The Personal Brand Trap & How to Slash a 3-Year Earn-Out with Gavin Bell

Kyle Winder
Jan 19
3 min read

About This Episode

Learn Here Gavin Bell breaks down exactly the fastest way to make a service company unsellable is building it around a personal brand.

When clients hire you—because of your reputation, your name, and your specific expertise—you haven’t built a business; you’ve built a high-paying job.

And as Gavin Bell realized, you can’t sell a reputation.

Gavin was known as the “Facebook Ads Guy” in the UK. He was making good money, but he knew that to build a sellable asset, he had to fire himself as the face of the company.

He rebranded his firm from “Gavin Bell” to “Yatter,” productized his service, and systematically removed himself from sales and delivery.

The result? He sold Yatter to a larger agency, Velstar, in a deal that closed just one minute before a major tax deadline.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Gavin breaks down exactly how he made the switch. You’ll learn how to:

Transition from a personal brand to a sellable entity: The specific branding and operational changes required to make the business independent of your name.

Productize a service: How Gavin “named” his process steps to make his service feel like a tangible product (and how this improved client retention).

Structure a sales hire: The commission-only strategy he used to validate his first salesperson before committing to a salary.

Negotiate your earn-out: The specific argument Gavin used to cut his earn-out period from two years down to just nine months.

Avoid “Seller’s Remorse”: Why staying disciplined with “business as usual” during due diligence is critical for your mental health.

Gavin’s story is a masterclass in turning a service hustle into a valuable asset.

About Our Guest

Gavin Bell

Gavin Bell is an award-winning British entrepreneur, exited founder, advisor, and keynote speaker best known for founding and scaling Yatter, a paid media agency he led to acquisition by Velstar Group within three years; since then, he has worked with hundreds of brands, builds a direct-to-consumer healthcare startup, and shares practical lessons on business growth, systems, and exits with audiences and clients internationally.

Definitions

Due-Diligence: This is a comprehensive appraisal of a business or investment undertaken before a merger, acquisition, or investment. It seeks to validate the information provided and uncover any potential risks or liabilities.

Earn-out: This is a financing arrangement for the purchase of a business, where the seller must meet certain performance goals before receiving the full purchase price. It reduces the buyer’s risk and aligns the interests of both parties post-acquisition.

Roll Over Investor: A rollover investor, in the context of selling a business, refers to an individual or entity that rolls some of their proceeds from the sale with the buyer. This strategy allows the seller to defer capital gains taxes and potentially leverage their expertise or resources in a new venture.

Debt Coverage Ratio: The debt coverage ratio is like a financial health check for a small business applying for a loan from a bank. It shows whether the business earns enough money to comfortably cover its debt payments.

In simpler terms, it’s a way for the bank to see if the business can afford to pay back the loan. If the ratio is high, it means the business is making enough profit to easily handle its debts. But if it’s low, it could indicate that the business might struggle to make loan payments, which could make the bank hesitant to lend them money.

Let’s say there’s a small bakery called “Sweet Delights” that wants to expand its operations by taking out a loan from a bank to buy new equipment. The bank wants to make sure Sweet Delights can afford to repay the loan, so they calculate the debt coverage ratio.

Sweet Delights’ annual net income (profit) is $50,000, and they have annual loan payments of $20,000 for existing debts.

The debt coverage ratio formula is:

Debt Coverage Ratio = Net Operating Income / Total Debt Service

In this case: Net Operating Income = $50,000 (annual profit) Total Debt Service = $20,000 (annual loan payments)

So, the debt coverage ratio would be:

Debt Coverage Ratio = $50,000 / $20,000 = 2.5

This means that for every dollar of debt Sweet Delights has, they’re making $2.50 in profit. In simple terms, the higher the ratio, the better, because it shows that Sweet Delights is making enough money to comfortably cover its debt payments. This would likely make the bank more confident in lending them the money for the new equipment.

The Transfer of your Business may be the Biggest Financial

Transaction of your Life.

At Flight Plan Strategies, we utilize ExitMap® to help Business Owners understand their current level of preparedness so that they can begin the succession planning process.