They Got Acquired - 6-figure revenue months

November 28, 2023
​Read on web​

Hope you had a nice holiday week!

When we talk about recurring revenue, it’s typically related to SaaS companies.

But it’s possible to foster recurring revenue streams for other types of businesses as well.

Why is that worth aiming for? Recurring revenue will get you a better multiple when you sell, pushing up your sale price, because it reduces risk for the buyer.

And even if you never sell, it means your revenue is predictable and repeatable… which makes for a more lucrative, less stressful business to run.

Today’s story is an example of an agency that found a recurring revenue model, helping individuals and businesses with online reputation management.

Say there’s an unfavorable article about you that’s ranked at the top of Google. They’d help you push that search result down by ranking above it with positive press.

This typically takes months to achieve and maintain, hence the recurring packages.

It’s an interesting niche that resulted in 6-figure revenue months for The Reputation Management Company.

The business sold in 2023 to private equity.

Here’s more on how the founder grew and sold the business:

​Focusing on reputation management helped this agency grow recurring revenue​

Do this now to sell for more later 🏋️‍♀️

Don't wait until it's time to sell to learn about what it takes.

If you learn about the process now, you'll have the know-how to position your business for a bigger sale down the line.

Need help getting a grasp on the basics? Check out our short video course, How to Sell Your Business course.

In one hour, you'll learn:

• What to expect from the sale process
• Your options for finding a buyer
• What you should do now to increase your valuation
• Which professionals you might hire to help you

Here's a peek at what it looks like inside:

Let’s get you one step closer to clinking those champagne glasses. 🥂

Behind the business (of TGA)

When you signed up for this newsletter, did you take our quick survey?

In that survey, we ask what kind of company you run, when you'd like to sell your business, the size of your team and more.

It seems like a little detail, but here's the thing...

Readers who answer the survey get a personalized experience with us.

Say you tell us you run an agency. We'll send you our free report on agency deals.

Or if you say you'd like to sell in the next year, we might offer to connect you with a good-fit broker.

The more we know about you, the better we can deliver you the information you need.

Our setup feels pretty simple compared to some of the bigger media companies, and it most certainly could be improved. So I was chuffed when media operator Jacob Donnelly tweeted about it as an example of how to leverage first-party data after he experienced it himself:

Jacob Donnelly ☕️ @JayCoDon This is exactly how you can leverage 1st-party data to monetize user onboarding. @TheyGotAcquired knows that I care about content companies because I told them that when I signed up for the newsletter. They were able to create an automation using that data that fires off an… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1720210766391853361 6:46 PM • Nov 2, 2023 2 Retweets 28 Likes Read 2 replies

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Seeing his tweet reminded me that...

• A little bit of scrappiness goes a long way; you might feel like you're cobbling it together, but no one knows from the outside
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• Even when you feel like you're not making enough progress, someone else is watching and thinking, wow, that's impressive​
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• The tedious parts of being a bootstrapped founder — like creating if-then sequences in your email service provider — can pay off when you use the time wisely

If you haven't taken our 30-second survey yet, it would make my day if you'd click here.

Until next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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P.S. If you're curious about the technical side of collecting first-party data, here's the scrappy way we do it...

Some email service providers offer built-in survey collectors, but we use ConvertKit to send this newsletter, and it doesn't have this feature. So we layer on another tool, RightMessage, to collect the data and feed it back into ConvertKit.

Then we use that information to serve content that's relevant to you 🎁

🙌 How we can help

Here's what we offer for founders looking to sell in the next year:

- One-hour course on how to sell your business​

- Help choosing an advisor or broker you can trust

- M&A coaching if you have a potential buyer or want to approach buyers on your own

- A sounding board (free call) if you're not sure where to start

- Reports full of case studies and data about other founders who sold

- Posts covering the basics of how to sell your business​