Latest / Exit Algorithms / The One Document That Raises Your Business Valuation | Nathan Baws (#95)
Transcript
- Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Welcome to Exit Algorithms, the podcast where we decode what it really takes to unlock growth, streamline operations, and prepare your business for a high-value exit. I'm your host, Pete Vera, and today I'm joined by Nathan Boz. He's a serial entrepreneur who's built over 19 businesses and had multiple successful exits. He's also set a Guinness World Record. He's pitched on Shark Tank Australia. and co-authored an internationally best selling book with Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy. He's a renowned marketing expert and now is the owner investor in in several companies. Nathan, really excited to have you here today. Welcome to the podcast. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Awesome. Hey Pete. Thanks for having me, mate. It's great to be here. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, I'm excited for this this conversation. Do you mind starting off? Can you share with our audience a bit about your journey and and background, how you know, how you first got into business and maybe some of the the highs and lows that that led to you know what you do today? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah, sure. Yep. I I got started at the ripe old age of six years old in business in the business world. And it was off the back of a eating way too many potatoes as it happened. So at a young age we were fed potatoes every night and I remember a period of time where it probably went on for a couple of months and It was a very cheap product, so we didn't have access to to many dollars. So that was the motivation to get me into business and start looking at how we could actually make money. And so from from there onwards I'd done started lots of different businesses, some super, super unsuccessful and some where I've lost a ton of money. but had happy learning experiences along the way, very useful learning experiences. They weren't too happy at the time, but looking back on it, they were great. And then others were, yeah, I've had seven figure exits from different industries, particularly in the health industry. I've created a I've built a couple of health three health shops and a vitamin supplement brand that are sold across Australia. and I've been involved in lots of different industries. So wherever there's an opportunity, I I like to have a very big problem of saying no, which is not a good thing. I think I need to Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm-hmm. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: get a bit more balance. But when you see an opportunity and you can see a way of solving a problem and commercially monetizing it, that's that's what I find I get excited about and that's what make leads me to the next venture. So I've been involved in health shops, restaurants, lots of food businesses or one food business with lots of verticals I should say. Weight loss program that I've set up in a couple of hotels in Bali. marketing, we're just in the middle of creating a or just launched a cold calling AI bot agent which is we're having a lot of fun with and just crazy that you know what what it can do. what else are we doing? bookkeeping. I have a business called Numberfied where we work with clients in the US, Australia and the UK and we help do their books at really very ridiculously low prices, but we also factor in business growth because I've always sort of come from the perspective of I've always wanted a bookkeeper and an accountant to help me grow my business. And I've never had one that helped. So I thought stuff it will build the business, the dream business that that I have always wanted and never got. So yeah, that's kind of a a big picture overview of everything that's been on and and going on currently. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, awesome. Wealth wealth of experience. yeah, you you know, you said you some of your business ventures didn't go so well. do you mind talking about, you know, one maybe one of the low points and how you overcame that? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah, just lots of drugs and no, it wasn't. that's not the way I would do it. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Ha ha ha Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: so yeah, I was in the food in the food industry, which I'm still in now and we've pivoted massively, but this is when I I did Shark Tank. I was in I was on Shark Tank and we pi under Tommy Sugo, which is my West Australian brand of pasta that we manufacture. And w I was doing restaurants and we did one restaurant and did really, really well. And I thought, well, you know, if one's good, surely three must be better, right? So I opened three in the busiest possible locations that I could find. and ended up paying a lot of money in rent and a lot of fit out costs for restaurants without testing the market properly and seeing what the demand was like before I spent ridiculous amounts of money on it. And then lost a whole bunch of money on a ongoing basis. So had a had a great bunch of learning experiences with that and which is fine. Now I apply that to hopefully slightly smarter choices when I'm involved in business going forwards. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: I imagine, yeah. What what do you do you do sp a specific you know, do you have a a process you go through before you decide to take on a new business venture now? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Hundred percent. Yeah. And it it's all around, I mean, that was very capital heavy. We were building rest you know, we had to do the fit outs and there's hundreds of thousands of dollars for every fit out. and we only did three stop there, learnt the lesson after three, not after one. but yeah, so now it's always well how can I create the same ach achieve the same outcomes without the infrastructure and without the high risk. So now I try and sort of act a little bit more strategically, be the Uber Uber Eats or the Uber delivery service without owning the taxis, without owning the the restaurants, be the conduit that connects the businesses together and and achieve the same outcomes without the same hefty capital expenditure and massive risk. So that's now very much on the on the dial for for looking at future opportunities. