore in my.
(31:11):
It's basically a quarterly umconsultant type, you know, fee,
uh, which is the, the, thepayment for the business, uh,
what financial records wereimportant to have during the
sale.
I could have had better records, um, luckily, I mean it was all
going through Stripe and 17hats, so those were pretty well.
(31:32):
I mean, eric had full access toall that stuff so and he
literally took over the Stripeaccount for in transit.
So it moved from me on there toEric literally took that Stripe
account over.
I gave him ownership of that.
So all the records for Stripewere there.
And then anything in PayPal,anything directly through 17
hats was, was there as well, andof course 17 hats went into
(31:58):
Stripe for one-off payments andstuff like that.
Could I have had like gross andprofit P&Ls better organized?
Yeah, but we really didn't havethat large of a suite of
expenses and I had a spreadsheetthat was pretty detailed with
all of our expenses and then howmuch profit was typically in
the business, how much I waspaying myself and we do talk
about that in episode 53.
What systems and processes didyou have to document before the
(32:21):
sale?
A lot of it was.
I went client by client and Icreated loom videos and gosh, if
Eric listens to this, he'llhave to remind me how many I did
.
I mean I think I had at least50 plus loom videos that I
created and I I looked at everyclient and I was like, okay,
here's this client.
Uh, those of you who have beenthrough my business course.
(32:43):
You know I recommend having auh a suite of categories for
your clients a clients, bclients and C clients.
I went through and said thisclient is in this category.
They are like, they're awesome,do not mess it up.
Be amazing, give this personextra attention.
I absolutely did it that way.
So I talked to all my A clients.
(33:03):
First I did a little loom videooverviewing how I met them, my
relationship with them, who themain contacts are, whether
they're local or not,overviewing their website,
talked about this project,previous projects, and, of
course, he could go through in17 hats and see that.
Okay, josh worked with TerrierSteel, one of my best clients.
Okay, here's how much hecharged for the website.
(33:24):
This was the package he created, this is how long he's been
working with them, et cetera.
So those loom videos wereabsolutely key and again, we do
dive into that in episode 53 formore detail.
Um, and then, bless Eric'sheart for having to list, for
having to, uh, bear with mewhile he watched 50 plus loom
videos all within the span ofabout a week or two.
(33:46):
And then, how did you handleclient contracts?
Uh, yeah, that was just there.
Really wasn't anything there.
I mean month to month, folkscould cancel if they wanted to,
but I don't think anyonecanceled right away.
Anybody who has moved on isunrelated to the initial
transfer.
Um, we talked about some of thestuff with Eric's end of taking
(34:09):
things over operationally.
I think for Eric it wasprobably getting used to just
working with that many clients.
And then, um, because he tookover my pricing and and all that
, he kind of had to like be theCEO of in transit as it was for
the rest of 2020.
But then he started kind ofmaking it his own and evolving
(34:31):
pricing and we have like amaster maintenance plan client
list that has like all theoriginal maintenance plan
pricing and then grandfatheredrates and all that stuff.
So, as far as my capacity yeah,it was.
It was a clean break in thesense of I was not, as I
mentioned, you know, vaguelyremoving myself.
(34:52):
Break in the sense of I was not, as I mentioned, you know,
vaguely removing myself mycapacity was as a consultant.
So, especially in the in thefirst couple of years, eric
would email me more and ping memore and I was happy to to do
that.
But over the past couple ofyears it's really trailed off to
where I only I check ingenerally quarterly and then, um
, I can't tell you, the lasttime he had like a client
question.
(35:12):
It's very rare, although we didhave like a client pass away a
couple of years ago and Ericreads out to me and said like
hey, this client passed away andthey're looking for some
details.
There's a couple of things I'mnot aware of, so that's happened
a couple of times, but I am notclient facing at all.
I am purely more of a consultantto Eric overseeing the business
(35:34):
.
So I'm I'm officially thefounder, although on in in
transit studioscom, my face isin the founder.
Uh, like on the team page.
Uh, employee transitions, yeah,so all the folks who was were
working with me in a subcontractrole, uh, I did hand over to
Eric and he started buildingrelationships with them.
(35:54):
Side note my SEO guru who'swho's on my team page today?
Michelle Bourbonier.
Those of you who are WebinarPro members know her very well.
She actually came by way ofEric.
So when I sold in transit, Ihad never met Michelle before,
aside from some interactions inmy Facebook group and then.
(36:15):
So it's kind of cool becauseEric got my team and then I got
some of Eric's team in the formof Michelle, who is a dear
friend and one of my biggestcolleagues as far as being a
part of my business today.
So it's kind of cool.
But, yeah, he, he had to handle, yeah, getting to know them.
And then there were some prosand cons and some some sticky
(36:37):
waters through through thatbecause, um, eric does handle
things differently than I do, um, but again, it was kind of his
business.
So, uh, yeah, there werecertainly.
So I wouldn't say butting heads, but just some some.
The vision that I had set outcurrently wasn't necessarily the
vision that Eric had as far asthe team goes.
So there was team transitionsover the period of the next
(36:59):
couple of years.
Uh, legal document wise, we didhave a contract that we both
sold and then I think there wasa non-compete in that to say
that I can't poach my currentyou know, you know the clients
of in transit if they were toleave.
I have to look back through Idon't remember exactly.
(37:19):
So there was probably a form ofa non-compete in that main
contract.
But then there was a bindingcontract for the rate that was
sold and for the expectations ofpayment and all that as well,
and then we didn't actually usea broker or anything in that one
.
We both did it, but we bothsigned the contract that we had
created that protected bothparties.
(37:40):
So, yeah, we did not actuallyuse a lawyer or anything in that
one.
If it was like a multimilliondollar sale or something like
that, for sure.
But the sale was under a couplehundred thousand because it my
monthly or my annual recurringrevenue.
So, um, yeah, it didn't feellike we needed to go that far at
that point and again, I justdidn't want to delay time.
(38:01):
I was ready to move, and whenI'm ready to move, we go.
How long did this entire saleprocess take, from start to
finish?
It was pretty quick.
We do talk about this in episode53.
It was, um, I think it was inlike two months from the time I
told Eric I'm thinking aboutselling to handing over the keys
.
So it was pretty quick.
It wasn't a long drawn outthing.
Um, see some good ones here.
(38:25):
Uh, any deal breakers or redflags that derailed the sale?
No, no, there were not.
Um, obviously I would have likedto have made more and I would
have liked to have had a lumpsum, but the again going back to
the like it was more about timefor me.
I just wanted to go all in onmy courses.
(38:45):
I was already making more thanI was doing that than the agency
at that point, so they weremore like micro things that,
yeah, would have been nice to,if anything.
If I could go back, I probablywould have arranged a larger
initial lump sum that could havebeen attainable for Eric even
with capital.
Um, and then just to balance itout a little more, cause he got
(39:08):
the better end of the deal Ithink it'll for sure initially,
but a better deal for melong-term, just because I'm
continuing to get quarterlypayments.
So, um, yeah, those were nolike deal breakers or red flags,
but those were things like yeah, it would have been nice to do
a couple of things there.
Um, we talked about building intransit studios with a different
(39:30):
intention to sell it.
Yeah, I just would have startedto like even more so put myself
in more of the founder rolebefore officially selling.
But then you're getting intolike building a business and
really being the true businessowner and not doing anything in
the business.
But it happened, it did happenpretty quick.
