They Don't Want to Buy Your Job

Peter Boolkah spent fifteen years inside McDonald's and twenty one years coaching owners out of the trap they build for themselves. He explains why a buyer discounts a founder dependent business, how the split deal actually works, and what it takes to be sellable.

Peter Boolkah spent fifteen years inside McDonald's, which is about the most ruthlessly systematized business on the planet, and then spent twenty one years coaching owners out of the trap he watched them build. His line, and the title of his book, is that if the business cannot run without you then you do not own it, it owns you.

The part of this one that will sting is the exit math. When a buyer sees that the founder is load bearing, they do not walk away. They discount.

In this episode

• Why a twenty year old could run a three million pound restaurant, and why the same kid could not be trusted with a company car
• How founders train the company to depend on them in the years before the first hire
• The first employee, and the loop where the owner ends up doing both jobs
• What a private equity buyer actually looks at, and why founder dependency turns into a price cut
• The split deal, roughly 40 percent up front and the rest tied to numbers you no longer control
• Why getting a company ready to sell starts about five years out
• Everybody overcomplicates it before they learn to simplify it
• The 25 year goal, and why anything shorter keeps the founder in the middle
• Do not be lazy with AI, and what lazy actually costs

Timestamps

1. 00:00Intro
2. 01:11Fifteen years inside McDonald's, starting at sixteen
3. 01:50Taylorism, and a twenty year old running a three million pound restaurant
4. 04:19You do not own a business, your business owns you
5. 04:54How the dependency gets trained in from day one
6. 07:32The first hire, and why it often makes things worse
7. 09:08Influence instead of control
8. 10:41Choosing Scaling Up, and leaving after sixteen years
9. 13:17What a buyer looks at in due diligence
10. 14:46Why founder dependency becomes a discount
11. 15:56The 40 percent up front and the earnout behind it
12. 17:40Getting a business ready to sell, five years out
13. 18:51Complexity fails, simplicity scales
14. 21:29Steve Jobs, the first tenure and the second
15. 23:45Consistency as a strategy, McDonald's and Chick-fil-A
16. 26:22What he looks at on the first deep dive
17. 28:00What do you actually want out of your life
18. 30:14The 25 year goal
19. 31:57Why he wrote Your Business Sucks
20. 36:42Do not be lazy with AI
21. 40:05Where to find Peter

Peter Boolkah

Known as The Transition Guy. Fifteen years at McDonald's, then twenty one years coaching owners across five continents, taking companies through to sale and IPO. His book is Your Business Sucks, on Amazon. He is at boolkah.com

A note on the book

Peter mentions a 99 cent Kindle price near the end. That was a launch offer at the time we recorded, so check Amazon for the current price.

One more thing