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Gotcha. Yeah, may makes sense. yeah, Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah. Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: and and maybe we could talk a little bit more about one of your, you know, successful businesses that that you ended up ended up exiting or selling your shares in. Do you do you have any any lessons learned from from that experience? Maybe pick one and and talk about it. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah. So the the Health Shops w was a good exit. I I was working for a pharmacist who was a f is still a phenomenal entrepreneur and I worked for him for eight years and I was just like a sponge. y I guess it's sort of like the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, you know, Robert Kawasaki, where he talks about He learns from his rich dad. Well, I kind of had a a mentor at at that young age. I just studied naturopathy. I'd gone and pitched to this pharmacy and said, You need a naturopath. And they said, Yeah, actually we do. So I came and worked for him and just understood that he was just a an amazing entrepreneur and everything that he taught me I tried to to absorb and you know watch and I did that for eight years and then at the end of that I said, right, I I've I'm ready. I'm ready to do this for myself. I kind of had established great relationships with suppliers and and I I saw an opportunity in a marketplace where I could set up my first health shop and then I set that up and that went really well and s then we continued to grow and then we sort of outgrew the shop. So I bought the second shop behind it and expanded the store and And our figures just went went up and up and up. and it was just basically t taking everything that I'd learnt and I'd been lucky enough to to have that experience of an amazing mentor and bring it across to to my own business. And then there was it was like, okay, so I built the health shop, that was good. What's next? It was another health shop and then so I built a second health shop and then there Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, amazing. did you did you do anything to to prepare for Did you do He's back. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: I'm so sorry. Technical glue. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: All good. Yeah, we'll we'll edit that part out. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Okay. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. I don't know how it happened. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. yeah, I was gonna ask, so okay, r resume. Did did you do anything to prepare for for the sale? you know, in terms of did you did you hire someone to help to represent you when you sold the business? how was the process of preparing your your financials and and you know s due diligence and all of that? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah. Thankfully with the mentoring that I had for the previous eight years, it was all about he was very systemized and system focused. So it was just a question of bringing that across to my business. And so thankfully we had really good solid systems and processes in place, which is obviously super important when you're exiting. so that the buyer coming in isn't just buying a job. It's it's they're they're buying a process that works without them commercially. So that side of it was really cool. That that was already established. And and well oiled. then I went to a broker and I got a broker, a business broker to to come and sell it. He didn't get anything for a long time, so I started marketing it as well. and then we got two interested parties. well at the same time, I got an interested party and he got an interested party. and then it it was ended up we just ended up selling it. I I ended up selling it myself and and I gave him a a bit of a commission for for being around as well. But and yeah, it it just all fell into place thereafter. It was a it was a great solid business, so it it it was well taken up afterwards. but but funny enough some of them I so I sold one of the stores two different stores to two different people and the third one it was a store plus the vitamin range and and I said to every single one of them, I said, Don't change anything. The formula is working, like don't change it. and unfortunately, everyone likes to put their spin on things. so one of them Went bankrupt after they took it over from me, totally changed everything. Totally changed everything. Changed the offer, changed the brand name, changed the the products we were selling. It was like, no, don't. It's it's working. Don't mess with it. But anyway, people have to have their own experiences. Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. great. So it sounds like you were well prepared and you had a smooth transaction. W would you say there was anything you know, that a business owner should have in place before they go up to sell? Like what what made the transaction smooth for you? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: I think the systems and processes are a huge part of it. and that's what I do in in all businesses. I always try and create a SOP, standard operating procedures. And actually that's what we do in Number Fire. That's one of my my key passions i in number fi where we're doing bookkeeping for people. I just think it's such a essential thing to have all right, on Monday we do this, on Tuesday we do this, once a week we do this, w once a month we do this. Quarterly we do that and annually we do that. So you're sort of creating a twelve month calendar, but also SOP. So we say to our clients, look, if you don't like the smell of my aftershave, you don't have to stick with me. I'm gonna create you the most amazing SOP. or our team will create a an amazing SOP to run your business as as we do in bookkeeping, but also as you do and you want to do when you're exiting your business. You have a very strong systems and