So, yeah, that would be theonly thing I would have done a
(39:52):
little bit differently leadingup to it, but again, it was kind
of a time thing, so it's allgood.
Uh, the biggest mistake I seeweb designers make when trying
to build a sellable business islike basically just creating a
job, not scaling.
Essentially, if you don't scalein any way and you don't have
any team members, you don't haveanybody other than you building
(40:14):
sites and doing everything it'svirtually unsellable.
So not scaling for sure.
How early should someone startabout thinking about an exit
strategy?
It is totally like you don'thave to at all.
If you love your business andyou have zero interest in ever
exiting, then you don't need toworry about an exit strategy.
(40:35):
I would still put a priority onbeing a business owner of the
business, but it doesn't meanthat you need to think about
selling it right away.
But when you're a businessowner and you run your business
with the option to be able tosell one day, you could see what
happens, for example, with WebDesigner Pro.
I have no interest or desire tosell, but I know from this
(40:58):
experience that I'm going tocreate a web designer community
that is not just Josh's webdesigner community, because in
10 or 15 years, depending onwhat the market looks like,
depending on what I'm doing.
I have no intention of selling,but will I be in a position
where I don't want to do as muchpersonal intensive coaching
Maybe, and maybe I want to havelike like micro coaches inside
(41:19):
of pro and I'm the founder, justlike I was within transit.
Maybe I don't know, but I'mcreating web designer pro
intentionally, more as webdesigner pro, as a brand, rather
than just Josh Hall's community.
So that's kind of where mymindset is today when it comes
to being a business owner andbuilding an exit strategy.
(41:41):
And then what advice would yougive to someone who wants to
build a business?
Isn't sure they want to be theface of it?
I'd say go for it.
I mean, the reality is, though,if you're doing the work and
you're doing the calls, you'restill going to be on the website
.
You should, so don't be.
But I would just say don'tworry about being the business,
but be the role that you have inyour role chart.
(42:03):
In my scaling course, I have alittle org chart where I
recommend that everybody likeliterally put your picture in
the roles of the business, andif your role is the owner or the
creative director, embrace thatrole.
So you don't need to be theface of the business as a whole,
but be the face of the rolethat you are in your business.
(42:25):
All right, and then some finalquestions.
I am out of water so I'mstarting to lose my voice, so
we're going to get through theselast few questions here.
But great questions, guys, andthese come from Alexis, who I
just mentioned a little bit ago.
So she says I can't believeit's been five years.
Uh, remember when you sold?
Uh, she said how much do youstill make from the business?
If you'd rather not share, noworries, that's okay.
(42:45):
I so yeah, it's not super sexy,but it is kind of nice.
You know, residual incomebasically for doing at this
point I really do no other workthan just overseeing Eric and
checking in quarterly, and justI almost treat Eric like a
member of a coaching member, apro, who is just popping in
quarterly and they just wantsome advice and I just I get an
(43:07):
update on where numbers are,what's working well, what's not,
and just based off of what I'mseeing working with members and
pro at the agency level, that's,you know, quarter million, few
hundred thousand, that's whatI'm relaying to Eric.
So that's all I'm doing.
Um, it averages out to about500 a month currently.
So, again, if, if in transitcan get to the place where it's
(43:27):
growing more substantially andthere's more profit, than that
could potentially double ortriple per month, which would be
nice.
So, Eric, let's go, let's makethat happen and make it a
win-win.
But yeah, that's about whereit's at right now.
On average is about nice littleextra 500 bucks a month that
trickles in.
So, yeah, it's not like it'sfunding a um, you know, a
helicopter or a boat.
At this point it's it's fundingboats and helicopters in the
(43:51):
forms of toys for my childrenright now.
How much do you still do in thebusy?
Yeah, so I mentioned that.
That's really all I'm doing.
I kind of answered thatquestion before I realized it
was a question.
Um, it is really just aquarterly check-in at this point
.
Do you miss any parts of it?
Do you miss designing websitesand interacting with clients?
I do.
I don't miss designing sites asmuch as I thought I would,
(44:12):
because I still design sites Now.
I do a lot on web designerprocom.
I do a lot on my tutorial sitesand test sites and I'm creating
a new one right now.
It's kind of a model site forweb designer pro members.
So I still get my itch ofdesigning sites, but I do miss
interacting with clients.
Um, I don't necessarily missthe you know the pop-up calls,
(44:32):
but I tell you what I do missinteracting with clients.
I don't necessarily miss thepop-up calls, but I tell you
what I do miss is networking.
I do miss my networking group.
That's the biggest thing I miss.
And occasionally I do missmeeting some of my best clients
in person at like Panera or acoffee shop and catching up like
that.
But those interactions havebeen replaced with meeting with
members of pro in person anddoing our meetups occasionally
(44:54):
and talking more strategy andstuff like that.
And I've I've really beenintentional still about meeting
a lot of my colleagues and inperson network in person.
So I still like I just met upwith a good friend of mine last
week at the coffee shop,actually one of my original
mentors I'm going to be meetingwith in person here.
I haven't seen him in years buthe was actually a big part of
(45:16):
when I started my agency.
He had an agency in town and Ilearned a lot from him.
I connected with him recentlyand I'm going to meet up with
him in his office here soon.
So I still do.
I still get my fix ofinteracting in person, because
that's important to me and it'sthe way I'm wired.
It's good for me to do that,but the biggest thing I miss is,
for sure, my weekly networkinggroup.
(45:40):
And then, finally, the lastquestion here, great one from
Alexis what would happen if Ericdecides to sell in the future?
So I have to go back throughour agreement?
I think we do have acontingency in there to where I
get the, the, the amount I'mowed, regardless.
I will double check on that,though, alexis.
That's good thinking, becauseI'm pretty sure we have that
(46:03):
covered.
And this is where, like, Iwould advise talking with a
lawyer for sure on all theselittle things that may or may
not be covered.
But yeah, that would be thecase, but we're already halfway
through now, so I'll have todouble check that.
But we can always revise thatand look at a contingency as
well.
So, yeah, make sure if you sell, add that in there for sure,
(46:25):
for sure.
Great questions, guys.
I think this is enough forright now.
As we look back five years lateragain, as a whole, I'm still
very glad I did.
I think it's the best, becauseI could not have built web
designer pro up today whileworking.
You know, even even though Iwas only working 15 hours or so
in the agency, I just I couldnot do what I'm doing today and
(46:45):
support my family and my kidsand and, and, yeah, build pro
the way it is today, havingstill be an agency owner.
So a few things I would havedone slightly different there,
but overall I'm still reallyhappy with it and, yeah, it was
really a matter of time.
A lot of it was timing and timeto be able to dedicate to doing
this thing and I think thereason I'm able to take web
(47:07):
designer pro to where it istoday both personally with our
revenue and profit margins andthen just as a whole with
helping web designers a littlemore at scale now is because I
was able to move into thatfounder consultant role for in
transit.
So selling was still, to date,the best decision I've made and
I'm so glad it's working out forEric and I'm so glad that so
(47:28):
many clients are still havingsuch a great time, and I'll
figure out the exact number.
It'd be a good thing to talkabout for Eric and I's next
catch up here, but it'll beinteresting to see, like, what
percentage of clients have stuckwith in transit, knowing that
clients do move on when you havean agency and again we had like
a couple of clients pass away,so stuff happens I wasn't
(47:50):
expecting, five years later,that 100% of clients are still
going to be there.
