#15: Trusting Instincts In Selling An SEO Agency Business

Welcome to The Exit Plan, a podcast for business owners interested in learning more about selling their business. In this episode, Lisa Paasche, was the founder and CEO of Award Winning SEO & Content Marketing agency; Verve Search. She sold her agency to Omnicom Media Group in 2017. She's now proud to run EKTE Vision, mentoring Directors and CEOs with a focus on self-belief and interpersonal skills based on applied neuroscience principles. Lisa talks about her experiences starting and growing her creative SEO agency. She started the business on her own and focused on finding the right people to hire. The company experienced rapid growth in its early years but faced challenges as it scaled up. She discusses the importance of maintaining a sense of community within the agency and addressing performance issues.  Lisa discusses how Google's algorithm changes impacted her business, and how she needed to restructure the business to continue growth. Lisa explains her motivation for selling the agency for financial security, the negotiation process and earnouts, and COVID-19's negative impact on their earnings. Lisa also talks about the challenges in merging SEO teams and cross-selling services during integration.  Join us now to uncover valuable insights from Lisa on trusting your instincts, safeguarding your interests in negotiations, and navigating profit multipliers for success!   WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: How Lisa Paasche started and grew her SEO agency, Verve Search. Challenges and successes during the agency's growth. Finding the right people to hire and addressing performance issues. Why Lisa decided to sell the agency for financial security. The negotiation process and challenges, including earnings affected by COVID-19. Challenges during the integration, like merging teams and selling services. Tensions within the agency due to missed targets and client loss. Why Lisa left the agency and experiencing burnout  Lisa's next step starting a consulting business, EKTE Vision. The importance of speaking from a specific perspective, trusting your instinct, and holding on to your values and beliefs   CONNECT WITH LISA: LinkedIn | Lisa Paasche Website | ekte-vision.com Twitter | @LisaDMyers   THE EXIT PLAN The Exit Plan is for business owners that are interested in learning more about how to sell their business. Each episode Barnaby Cook interviews someone who has bought or sold a business - either a creative agency, or a production company. The conversation gets under the skin of why they wanted to sell, or were looking to acquire, how the deal was structured, how they agreed upon a valuation and what lessons they learnt along the way.