process structure in place. And it's just so easy to go, here you go guys. And everyone loves it. When you when you have a very clean this is our expectations. The staff love it. So the team is really good because there's no black. I mean, there's no gray. It's all black and white. It's all very transparent. These are our expectations. These are everything you should be doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, blah, blah, blah basis. Whoops, we're having some more fun with this computer. And and so as a result, you know, team buy-in. they have that understanding that these are my expectations and so management's great because it's it's there. There's no team members scratching their head and thinking, well, do they want me to do this or do they want me to do that? so everything's very transparent and it's just a so much So much better, you just follow the process. and it's great if you have sick days or if you change bookkeepers as a safe. We say to our clients, if we don't if you don't like the smell of our aftershave, if you don't want to stick with us, there's no contracts, we want to create massive value so that you actually want to hang around, not because the paperwork says you must hang around. and but if that ever comes to it, you've got the most amazing system system documented process that you can just give to your next bookkeeper and they can pick it up without a huge learning curve. And same goes obviously when you're selling a business to the new buyer coming in. If you can give them that manual of here's the instructions from opening the business to closing the business at night and everything in between, then who wouldn't find that so attractive, right? Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: 100%. Yeah. So eliminating owner dependence and key man risk. That's probably we talk about that a lot on this show. one one of, if not the most important thing to have in place before you you sell, you'll be able to can command a much higher multiple. how how long in advance or how how long does it take with businesses you work with to implement those systems and and processes and have that set up? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: We generally we'll start from day one, but because there's so many Anomalities in a business where some things don't happen the same every day, every week. So we'll generally get a pretty complete SOP within about three months. So it's really a question of constantly updating them. So as we come, I mean, in the bookkeeping world, as we come across a new annual bill, for example, be it insurance or you know, rent review for a for a tenant, whatever it is, that only may come up. once a year. So all those things have to be added to the SOP as they as they come up and then to a twelve month calendar. So it really takes two to three months to to get something decent. I mean over a year you get you capture everything because there's all those little annual once off processes that can be built into it. But yeah, about that time frame. Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, awesome. Yeah, th I'd love to talk a bit more about the the Shark Tank experience. How how did how do you mind walking us through that that process and you know the what happened after 'cause they they invested in your company, right? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah, we we got to the stage where they said yes to the investment. so yeah, the Shark Tank s was was brilliant. And, you know, people do Shark Tank for one of two reasons. One is to get money, to to get growth, to put towards growth, or the other is to get exposure. we didn't mind what we got out of it. So The number one thing though would have been exposure. You know, we we calculate that we've got about a hundred thousand dollars worth of marketing at the time, which is ten plus years ago now. But y you know, and that was at a time where TV was king and social media was not really born or or i it had been, but it wasn't very dominant at that stage and it hadn't distracted the attention at that stage. and TV had captured the majority of people. So every time it did a rerun and Tommy Sugo was on the TV, our restaurants just got packed, which was wonderful. It was a it was a lovely gift to receive every every few months when the reruns went on. So yeah, so it was great. So we did did that, did the pitch. They said There's actually two of them that said yes, but on the on the if you watch it on YouTube you you see only one of them. Because of the the way they do the edits, they can do whatever they want at the end of the day to make it look good. and they either give you a good edit or a bad edit. And thankfully for whatever reason they decided to give us a decent edit and make us look semi reasonable. which was awesome. And so Janine Ellis from Boost Juice. Do you have Boost Juice in the US? Have you seen that around the place? No. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Goose juice. I don't think at least not where I live. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Okay, yeah. so they are global, but I don't know how big they are in the US. but it's a juice bar. So she she started the boot in Juice Bars and in Australia and so she said yes on the TV. And then we she did like all the investors do their due diligence after the TV, after the all the hype and she said there's two things she wanted us to achieve. One was a lower cost of goods and one was lower wage costs. and we said, cool, let's just leave the door open and we'll continue to do our thing and see what happens. And at at this at this stage we we haven't been back, but we've just we've pivoted a fair bit in the direction, you know, away from the restaurants and more into the retail. So we're in supermarkets and different things that now. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, awesome. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, and it brought a lot of exposure. I I love your Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: you know, I noticed you talk a lot about marketing. You have some unique ideas around that. I think you s you did a stunt I read. do you mind talking about, yeah, how do you how do you approach marketing and and brand awareness? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah. A little bit differently, a little bit outside of the box. so being you know I discussed the potato episode as a in childhood, r being brought being brought up on a fairly limited budget does make you think, Okay, how can I do anything with a lower budget? and so marketing falls into that category. And yeah, I'm very passionate about marketing. Actually, we've got a convention coming up in a month in Perth and I'm doing the MC and and keynote for that one, but it's it's looking outside of the box, I think. And you know, there's standard marketing where you can pay a lot of money and you get consistent results, which is great, and it's very process driven, you know, like Facebook ads or Google Ads. And then there's guerrilla marketing, which takes a little bit more planning, a little bit more time, is a little bit more organic. So at this w one of the times w we did the guerrilla marketing, we were in the UK. And this is after the time I'd I'd sold my health shops and we went to the UK. I'd been investing in some UK property at the time. And I th I said, let's go all in in the UK. and we had this property, and it was just around the global financial crisis of 2009, and the banks weren't lending. So we'd done this deal with a lady who had a really beautiful property in Kensington. if you know London is a very nice part of London. So really expensive property. She needed to sell it. We had partnered with her in this property and we had to sell it. So my sister Rachel and I got some big yellow signboards and got a big thick texture and said, buy my flats, and we put a monthly payment plan, our phone number, lots of spelling mistakes and lots of ugly writing and we put one on the front, one on the back. We both walked across Tower Bridge, so that very iconic bridge in in London. And we had Double deck of buses pull up in the middle of the street and d bus drivers hanging out saying, What the hell are you guys doing? and people s stopping in the street and walking and taking photos. But the end result of that was that it got picked up by newspapers all around the world. And Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Well Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: we had our phone number on it, of course, and the phone rang off the hook for 48 hours straight. And we sold that property and a bunch of others lined up after the after the back end of that. So, and people say, wasn't that embarrassing and wasn't that humiliating? And all that sort of thing. And I think when you know your numbers, it totally changes your perspective on it. So if Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Hm. What do you mean? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: well, if you're gonna walk across a bridge and have everyone point and laugh and question and whatever else in in shock and amazement what you're doing, then there's potentially a fair bit of humiliation or embarrassment that could come into that. But if you know you're walking across that bridge and that little walk generates you forty thousand pounds in the twenty four hour period, then all of a sudden, well, I could probably put up with a little bit of that embarrassment factor, you know? So it's worth the reward. So if you know your numbers, it allows you to do things with your marketing that possibly you wouldn't do if you want to get into that free organic gorilla style marketing. So yeah. For us it was good. Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. that's awesome. Yeah. F I love that that perspective. yeah, I wanna leave time to talk a little bit about your the book you authored or co-authored with with Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy. don't Tony Robbins is one of my idols, for sure. And we talked a little bit on the pre show. but yeah, how how did you go about, you know, connecting with with Tony Robbins and And Brian Tracy, what and maybe some some takeaways for business owners from from that book, or maybe around mindset. love to hear hear your thoughts on that. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah, so I just like I was mentioning before the podcast, why I'm actually doing podcasts is is I've just had my head down, bum up doing business. you know, loving the process. I absolutely love doing business in any s any any sort of of business or category that I've been in in the past. even though you have a few you know, rough days along the way. But overall the process is just so much fun. And I so I realized, okay, I actually have to do a bit of self branding now. I've really got to get myself out there. I've been focusing just on building businesses, but now it's time to to build a brand. So that, you know, the benefit is whatever industry you go into, if you've got a little bit of brand presence, you can apply it to customers and they ha you build trust and you you're a bit more visible. So I Started doing podcasts and off the back end of one of those, after the podcast, a couple of guys reached out to me and said, Hey, you got some weird things that you talk about in a nice way, I think. And they said, We're putting a book together with Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy. Would you like to write a chapter? And I said, let me think about it. Okay. Yeah, I'll do it. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: and so I wrote a chapter on it. and just purely about business growth and using dopamine to stimulate more business. So Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: with a bit of background in health that I've been involved in, and the Guinness World record for for ice baths, I did that because it's all part of the dopamine building process that I love to apply to business. So I Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, can you explain a little more? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah, certainly. So you know, I love talking about it, do a lot of talks around this subject because if we can hack our biochemistry to stimulate more dopamine, dopamine is endorphin that your brain produces and it's that feel good reward. It's often associated with doom scroll scrolling and you know negative it's got a lot of negative connotations because we we people take drugs and they they you know on social media and they waste a lot of time and this creates a lot of negative dopamine responses in the body and dopamine is that hormone that just gives you that hit to say I feel good and it's meant to be there in our body for rewarding us for doing carrying out good processes that are beneficial for our body. So if you do, for example, a long run or if you jump in an ice bath or you know do cold water therapy, all these things stimulate dopamine because they're actually really good for your body and your body is there saying a little bit I'm going to get you through the pain of the endurance of this thing that you're feeling, but I'm also going to give you this amazing chemical that you're going to feel really good because I want to encourage you to do more of that good for your body. So that's the body's way of encouraging positive cycles. So yeah, so in the book I talk about how to stimulate dopamine, how to avoid the negative loops of dopamine, like eating rubbishy food, high sharie food, you know, pushing, burning the candle at both ends, drugs, those sort of things. And instead replace them with things that stimulate dopamine on an ongoing basis because it's absolutely phenomenal for business. So when Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: we've got more dopamine in our body, we're feeling good. We actually it expands our our brain and we it it expands our hero awareness. So when we're more aware and we're in business, we can see so many more opportunities. And you Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: know, if you've got opportunities, then you you can find solutions to problems and commercialise that and get great outcomes. So dopamine for me is hugely important in business and no one really focuses on it and doesn't really set, you know, most people don't see the link between in Australia we eat 14 teaspoons. Of sugar every single day. You Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Mm. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: guys over there, you're about 34 teaspoons of sugar every day. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Wow. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: So that's not so good. You know, we know that sugar is related to loads of diseases. It has a metabolic impact on our health. It obviously affects diabetes and blood sugar issues. It's linked to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, heart disease. so many different things and it creates so much fog in our brain. Now, if we were to position ourselves as a business athlete where we're actually focusing on the best biochemical outcomes of our body, then that's gonna have a huge impact on the amount of energy we have throughout the day to power through and keep going and outwork your competitors. It's gonna have a positive impact on your mood and the contagious magnetic energy that you you put out there and to people to bring them into your world. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: you know, joint venture partners or customers. People love being around people that resonate y you know, at at a higher level. So dopamine to me has a a huge impact. And yeah, that's kind of what I speak about in the book, in in in in a brief nutshell. So it's good stuff to get into. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, love it. How long did you was were you in cold water? For the record. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: So what a so the record actually was not for the length. it so it sounds actually a lot more amazing than it is. It's not that amazing. So we we did it for three three minutes. I was gonna say three hours, no, three minutes. but it w what we broke the record for was the most amount of people in the world doing an ice bath at the one time. So it was the biggest Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: cool. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: ice bath. and But but the only reason again that I get involved in that sort of thing is just because it really fits in well with the business growth. And all these health things are really good for h business, but hey, they got some nice side effects on your health. So it's a double whammy when you can bring those into your world. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: I agree. Yeah. Amazing. Awesome. Yeah. I I also want to talk about AI. I'd love to hear your your perspective on on AI. How are you using it in your business and and personal life? And yeah, where do you see it affecting the industries that you're in the most? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Business and personal life. So in my personal life, my wife keeps saying that I'm I'm constantly I don't need friends. I'm constantly talking to to my AI chat GPT buddy and we have a lot of conversations on a regular basis. And it's it's brilliant because it's it's now a mentor. You know, you can you can put it in, it can act as a very economic mentor and it's got some pretty amazing answers. So we put a lot of stuff through Chat GPT for strategies and ideas and gorilla marketing and all all those sort of things that can come up with it with some good prompts. We use it a lot in graphic design work and and content creation and even the editing of videos, etc. and now we're developing this AI cold calling agent that we're having a whole bunch of fun with because for me the biggest dopamine hit that I personally get out of my day is lead generation. You know, everything that I focus on these days is lead generation. So I spend about 80% of my day generating leads and focusing on how can we get more leads and and convert those leads. So the cold calling agent to me is a whole bunch of fun because it just allows our lead generation process to happen on a on a more global scale on a more scalable scale. Yeah. So we're not too far away. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, it has it and it's improved to the point where people do people know that they're talking to an AI agent or is it so good that they don't know? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: It's it's getting better. So for example, yesterday when we ran it, at the moment we're just running it to schools. We're calling up a whole bunch of schools and we're pitching my pitching to schools on short on shark tank incursions that we do at the schools. So out of 40 that we called yesterday, three of them made a comment about it being AI. so and there was there was a couple of little glitches in there that I think gave it away to those three. The rest of them didn't make a comment and were super polite about it all. So I don't know. I I'm assuming they Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Good. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: they can't pick it they didn't pick it up. So but but the reality is the voice is getting so good and we've really Australianized it. So this particular accent is very, very casual, you know. We shorten a lot of words. We do lots of ums and ahs. We do a bit of laughing in there. So, you know, those are the typical things that you wouldn't see in a AI boss. just personalizes it a lot more, hu humanizes it, I guess. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Gotcha. Yeah, d do you have any any strategy around implementing identifying the the tool that fits in a business and and implementing change management? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Change manager, yeah, I I suppose it has to resonate with the the team. The message has to be whatever tool you're using it. you know, if you're doing an outreach. To to me the offer is one of the most important things about any tool that you're using. If it is an outreach tool, that offer has to be really, really good. it's it amazes me how many businesses don't have a decent offer. And how many businesses just go out there saying, I do ABC? and there's nothing in it for the end user. Like we've gotta really shift the the dynamics of your your outreach to say these are all the benefits and this is the most amazing phenomenal offer that that's out there that exists and we're nothing like anyone else because there's just so much of the same and and people just hear that as noise. So the only way now I feel, and sorry, this is little bit slightly off topic of what you asked, but with the offer, I think the only way that we need that we're going to get results is by creating an offer so different, so exciting, that it's so easy to say yes to, really hard to say no to, and it just becomes a no-brainer that people go, I need to know about that. So unless your offer is ticking all those boxes, The 5% discount offer is not worth anyone's time anymore. We've got to get more creative in in that process of creating something really exciting. You know, free beer for a year, right? How can you do that? You know, they're the sort of things that that will punch through people's busy, busy day. We need to be doing things that are just so radical. And finding a way. And it's it starts with asking the question, well, that's a crazy idea, but how could I do it? How can I make that happen? And then you start thinking, well, maybe I could team up with a beer company, right? And I could promote their beer and they could give me some free beer and then I could offer that as part of our deal. And so there's this always a way, but creating a really, really powerful offer is just 90% of your closing process. Because it just takes the effort away. It's like I get that free beer, right? I by the way, what am I buying? I don't care. Just give me the free beer. You know? So so when you make that offer so attractive, that the focus is on I've got to have that. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah, got it. So focusing on the the outcome with with AI is kind of the or the takeaway I'm getting from the that story, right? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So exactly. How how do you use AI? Sorry, I totally deviated from your question there. You got it a little bit excited, my apologies. so how can yeah, how do you use that offer in AI to bring it to to to have the automation process sort of structured with the AI, but then the humanized benefit driven process with the offer. Yeah, put those two together and I think you got a winning package. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Yeah. awesome. Great great advice. I I love this conversation, Nathan. I I I just have one one final question for you. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Far away. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: If you could pick one practical tip for business owners listening who want to have a successful exit, what would it be? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: think it comes back to the SOPs. Just create a really simple process driven guide, manual and focus on on doing that for your business. And it just it'll help you with your exit because it'll be that fantastic handover document that just that the the value is in. As as you said, Pete, that's where you know you can increase the multiple of your business. And it just helps your team, it helps you step back from the business also before you exit and and you can test out that process of does my business work without me? so yeah, strongly encourage people to get behind the the systems SOP creation. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Well said. Yeah, this has been an amazing conversation, Nathan. Thanks so much for your time today. Where's where can the listeners find you? Where's the the best place they can learn more about your business and and what you're up to these days? Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Yeah, through LinkedIn under Nathan Boers, yeah, let's connect there. Also the website, NathanBors dot com. we have a little little team that meets up every month. So if you've got any business hurdles that you want a bit of help with, we love nerding out about how how to grow businesses and how to fix problems. it's a completely free thing, so welcome to register on on the website and come and hang out. Pete Vera, Exit Algorithms: Awesome. I'll leave that in the show notes. Great having you on today, Nathan. Nathan Baws - nathanbaws.com: Lovely. Thanks for having me, Pete. Great to connect.