It's just not the way it works.
But yeah, overall, there it is.
There's a little reflectionFive years since selling in
Transit Studios.
I would love to hear from you ifyou have any questions on this
one.
So let me know more detailsbelow in the description.
But I hope you enjoyed this one.
But I hope you enjoyed this one.
I'm really active on Instagramright now more than anywhere, so
(48:12):
if this is of interest, dm methere, instagram or tag me and I
look forward to hearing fromyou.
Web Designer Pro members gointo the course Scale your Way,
because a lot of what I learnedin this is what's echoed in that
course.
Scale your Way and if you'renot a member of Web Designer Pro
yet, jump on inwebdesignerprocom.
You can get access to all mycourses, which literally are the
(48:38):
SOPs from in transit studios.
My scaling course is in there.
You can also join the communityand at the time of recording
this, we may or may not haveopenings for the coaching that's
been out of the wait list, butI am going to be opening up more
coaching spots here shortly, sokeep an eye out for that.
All right, my friends cheers.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
Hello friends, it's Josh here popping in with a
special edition episode of thepodcast.
It just dawned on me that thismonth July 2025, is five years
since I sold my web designagency in Transit Studios.
So I wanted to take some timeand answer some questions about
(00:21):
this, being that I've had, youknow, five years to kind of
reflect on that and I'm happy toanswer.
Um, lessons learned, things Iam happy I did, things I wish I
would have done differently, etcetera.
So this is real casual, canhave some fun.
I actually did a post in mycommunity web designer pro and
just ask for anyone who has somequestions, and a few members
(00:43):
ask some really good questionsPlenty to get us going here.
So that is what we're going todo Now.
I'm going to highly recommendthat you take some time and go
back through.
Either pause this now and goback to this episode or, after
this, make sure you go back andlisten to episode 53 of this
podcast.
(01:09):
Episode 53 of this podcastbecause I actually had Eric
Dingler, the CEO of my nowagency, uh, enchanted studios on
the podcast and we talkedthrough like shortly after
making the sale.
Uh, had him on the show and wetalked through this entire
experience, while it was freshand I create.
I created kind of a six phaseselling the business playbook,
kind of an action plan.
Phase one was when you knowit's time.
Phase two is finding the rightfit.
(01:31):
Phase three was making the deal.
Phase four was actuallyplanning the change, phase five
was handing over the keys andphase six was cleaning up the
tissues, I mean, following upwith your new CEO.
So, yes, because it is not aneasy thing, especially if you
actually care about your clientsand care about your work.
So that is episode 53.
(01:52):
I'm going to recommend that yougo back through that.
We will be referencing that alot because a lot of the
questions in here were kind oftalked about there.
So I'm going to try to focus onthe ones that we haven't
covered for this.
So, first off, ones that wehaven't covered for this.
So, first off, justin, a WebDesigner Pro member, came in
with some great questions.
Let me skim through some ofthese and hit some of the ones
that I think are most worthwhilegetting into.
(02:16):
Initially, as we look at thisfive years later, he asked how
does being the face of thebusiness impact things when you
sell it?
I should say too, I'm kind offighting like a slight cold, so
apologies for that.
Absolutely, being the face of abusiness makes it very hard to
sell.
I'm glad that with my businessin Transit Studios that I went
(02:40):
with that name because it madeit sellable.
As everyone with a personalbrand knows, you can't sell you
unless you just work forsomebody, so a personal brand is
virtually unsellable.
So I'm very glad that I againwent with that brand in transit
studios.
Now I was the face of thebusiness to Justin's point and a
(03:02):
lot of clients.
This has some follow-upquestions that we'll get into.
Yes, people like I've I'vetalked publicly about how like
50% of my clients didn't evenknow the business name.
They just knew Josh, their webdesigner.
So it does make it tricky buthonestly, unless you build your
web design business and oragency with the idea of selling
(03:24):
it or exiting it, it's verycommon that it's a lot of you,
so don't think there's anythingwrong with that, but absolutely
it makes some challenges.
So his next question was didclients buy into the business in
transit studios or were theyreally buying you?
It was about 50 50, to behonest.
Again, I think a lot of myclients just like working with
(03:46):
me and for all the reasons thatI found success as a web
designer, a lot of those werebecause I was a trusted person.
I really cared about my clientsand the work we did.
So I don't think a lot ofpeople really cared as much
about the processes I created Imean, indirectly, those were a
huge help but a lot of peopledid, you know, want to work with
(04:10):
me.
So, um, but at the same time,there was a lot of what made me
successful.
That was just a part of thebusiness, which was the website,
my chops, my processes, my the,the type of websites that I
built over the years and learnedto build, which were then now a
part of our portfolio and apart of my SOPs, which became my
(04:30):
courses, which Eric wentthrough and then eventually by
the way side note, if you didn'tknow, and you'll learn this
when you go back through thatprevious episode, episode 53,
eric was a student of mine and Isaw him build a sixure business
on the side and I thought thisis the kind of guy who I feel
comfortable because he was verycare-oriented, very
(04:50):
customer-focused and very, veryentrepreneurial Pros and cons to
that in transparency, but Ithought that Eric's going to be
the kind of guy who's going tobe able to take this and not
fall into the trap of just doingall the work and being a
freelancer but actually being abusiness owner.
So that's, in short, what mademe feel like Eric would be a
(05:10):
good fit.
And at that time my courseswere just taken off and I just I
was doing it for 10 years atthat point and I just wanted to
focus on coaching and doingcourses and eventually creating
Web Presenter Pro full time.
So when the business wastransferred, justin wanted to
know was there a negative sideto clients expecting to work
with you and now working withEric?
(05:30):
I think for sure there were alot of people who were probably
bummed and nothing against Eric,but people were.
They did enjoy working with me.
So I mean I, of course, whowouldn't be bummed?
They're not going to get anemail from me as much I would be
bummed.
Um, no, but in like, in serious, yeah, seriously and in full
transparency.
Yeah, I think a lot of clientswere probably like oh dang Um,
(05:55):
because you do build that trustup now.
I w that episode previously.
Episode 53 gets really in depthon the entire process of doing
this.
So we'll scratch the surfacewith some of that here, but I'm
not going to take another hourjust to go through the process
of that, because that is why wehave that previous episode.
But let's just say it's notsomething that I rushed, it's
(06:16):
not something that I did lightly, and I went for about a month
straight.
Virtually the only thing I didwas work on the transition of
the business and try to do itvery tactfully, and it was not
an easy thing to do.
I think newer clients wereprobably the ones who are most
like oh all right, I think a lotof my clients knew I was
(06:38):
teaching and knew I had foundsome success on YouTube and had
a podcast going, but I do thinkoverall it was probably a
surprise.
Knew I was teaching and knew Ihad found some success on
YouTube and had a podcast going,but I do think overall it was
probably a surprise.
So the only negative side therewasn't any negative side in the
fact of like literally not oneclient reached out and said oh
my gosh, josh, I'm very upset bythis.
(06:58):
I was expecting to work withyou.
I'm very disappointed.
It's a testament to the amazingclients I had, and a lot of
them are still with the agencybecause I had so much positive,
like wow, josh, that'sincredible.
And a lot of them had neveractually seen my YouTube channel
and my podcast at that pointand so when they checked it out
they were like holy cow, I knewyou were doing some stuff on the
(07:19):
side, but I didn't realize itwas at this level.
