For some entrepreneurs, selling the business might be your ultimate goal. But attracting the right buyer (who sees the actual value of your business and is willing to pay the right price) can be quite an obstacle.

So, how exactly do you make your business appealing to buyers?

For one founder, the answer was improving his operations with Trainual. That way, he could present the best-possible product (AKA, a smooth-running business) along with the blueprint to run it. 

Meet Adam Arkfeld, founder and former president of ParaCore — a digital marketing agency that started in 2009 as a web development business. In 2016, Adam pivoted his services to pay-per-click (PPC) and eventually sold the company in 2022. 

We recently spoke with Adam about starting, growing, and selling ParaCore. During our conversation, he shared three crucial ways Trainual helped him sell his business:

1. Trainual solidified company knowledge for the buyer.

As a process-oriented leader, Adam always emphasized the importance of documenting processes at ParaCore. It was even part of their company DNA. “[One of our] core focuses [at ParaCore] was ‘Don’t teach anything twice,’” Adam said. But he didn’t have a central place for keeping the documentation accessible.

So, Adam decided to partner with Trainual as a way to organize and share their company knowledge. “I spearheaded [documentation in Trainual],” he explained. “People got used to it, so [I had them] create a video or update the documentation.”

As a result, the ParaCore team had a blueprint for running the business and a solidified place for keeping and transferring knowledge. This made the company even more attractive to a prospective buyer since proper documentation made the business more credible. 

“When [buyers] start asking a million questions [about the business], you can say, ‘We have all that documented in Trainual,’” Adam explained. “That builds confidence and trust [for prospects] since they know you’re a legitimate company.” 

Documentation also makes it easier for prospects to learn about the business.  For example, Adam gave his prospective buyer access to ParaCore’s Trainual account. That way, the buyer could review their documentation and training, experience their company culture, and deeply understand how the business operates.

“[With Trainual], buyers could get up to speed on what we were doing,” Adam explained. As a result, the prospect could see the actual value of the business — and quickly transfer that knowledge to the rest of the team when the purchase was final.

“[With Trainual], you never have to ask about [the process again]. You can say this is where [the company knowledge] lives.”
<blockquoteauthor>Adam Arkfeld, founder and former president at ParaCore<blockquoteauthor>

2. Trainual provided buyers with an onboarding system.

Potential buyers who are considering your business will seek strong financials, market fit, and future potential. But it’s also tremendously valuable when they see a well-documented onboarding system. “[This way], they can train their team but also train themselves,” Adam said.

With Trainual as an onboarding tool, prospective buyers experience less friction during knowledge transfer — and they can even leverage Trainual after the purchase to onboard their new team members quickly. 

Why is this appealing to buyers? Because fast and efficient employee onboarding saves new owners time and money, especially if they’re onboarding several new team members. In fact, it can cost roughly $3k and a hundred hours per employee for the onboarding process alone.

But with Trainual, you provide a complete onboarding system that’s already been tried and tested. Plus, it automatically walks trainees through the material and tests their knowledge. That means you can easily hand off the system, and new owners can leverage it immediately. 

“Onboarding [with Trainual] was the biggest benefit since you can push [employees] back [to the training],” Adam explained. This way, new owners can come into the business, train their team correctly, and provide a reference when processes go awry.

“One of the buyers went into [our Trainual] and watched the training videos [to] get a sense of the company culture and how we operated.”

3. Trainual helped instill trust in potential buyers.

Looking back at the whole process, Adam says trust played one of the most significant roles in selling his business. “[You] have to trust that [buyers] are going to pay you, and [buyers] have to trust that [you] sell them what they expected,” he explained. But how do you instill trust in the buying process?

For Adam, it comes down to complete transparency — and Trainual helped him achieve that. “Trainual shows [buyers] how you operate and how you are as an owner,” he told us. “[Because] when you’re organized and dialed in [on your business], the [buyers’] trust improves.”

In other words, Trainual shows buyers you have your ducks in a row. It demonstrates to buyers how you operate, who does what, and why you do what you do. That way, prospects know precisely what they’re getting and feel more confident in the purchase as a result. 

“Trainual is a key way to establish trust in a [business] transaction.”

Bonus: Trainual helps entrepreneurs explore new passions.

When entrepreneurs sell their businesses, they often leverage that capital to start new ones. Frequently, these ventures are new passions or even old interests (ones that had to take the back burner while running the business). But post-sale, entrepreneurs have the time and resources to try them. 

Since selling ParaCore, Adam has started Legacy Land Investors — a real estate company that helps investors obtain affordable land ownership. He says real estate has always been his passion — and now (with the successful sale of his business), he can focus solely on it.

Trainual helps entrepreneurs like Adam establish a business playbook, so their businesses can run without them. That way, they can use that freed-up time to find the right buyer and leverage that same blueprint to validate their businesses — adding a ton of extra value for a more successful sale.