So everyone was sooverwhelmingly positive and I
think a lot of my clients werekind of like cheering for me and
rooting for me, so, um, thatwas huge and I also let them
know like I'm not completelydisappearing, like it's not like
they're never going to be ableto contact me, like I'm still in
very close contact with a lotof those clients, so, um,
(07:42):
through social media and throughemail and and I'll end through
local partnerships andconnections.
So, um, the only negative sidewas, I think, probably just the
feeling of you know, a bummer.
Um did being in the front manof the brand create any
challenges for the transition,for Eric?
So there was definitely I don'tknow about challenges, but
there was a lot of work for Ericto do to introduce himself and,
(08:04):
um, this is going to sound sodouchey, but he, he did have,
you know, fairly decent sizeshoes to fill um with with my
communication, and it's it'svery hard to and this is one of
the reasons I chose Eric as theCEO to step up for the agency is
it's you can't find somebodyand then have them like learn
(08:25):
how to care.
That is just.
You just have to.
And Eric, luckily, is someonewho is mission focused and
really does care about peopleand care about the work.
So, you know, I didn't findsomebody who was like, okay,
they're really savvy.
But we got to you know, stopbeing a hustler and actually
worry about caring about clients.
I, the care was like the mainthing I looked for.
So I think that helped in thetransition for Eric and I
(08:49):
thought about having Eric onthis podcast, but we're gonna
have to do a follow-up one, Ithink, for both of us, cause I
have a lot of questions to getto and I can talk, you know, as
you know, for plenty of time.
So, um, yeah, I think thechallenges were just, you know,
you don't want to be the nextJosh, but you don't want to.
Um, clients don't want to havelike a less version of an
(09:11):
experience as far as clientcommunication and feeling of
being supported.
So a lot of that was covered inthe transition to which is how
I operate, and I basically justsaid you got to over communicate
, um, and you got to reallyfreaking care.
Have you seen other step backfrom their businesses
intentionally to make it morebrand driven or transformable?
Uh, was that something youconsidered?
(09:33):
Yeah, for sure I think I had.
Well, it's interesting is onthe broader entrepreneurial
stage I'm actually seeing peopledouble down into their personal
brands.
Folks like Russell Brunson ofClickFunnels.
Amy Porterfield just went allinto her brand.
My previous business coach,james Schramko his brand used to
(09:53):
be called Superfast Business.
He's actually gone all in onhis personal brand.
So it is kind of interesting.
But those they don't reallyhave like sellable businesses.
They may have sellable assetsin their businesses but it is
kind of interesting that thatworld may be different than
actual agencies.
Yeah, I have seen agency ownerstry to productize as much as
(10:13):
possible and step into more of aconsultant thought leadership
kind of role.
Um, actually, greg Merrily isthe owner of studio one design.
I had him on the podcastrecently.
They're out of Australia.
He's a great example of a trueagency owner and from what I see
from him is he's at a pointwhere he's still doing some
sales calls and stuff, but he'sreally embracing being the owner
(10:35):
of that business and he has anew book that is maybe out by
the time this comes out, kind oflike sharing his expertise and
really putting himself as moreof like the true founder and
starting to step back from theday to day, from what I see.
So I do think that's becomingmore common.
Um, good question Did Eric feelpressure?
(10:55):
Justin asked to to fill yourshoes by doing the same things
like podcasts, youtube tutorialsor networking.
I don't know if he felt thesame pressure.
It helped that he was alreadydoing a lot of these things.
Um, eric is, for better or forworse, a like zip zap, zip zap
entrepreneur, so he likes to doa lot of things.
It's actually a challenge.
I have to kind of reel him inand let him know when we do our
(11:16):
little quarterly check-ins, likejust stick with this, stick
with, stick with this for alittle bit first, because he's
just a.
You know, eric, just like a lotof entrepreneurs, likes new and
likes to do a lot of differentstuff.
But, um, so it wasn't a problemfor Eric to like do a lot of
those things.
It was actually a challenge tolike keep him focused on just in
transit studios so, or, youknow, just the main offers.
(11:39):
So, and I can say that Eric andI have a great relationship.
I can anything I say here, ericwill, I guarantee, would say
yes, guilty, so, but again,aren't we all as entrepreneurs?
Um, but it was different.
Eric did have to because he'snot local in Columbus Ohio.
He actually has roots here andhe has some clients previously
in Columbus.
(11:59):
Um, he couldn't do what I did,like he couldn't go to my
networking groups.
He couldn't, you know, doexactly the same thing and he
didn't.
He didn't do like YouTubetutorials.
He did some stuff on the intransit YouTube channel, but it
was more about for clients.
Um, and his podcast, which doesfeed into in transit studios
today, is more about his digitalnomad lifestyle.
(12:21):
Him and his family literallytravel the world.
So that was a difference therewas.
He's a very different kind ofbusiness owner.
He's not like local boots onthe ground, he's remote, but he
is very good at communicationand he will do as many calls as
you need to kind of guy which Iappreciated communication, and
he will do as many calls as youneed to kind of guy which I
appreciated, and yeah, no, hedid not.
(12:45):
He did not continue the Joshbrand, exactly which I wasn't
expecting.
He kind of created his ownidentity.
For sure he created any.
In transit studios has evolvedin the way of it's now more of
an agency than it was, more of asmall studio.
I purely just focused onwebsite designs with three
ranges and then our maintenanceplan and then some SEO and
consulting for the growthcategory.
(13:06):
He's got it much more to aplace where he's really kind of
marketing focus first and thenthe website is a big part of
that which some clients havereally liked.
I've got some clients that Ikeep up with who do appreciate
that approach.
Some probably just want a webdesigner and some want more
marketing help.
So there's always a bit of agive and go when you step into
(13:28):
somebody else's clientele andsomebody else's business and I
let clients know it's not mybusiness anymore, it is Eric,
and I told him it's not mybusiness anymore.
It is Eric and I told him it'snot my baby anymore, it is yours
.
We're handing that little webbaby over.
Take care of it.
How did the brand transitionactually work?
Did Josh quietly disappear fromthe business or was it more of
(13:49):
a handoff.
It was more of a handoff.
Yeah, I did not make it vagueor ambiguous.
Um, that did I say that.
I'm so proud of myself forsaying that word correctly.
I did not, like you know,sleazily sneak out.
It was a very clear.
Like guys, I'm actually movingon to a different role in the
(14:09):
business.
I'm a founder, I have a new CEO.
He's going to be doing all theday to day.
Um, and then I really didn'tget that much contact from the
clients because I think therewas so much time in investing in
Eric and we intentionally madethat period of time where Eric
had a lot of time he needed todedicate, to have calls with
clients and introduce himself.
So it was honestly kind of easyfor me because it was kind of
(14:33):
like the announcement and thenEric took it over from there.
Was there any downside to havingbeen the prominent personality
when it came to came to an exit?
So, yeah, I think we coveredthat for sure.
Um, yeah, I mean in an idealworld what I have got myself
even more out of the sales callson day to day before exiting,
for sure, but uh, it did comepretty quick in the way of like
(14:57):
I just got to that point where Iwas like, oh my gosh, I think
I'm.
I'm not burned out, I'm just.
I want my focus is is elsewhere.
Like, I want to do my courses,I want to do YouTube, I want to
do my podcast, I want to docoaching, I want to build a
community, and I am just a monobusiness guy.
I just cannot run twobusinesses at the same time.
Plus, I'm a father work fromhome enthusiast, balance
(15:19):
enthusiast.
So I'm not working 90-hourweeks.
Ain't going to happen.
Looking back, do you thinkthere's a double-edged sword in
building a personality-drivenbrand versus a business-driven
one?
And again, this kind of getsinto that.
Yeah, for sure.
The thing is, I think it'salways good to build your
business with your personality,even if it's whether it's
personal brand or like me, where, like, I'm the very clear face
of the brand.
(15:40):
But I probably would have if Icould go back.
I would have started to, evenif I didn't think I would
eventually sell.
And this is something Irecommend all my Web Designer
Pro members think about is tobuild your business as if you
can sell it regardless.
So, even if you're thecraftsman and you love doing the
work and you're a solopreneurand you're a proud freelancer.
(16:01):
It's still good to startbuilding a business, because you
just never know what's going tohappen.
So it's always good to getyourself into that position or
even start to dip your toe intothose scaling waters.
That way, if you do feel like,oh my gosh, I think I might want
to like, maybe I'm just donedoing the sites now I just I
(16:22):
really have found a love formarketing and that's what I want
to focus on.
That gives you the leeway to dothat.
Great questions from Justin.
We're going to move on to somequestions from Alexia.
Now Alexia, good ones here.
What parts of selling abusiness surprise you
emotionally versus strategically?
(16:42):
So yeah, two camps here, or twocategories.
Emotionally, I was not surprisedby this, but well, the surprise
emotionally.
There was two big emotions thathappened during that period.
The first emotion was theliteral tears when I was sending
out individual emails toclients, because I had very
(17:03):
close relationships with a lotof clients.
I am such a people-pleasingperson.
Letting people down istraumatic to me.
So with clients, I wasterrified of that.
I was terrified of gettingemails from somebody who'd be
like Josh, I'm reallydisappointed in you.
I thought you are a website guy.
And now what are we going to do?
And uh, luckily that again thatwas not the case.
(17:25):
I literally didn't get one ofthose emails.
I could sense disappointmentand like, oh, just more out of
like the bummer of like man, wereally enjoy working with you.
We're going to miss workingwith you.
But I've learned that at thatpoint in my career there was a
lot of business owners I wasworking with who had been
through exits and who had beenthrough this kind of stuff.
So they were like, oh well,congrats, it's business.
(17:47):
Like, good on you, do what youlove, do this new endeavor,
that's awesome and thank you forjust not disappearing.
I think that was another thingthat I was surprised by was a
lot of clients were verythankful that I didn't just burn
them, because I could have justsaid like I'm out, peace.
But no, we like it was reallyreally an intensive process to
(18:07):
make sure the handover was asgood as it could be, which is
again what we covered in episode53 of the podcast the emotion.
So that was the emotion thatsurprised me.
What did not surprise me or Ishould say that's the emotion
that did not surprise me was thefeeling of the clients.
But what did surprise me wasthe emotion after, because I
(18:30):
thought I would feel free as abird and once I sold in transit,
I'd be like, oh my gosh, I justwake up and have coffee and can
work on my courses and justkind of not lollygag around but
just have a much more like, oh,like free flowing week, like
week schedule.
That is not the case.
In fact, I felt overwhelmed.
I felt completely overwhelmedbecause I had built up
(18:52):
joshhallco and my suite ofcourses with very up joshhallco
and my suite of courses withvery, very strict, regimented
time, which was actually a giftwrapped.
It was a blessing wrapped up indisguise, because once I had 40
hours a week to dedicate to thisor more, it was like, oh my
gosh, I have so much to do and Ionly say I have so much to do
(19:14):
because I had so much I could do.
My mind was just like it waslike free, it was like you know,
you know roaming free.
And then I'd like really reelmyself into like, okay, what do
I need to do this week, what Iwant to get done this month?
And I've had to continue tolearn how to balance that
Because when you are um clientfacing and you're doing client
work, it's actually a lot easierto get stuff done sometimes
(19:36):
because you got a deadline andyour client's like, hey, we need
this by Friday.
So you just get it done ideally.
But when you have a businesslike I do, where I can pretty
much do whatever the heck I wantit, the overwhelming nature
comes when I need to be my ownboss and set my own deadlines
and set really, really stricttimetables on stuff.
(19:56):
Otherwise is it Parkinson's lawwhere if you don't set an
allocated deadline or time onsomething, that task will just
expand and you'll never get itdone.
It could just go forever.
So that was the big surpriseand that came into strategically
.
That's probably what that ledto is I had to be really
strategic now about creating aclearer vision for my schedule
(20:21):
and my outcomes as a creator andcoach and community builder and
course creator.
Did you ever feel an identityshift or who am I now after the
sale?
It is kind of interesting.
Luckily, I had already startedrealizing that like, oh my gosh,
I'm a course creator.
At that point courses were it.
(20:42):
And I did realize like, holycrap, I am like doing way more
course creation work and I and Ilove this just more just
because, again, I was not burnedout from my agency.
I love my clients.
I absolutely would have keptdoing that had I not started
falling in love with courses.
It did feel a little weirdbecause those first few weeks I
(21:02):
was just like, oh my gosh, Idon't have any sales calls, I'm
not managing projects forclients, I'm not worried about
hitting deadlines, I'm notchecking subscriptions.
So there was a little bit ofthat.
It wasn't like a completeculture shock, just because I
was essentially managing twodifferent identities, as the
business owner of InTransit andalso course creator.
(21:23):
But it just gave me theopportunity to 100% go to course
creator.
But it did feel weird.
It felt weird not having thosecalls.
And the networking group was aweird one because I went to my
networking group every year foreight years, or every week for
eight years.
That was a weird one because Iwent to my networking group
every year for eight years, orevery week for eight years.
Um, that was a weird onebecause I was like, oh my gosh,
it's Friday morning and I'm notgoing to the networking group,
(21:44):
I'm not selling web designcourses to them, so I don't need
to go.
That was a hard one too,because I have a lot of close
personal friends in there and,um, luckily, I've stayed really
close with a lot of them.
One of them is my realtor, oneis my financial advisor to this
day, one is still my automechanic, one is actually my
(22:05):
daughter goes to kind of acommunity-driven preschool to
one of those folks.
So we've still stayed close.
But it was weird.
And then this is kind ofunrelated to this but really
interesting question here fromAlexia what would you say are
the top one to two coreprinciples that have really made
you successful over the years?
I would say number one is care,because people really can sense
care.
And actually Alexis, who hassome questions up shortly, told
(22:28):
me at our recent in-person event, WDP con.
She said that, uh, cause it waslike one of the last
conversations before we left andit just sticks out to me.
She said I've seen a lot of webdesign coaches and course
creators and she's like I feellike you are, the are one of the
only few who genuinely care andwe can sense it.
She said, like you can sense itand you can see it in our over.
(22:50):
Um, I think just a doggedpersistence is also key.
Um, I, and this is why I say noto a lot and don't commit to
too many things, Um, but I amvery persistent when I commit to
(23:13):
something, which is why thispodcast is going on its sixth
year, because I knew when Istarted my podcast the reason I
delayed on doing it for a year.
A lot of people said just startyour podcast.
I was like I I'm not ready tocommit yet and I wait until I'm
ready to commit because I knowit's going to be a commitment,
it's going to last a long time.
It doesn't mean I move on fromthings, but it does, uh, like it
(23:36):
won't move on if I feel it'stime.
But it does mean that, like,I'm going all in on something,
I'm going in on something andI'm not going to half-ass it.
So I think that like I guess Idon't know what to call it
Persistence Um, yeah, thatdogged.
Like this, I'm doing this andit's going to be successful in
some manner.
Hopefully it's successful inthe books, hopefully it's
(23:59):
successful for people I'mteaching, and even if I just
like it and consider it asuccess, then that would be a
success.
The other thing I think if Icould choose a top three, it
would be care, the persistenceof commitment.
So maybe just commitment.
That's probably the second one.
If I could just choose a wordcare, commitment and well, now I
feel like I need to have a Cword at principles on these,
(24:21):
because you have to be able toadapt to market changes and
fluctuations.
(24:42):
You have to be able to adapt tonew technologies, like we're
dealing with AI.
I went through a big adaptseason when I pivoted from the
course first model to WebDesigner, pro and the membership
first model A couple of yearsago in 2023, I've talked about
that extensively.
It was a painful pivot but itwas the best thing I could do
(25:02):
for me, my family and all themembers of Pro in the long run.
So that was almost like therewas more emotional swings and
moving from courses tomembership model than there was
selling my business, quitehonestly.
But I learned, I.
I learned like I just sensed Iwas like I think I'm ready to
change this up, like I know mypeople are getting success when
(25:24):
they have courses, community insome level of coaching, and I
just realized that, yeah, Iwould just wanted to move to the
recurring revenue membershipmodel over the bigger one-off
course sales, just because itwas, I mean, yeah, recurring
revenue was a big, the biggerone-off course sales, just
because it was.
I mean, yeah, recurring revenuewas a big part to that, but it
was also just like what wasworking and I sensed that.
(25:44):
And I also sensed that courseswere getting harder to sell.
And man, was I on the money onthat one?
Because over the next year, Imean, when's the last time
you've bought a thousand, 2000,$3,000 course, unless it was
like a like a, a more cohortstyle thing?
But you know, just as a peerand I'm just talking like a pure
(26:06):
like people used to just sell a$3,000 course.
It was like here's the accessto all my information.
Now, typically it's like aprogram or it's a live cohort
style type of offer backed inwith the actual course, but just
pure courses, because I neverdid a cohort lifestyle model,
pure courses.
Um, that was a shift I wassensing and I'm so glad I
(26:28):
trusted my Spidey sense on thatone for sure.
Um, yeah, alexia says I know myperspective of business has
changed since just this firstyear.
I can't imagine how yourmindset has evolved over the
years.
For sure, yeah, completelydifferent person than I was,
even, you know, when I sold intransit.
Um, all right, whitney.
(26:50):
Whitney Bates, an awesomemember of pro, was also on the
podcast recently.
Um has echoes all of the nextquestions that we're going to
get to, which were from Dylanmember, awesome member of pro
and she also wondered about theneed to have people on a longer
term contract.
All of mine are month to month,especially for recurring revenue
(27:12):
.
Yeah, so mine were month tomonth as well, although I did
have a balance.
I don't know the percentage, itwas probably about 25% who were
on annual monthly recurringrevenue plans with our
maintenance plan and about 75%month to month.
I don't know the exact rate onwho stayed and who dropped from
that, but from my understandingwe did not lose many clients
(27:35):
over the first year inparticular, like I'm pretty sure
it was.
I'd say I can follow up withEric on this, but I'd say 95%
folks stayed within that firstyear and of course, we had
projects that were still beingbuilt out through that time too.
So Dylan wanted to know whatprofit or what revenue multiple
did you use when you sold thebusiness?
So I sold for three times theamount of recurring revenue I
(27:59):
had, uh, monthly recurringrevenue so, and that seems to be
pretty industry standard.
Now I will say Eric got apretty dang good deal.
Uh, I was just making so muchmore with courses at the time
where I was like I I washonestly fine with devalue out,
undervaluing in transit, just tofree up my time to be able to
go with courses, and that wasstill the best decision.
(28:20):
Could I probably have gottenmore?
Yeah, but then I realized likehow much work in time is it
going to take for me to reallyink out a couple extra hundred
thousand?
Or you know, like am I going todouble this?
Like I'd rather just just getme in the place where I am just
the founder of the agency and Ihave my check-ins with Eric and
(28:40):
I'm kind of consult like aconsultant and then I can focus
on courses and really grow thatthing.
Because, as many of you know, Iwent full time shortly after
COVID hit, so um.
So that's one reason courseswere just booming for me as
people were in the middle ofbeing home and starting their
businesses on the side.
So I felt like that was theright time and I backed that
decision five years later.
(29:02):
So typically it's three X theamount of of revenue.
From what I've seen.
There may be different views onthat, but essentially what I
sold was our maintenance planand a list of clients and our
SOPs and our processes and oursystems, which Eric had access
to by being a student of mine,anywho.
So that's essentially what Isold and what seems to be common
(29:24):
.
So yeah, that's how that was.
The valuation of in transitstudios was three X the MRR and
could I have charged more?
So, for example, if you'redoing 50,000 with MRR, you
should be able to confidentlysell for one 50.
And then, if you, you couldprobably charge more for a
client list.
Again, I could have done more,but I was fine to just go full
(29:45):
full-time forces.
Uh courses.
Um, was it a full-time lump sumor installment plan?
I would have loved for it to bea lump sum for sure, but it was
not, and I knew that, andEric's really transparent.
He was like, listen, man, Idon't have the capital or access
to do this in one payment.
So he said, if we're going todo it, it's going to have to be
a percentage type thing andinstallment plan.
(30:06):
I said, cool, I'm fine withthat.
Again, I just I didn't need thelump sum right then.
So while, yes, I did lose therecurring revenue, I was
confident with how much coursesales I was doing, and later
that year I created the firstversion of Web Designer Pro,
which was called the Web DesignClub.
And so it was just a few monthslater, after selling in transit
(30:27):
, that I built up recurringrevenue with my, my first
iteration of the membership,which was called the Web Design
Club.
So basically, what we workedout was the amount I sold for I
get within a 10-year period andI get quarterly payments based
off of a percentage of theprofit of what Intranet Studios
(30:50):
takes in.
So would I love for it to bemore?
Yes, for sure, but I still amgetting ongoing payments every
quarter.
That's how that works out, andI'm sure Eric would like to get
me paid fully.
And yeah, that's kind of whatwe worked out.
So really the goal is, as longas in transit studios grows, and
with big waves, I'm gettingmore in my.
(31:11):
It's basically a quarterly umconsultant type, you know, fee,
uh, which is the, the, thepayment for the business, uh,
what financial records wereimportant to have during the
sale.
I could have had better records, um, luckily, I mean it was all
going through Stripe and 17hats, so those were pretty well.
(31:32):
I mean, eric had full access toall that stuff so and he
literally took over the Stripeaccount for in transit.
So it moved from me on there toEric literally took that Stripe
account over.
I gave him ownership of that.
So all the records for Stripewere there.
And then anything in PayPal,anything directly through 17
hats was, was there as well, andof course 17 hats went into
(31:58):
Stripe for one-off payments andstuff like that.
Could I have had like gross andprofit P&Ls better organized?
Yeah, but we really didn't havethat large of a suite of
expenses and I had a spreadsheetthat was pretty detailed with
all of our expenses and then howmuch profit was typically in
the business, how much I waspaying myself and we do talk
about that in episode 53.
What systems and processes didyou have to document before the
(32:21):
sale?
A lot of it was.
I went client by client and Icreated loom videos and gosh, if
Eric listens to this, he'llhave to remind me how many I did
.
I mean I think I had at least50 plus loom videos that I
created and I I looked at everyclient and I was like, okay,
here's this client.
Uh, those of you who have beenthrough my business course.
(32:43):
You know I recommend having auh a suite of categories for
your clients a clients, bclients and C clients.
I went through and said thisclient is in this category.
They are like, they're awesome,do not mess it up.
Be amazing, give this personextra attention.
I absolutely did it that way.
So I talked to all my A clients.
(33:03):
First I did a little loom videooverviewing how I met them, my
relationship with them, who themain contacts are, whether
they're local or not,overviewing their website,
talked about this project,previous projects, and, of
course, he could go through in17 hats and see that.
Okay, josh worked with TerrierSteel, one of my best clients.
Okay, here's how much hecharged for the website.
(33:24):
This was the package he created, this is how long he's been
working with them, et cetera.
So those loom videos wereabsolutely key and again, we do
dive into that in episode 53 formore detail.
Um, and then, bless Eric'sheart for having to list, for
having to, uh, bear with mewhile he watched 50 plus loom
videos all within the span ofabout a week or two.
(33:46):
And then, how did you handleclient contracts?
Uh, yeah, that was just there.
Really wasn't anything there.
I mean month to month, folkscould cancel if they wanted to,
but I don't think anyonecanceled right away.
Anybody who has moved on isunrelated to the initial
transfer.
Um, we talked about some of thestuff with Eric's end of taking
(34:09):
things over operationally.
I think for Eric it wasprobably getting used to just
working with that many clients.
And then, um, because he tookover my pricing and and all that
, he kind of had to like be theCEO of in transit as it was for
the rest of 2020.
But then he started kind ofmaking it his own and evolving
(34:31):
pricing and we have like amaster maintenance plan client
list that has like all theoriginal maintenance plan
pricing and then grandfatheredrates and all that stuff.
So, as far as my capacity yeah,it was.
It was a clean break in thesense of I was not, as I
mentioned, you know, vaguelyremoving myself.
(34:52):
Break in the sense of I was not, as I mentioned, you know,
vaguely removing myself mycapacity was as a consultant.
So, especially in the in thefirst couple of years, eric
would email me more and ping memore and I was happy to to do
that.
But over the past couple ofyears it's really trailed off to
where I only I check ingenerally quarterly and then, um
, I can't tell you, the lasttime he had like a client
question.
(35:12):
It's very rare, although we didhave like a client pass away a
couple of years ago and Ericreads out to me and said like
hey, this client passed away andthey're looking for some
details.
There's a couple of things I'mnot aware of, so that's happened
a couple of times, but I am notclient facing at all.
I am purely more of a consultantto Eric overseeing the business
(35:34):
.
So I'm I'm officially thefounder, although on in in
transit studioscom, my face isin the founder.
Uh, like on the team page.
Uh, employee transitions, yeah,so all the folks who was were
working with me in a subcontractrole, uh, I did hand over to
Eric and he started buildingrelationships with them.
(35:54):
Side note my SEO guru who'swho's on my team page today?
Michelle Bourbonier.
Those of you who are WebinarPro members know her very well.
She actually came by way ofEric.
So when I sold in transit, Ihad never met Michelle before,
aside from some interactions inmy Facebook group and then.
(36:15):
So it's kind of cool becauseEric got my team and then I got
some of Eric's team in the formof Michelle, who is a dear
friend and one of my biggestcolleagues as far as being a
part of my business today.
So it's kind of cool.
But, yeah, he, he had to handle, yeah, getting to know them.
And then there were some prosand cons and some some sticky
(36:37):
waters through through thatbecause, um, eric does handle
things differently than I do, um, but again, it was kind of his
business.
So, uh, yeah, there werecertainly.
So I wouldn't say butting heads, but just some some.
The vision that I had set outcurrently wasn't necessarily the
vision that Eric had as far asthe team goes.
So there was team transitionsover the period of the next
(36:59):
couple of years.
Uh, legal document wise, we didhave a contract that we both
sold and then I think there wasa non-compete in that to say
that I can't poach my currentyou know, you know the clients
of in transit if they were toleave.
I have to look back through Idon't remember exactly.
(37:19):
So there was probably a form ofa non-compete in that main
contract.
But then there was a bindingcontract for the rate that was
sold and for the expectations ofpayment and all that as well,
and then we didn't actually usea broker or anything in that one
.
We both did it, but we bothsigned the contract that we had
created that protected bothparties.
(37:40):
So, yeah, we did not actuallyuse a lawyer or anything in that
one.
If it was like a multimilliondollar sale or something like
that, for sure.
But the sale was under a couplehundred thousand because it my
monthly or my annual recurringrevenue.
So, um, yeah, it didn't feellike we needed to go that far at
that point and again, I justdidn't want to delay time.
(38:01):
I was ready to move, and whenI'm ready to move, we go.
How long did this entire saleprocess take, from start to
finish?
It was pretty quick.
We do talk about this in episode53.
It was, um, I think it was inlike two months from the time I
told Eric I'm thinking aboutselling to handing over the keys
.
So it was pretty quick.
It wasn't a long drawn outthing.
Um, see some good ones here.
(38:25):
Uh, any deal breakers or redflags that derailed the sale?
No, no, there were not.
Um, obviously I would have likedto have made more and I would
have liked to have had a lumpsum, but the again going back to
the like it was more about timefor me.
I just wanted to go all in onmy courses.
(38:45):
I was already making more thanI was doing that than the agency
at that point, so they weremore like micro things that,
yeah, would have been nice to,if anything.
If I could go back, I probablywould have arranged a larger
initial lump sum that could havebeen attainable for Eric even
with capital.
Um, and then just to balance itout a little more, cause he got
(39:08):
the better end of the deal Ithink it'll for sure initially,
but a better deal for melong-term, just because I'm
continuing to get quarterlypayments.
So, um, yeah, those were nolike deal breakers or red flags,
but those were things like yeah, it would have been nice to do
a couple of things there.
Um, we talked about building intransit studios with a different
(39:30):
intention to sell it.
Yeah, I just would have startedto like even more so put myself
in more of the founder rolebefore officially selling.
But then you're getting intolike building a business and
really being the true businessowner and not doing anything in
the business.
But it happened, it did happenpretty quick.
So, yeah, that would be theonly thing I would have done a
(39:52):
little bit differently leadingup to it, but again, it was kind
of a time thing, so it's allgood.
Uh, the biggest mistake I seeweb designers make when trying
to build a sellable business islike basically just creating a
job, not scaling.
Essentially, if you don't scalein any way and you don't have
any team members, you don't haveanybody other than you building
(40:14):
sites and doing everything it'svirtually unsellable.
So not scaling for sure.
How early should someone startabout thinking about an exit
strategy?
It is totally like you don'thave to at all.
If you love your business andyou have zero interest in ever
exiting, then you don't need toworry about an exit strategy.
(40:35):
I would still put a priority onbeing a business owner of the
business, but it doesn't meanthat you need to think about
selling it right away.
But when you're a businessowner and you run your business
with the option to be able tosell one day, you could see what
happens, for example, with WebDesigner Pro.
I have no interest or desire tosell, but I know from this
(40:58):
experience that I'm going tocreate a web designer community
that is not just Josh's webdesigner community, because in
10 or 15 years, depending onwhat the market looks like,
depending on what I'm doing.
I have no intention of selling,but will I be in a position
where I don't want to do as muchpersonal intensive coaching
Maybe, and maybe I want to havelike like micro coaches inside
(41:19):
of pro and I'm the founder, justlike I was within transit.
Maybe I don't know, but I'mcreating web designer pro
intentionally, more as webdesigner pro, as a brand, rather
than just Josh Hall's community.
So that's kind of where mymindset is today when it comes
to being a business owner andbuilding an exit strategy.
(41:41):
And then what advice would yougive to someone who wants to
build a business?
Isn't sure they want to be theface of it?
I'd say go for it.
I mean, the reality is, though,if you're doing the work and
you're doing the calls, you'restill going to be on the website
.
You should, so don't be.
But I would just say don'tworry about being the business,
but be the role that you have inyour role chart.
(42:03):
In my scaling course, I have alittle org chart where I
recommend that everybody likeliterally put your picture in
the roles of the business, andif your role is the owner or the
creative director, embrace thatrole.
So you don't need to be theface of the business as a whole,
but be the face of the rolethat you are in your business.
(42:25):
All right, and then some finalquestions.
I am out of water so I'mstarting to lose my voice, so
we're going to get through theselast few questions here.
But great questions, guys, andthese come from Alexis, who I
just mentioned a little bit ago.
So she says I can't believeit's been five years.
Uh, remember when you sold?
Uh, she said how much do youstill make from the business?
If you'd rather not share, noworries, that's okay.
(42:45):
I so yeah, it's not super sexy,but it is kind of nice.
You know, residual incomebasically for doing at this
point I really do no other workthan just overseeing Eric and
checking in quarterly, and justI almost treat Eric like a
member of a coaching member, apro, who is just popping in
quarterly and they just wantsome advice and I just I get an
(43:07):
update on where numbers are,what's working well, what's not,
and just based off of what I'mseeing working with members and
pro at the agency level, that's,you know, quarter million, few
hundred thousand, that's whatI'm relaying to Eric.
So that's all I'm doing.
Um, it averages out to about500 a month currently.
So, again, if, if in transitcan get to the place where it's
(43:27):
growing more substantially andthere's more profit, than that
could potentially double ortriple per month, which would be
nice.
So, Eric, let's go, let's makethat happen and make it a
win-win.
But yeah, that's about whereit's at right now.
On average is about nice littleextra 500 bucks a month that
trickles in.
So, yeah, it's not like it'sfunding a um, you know, a
helicopter or a boat.
At this point it's it's fundingboats and helicopters in the
(43:51):
forms of toys for my childrenright now.
How much do you still do in thebusy?
Yeah, so I mentioned that.
That's really all I'm doing.
I kind of answered thatquestion before I realized it
was a question.
Um, it is really just aquarterly check-in at this point
.
Do you miss any parts of it?
Do you miss designing websitesand interacting with clients?
I do.
I don't miss designing sites asmuch as I thought I would,
(44:12):
because I still design sites Now.
I do a lot on web designerprocom.
I do a lot on my tutorial sitesand test sites and I'm creating
a new one right now.
It's kind of a model site forweb designer pro members.
So I still get my itch ofdesigning sites, but I do miss
interacting with clients.
Um, I don't necessarily missthe you know the pop-up calls,
(44:32):
but I tell you what I do missinteracting with clients.
I don't necessarily miss thepop-up calls, but I tell you
what I do miss is networking.
I do miss my networking group.
That's the biggest thing I miss.
And occasionally I do missmeeting some of my best clients
in person at like Panera or acoffee shop and catching up like
that.
But those interactions havebeen replaced with meeting with
members of pro in person anddoing our meetups occasionally
(44:54):
and talking more strategy andstuff like that.
And I've I've really beenintentional still about meeting
a lot of my colleagues and inperson network in person.
So I still like I just met upwith a good friend of mine last
week at the coffee shop,actually one of my original
mentors I'm going to be meetingwith in person here.
I haven't seen him in years buthe was actually a big part of
(45:16):
when I started my agency.
He had an agency in town and Ilearned a lot from him.
I connected with him recentlyand I'm going to meet up with
him in his office here soon.
So I still do.
I still get my fix ofinteracting in person, because
that's important to me and it'sthe way I'm wired.
It's good for me to do that,but the biggest thing I miss is,
for sure, my weekly networkinggroup.
(45:40):
And then, finally, the lastquestion here, great one from
Alexis what would happen if Ericdecides to sell in the future?
So I have to go back throughour agreement?
I think we do have acontingency in there to where I
get the, the, the amount I'mowed, regardless.
I will double check on that,though, alexis.
That's good thinking, becauseI'm pretty sure we have that
(46:03):
covered.
And this is where, like, Iwould advise talking with a
lawyer for sure on all theselittle things that may or may
not be covered.
But yeah, that would be thecase, but we're already halfway
through now, so I'll have todouble check that.
But we can always revise thatand look at a contingency as
well.
So, yeah, make sure if you sell, add that in there for sure,
(46:25):
for sure.
Great questions, guys.
I think this is enough forright now.
As we look back five years lateragain, as a whole, I'm still
very glad I did.
I think it's the best, becauseI could not have built web
designer pro up today whileworking.
You know, even even though Iwas only working 15 hours or so
in the agency, I just I couldnot do what I'm doing today and
(46:45):
support my family and my kidsand and, and, yeah, build pro
the way it is today, havingstill be an agency owner.
So a few things I would havedone slightly different there,
but overall I'm still reallyhappy with it and, yeah, it was
really a matter of time.
A lot of it was timing and timeto be able to dedicate to doing
this thing and I think thereason I'm able to take web
(47:07):
designer pro to where it istoday both personally with our
revenue and profit margins andthen just as a whole with
helping web designers a littlemore at scale now is because I
was able to move into thatfounder consultant role for in
transit.
So selling was still, to date,the best decision I've made and
I'm so glad it's working out forEric and I'm so glad that so
(47:28):
many clients are still havingsuch a great time, and I'll
figure out the exact number.
It'd be a good thing to talkabout for Eric and I's next
catch up here, but it'll beinteresting to see, like, what
percentage of clients have stuckwith in transit, knowing that
clients do move on when you havean agency and again we had like
a couple of clients pass away,so stuff happens I wasn't
(47:50):
expecting, five years later,that 100% of clients are still
going to be there.
It's just not the way it works.
But yeah, overall, there it is.
There's a little reflectionFive years since selling in
Transit Studios.
I would love to hear from you ifyou have any questions on this
one.
So let me know more detailsbelow in the description.
But I hope you enjoyed this one.
But I hope you enjoyed this one.
I'm really active on Instagramright now more than anywhere, so
(48:12):
if this is of interest, dm methere, instagram or tag me and I
look forward to hearing fromyou.
Web Designer Pro members gointo the course Scale your Way,
because a lot of what I learnedin this is what's echoed in that
course.
Scale your Way and if you'renot a member of Web Designer Pro
yet, jump on inwebdesignerprocom.
You can get access to all mycourses, which literally are the
(48:38):
SOPs from in transit studios.
My scaling course is in there.
You can also join the communityand at the time of recording
this, we may or may not haveopenings for the coaching that's
been out of the wait list, butI am going to be opening up more
coaching spots here shortly, sokeep an eye out for that.
All right, my friends cheers.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
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