Daily Archives: December 4, 2024

How To Sell A Community-Based Business

Ever wondered if you could sell a community-based business for a life-changing sum? Spoiler alert: you can. But here’s the reality—most community founders hit roadblocks when they try. Why? Because building a strong community is only half the journey; preparing it to be sellable and attractive to buyers requires a different set of strategies.

In this article, I’ll walk you through eight essential steps, all drawn from interviews with founders who sold their communities for seven figures. These steps show you how to increase your community’s value, attract the right buyers, and ensure a seamless handover while preserving the unique essence you’ve built.

Let’s dive in.

What’s A Community-Based Business Model?
A community-based business model builds loyal groups around shared values. Unlike transaction-focused models, it prioritizes relationships and belonging. Members engage through feedback, discussions, and events, creating mutual value through personal growth and connection. These businesses generate revenue through memberships, events, and premium offerings.

8 Steps To Sell A Community-Based Business
Building a community is a feat in itself, but selling it successfully takes strategy. Here’s a step-by-step approach to prepare your community-driven business for an exit that aligns with your freedom and lifestyle goals:

Build a Strong, Engaged Community
Diversify Revenue Streams
Establish Clear Value Propositions
Maintain Financial Health and Transparency
Foster Strategic Partnerships
Prepare for Cultural Integration
Seek the Right Buyer
Plan for Post-Sale Transition

Below, I’ll break down each of these steps, sharing insights and actionable advice to help you shape your community for a successful, high-value exit.

Step 1. Build a Strong, Engaged Community
A highly engaged community is the core value driver to sell a community-based business. Business buyers are looking for more than just follower counts; they want a vibrant, loyal membership that actively engages, participates, and supports each other.
Case Study: Bump Club & Beyond, which sold for seven figures, built a community of over 130,000 email subscribers through live events, social media engagement, and partnerships with relevant brands. They focused on cultivating a sense of belonging among their members, which created lasting value and made the community a worthwhile investment for the buyer.
Action Tip: Focus on creating valuable content, hosting events, and building personal connections. Strong engagement signals value to potential buyers, as it implies loyalty and long-term retention.
Extra Resource: How Much Can You Sell Your Business For

Step 2. Diversify Revenue Streams
Relying on a single revenue stream makes any business vulnerable. Buyers are far more interested in a community business with multiple revenue sources because it spreads risk and promises stability.
Example: Mind the Product, a community for product managers, did this by expanding beyond meetups into conferences, workshops, and training sessions. Diversifying their subscription business model not only increased their revenue but also made them a more attractive acquisition target for buyers interested in multi-faceted income streams.
Action Tip: Evaluate how you can introduce new revenue streams that align with your community’s needs. Consider options like sponsorships, online courses, or merchandise sales. The goal is to build a stable, predictable and diversified revenue flow.

Step 3. Establish Clear Value Propositions
Your community’s unique benefits should be crystal clear. A business buyers will want to know why your members are in the community and what value they gain from being part of it.
Example: 81cents, a negotiation support community, clearly differentiated itself by focusing on helping underrepresented employees secure higher salaries. This clear, niche positioning attracted Rora, a salary negotiation coaching company, who valued 81cents’ specific offering and trusted it would retain members post-acquisition.
Action Tip: Articulate your community’s unique strengths. Ask yourself: What problem does this community solve? What specific benefits do members gain here that they can’t get elsewhere? A defined value proposition builds buyer confidence in the community’s sustainability.

Step 4. Maintain Financial Health and Transparency
Financial health and profitability are the backbones of any successful sale. A solid financial record proves that your community business is stable, profitable, and ready for a seamless transition.
Case Study Insight: Freelance Writers Den, a membership site for freelance writers, achieved a mid-six-figure sale thanks to its steady, reliable income. By maintaining clean, transparent financials, they made the acquisition process smooth and attractive to their buyer.
Action Tip: Keep meticulous records of revenue, expenses, and membership trends. Transparency is key—prepare detailed reports that a buyer can easily assess. This will show buyers that your community business is professionally managed and financially sound.

Step 5. Foster Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships can amplify your community’s value by increasing reach, credibility, and resources. They’re also a major value-add in the eyes of a buyer.
Example: Foodboro, a community for food entrepreneurs, leveraged partnerships with industry stakeholders, which bolstered its offerings and ultimately attracted Sylva, a company specializing in niche communities. These partnerships added depth to the community, making it a more attractive investment.
Action Tip: Identify potential partners whose values and audience align with yours. Establish formal collaborations, such as content exchanges, joint events, or discount programs. Strategic partnerships enhance your community’s perceived value and add a layer of stability and growth potential.

Step 6. Prepare for Cultural Integration
When selling your community, cultural compatibility with the buyer’s company is crucial. If the new ownership doesn’t align with the existing community culture, members may disengage or leave.
Example: OwnTrail, a storytelling community for women, emphasized authenticity and supportive connections. They found cultural alignment with Teal, a career growth platform with similar values. This synergy ensured a smooth transition without losing members.
Action Tip: As you prepare for the sale, identify buyers who share your community’s values. During discussions, ask questions about their vision for the community post-sale. A culturally aligned buyer will respect your community’s spirit, making the transition smoother.

Step 7. Seek the Right Buyer
Selling to the right buyer can make all the difference between a thriving community post-sale and one that quickly fades. Look for a buyer who understands and appreciates your community’s unique mission and members.
Case Study Insight: Mind the Product chose Pendo, a company with a strong focus on user experience and product management, as their buyer. This fit ensured that the community’s purpose and activities would be enhanced rather than altered, protecting the community’s integrity.
Action Tip: Don’t rush the sale. Vet potential buyers carefully and look beyond the offer amount. Ask yourself: Will this buyer nurture the community I’ve built? A buyer who’s genuinely invested in your community’s mission will offer a smoother transition and long-term stability.
Extra Resource: 9 Books For Business Owners Planning To Sell

Step 8. Plan for Post-Sale Transition
A well-thought-out post-sale plan helps ensure your community remains strong under new ownership. This phase is also where you may play a role in guiding the new buyer, either temporarily or as an ongoing advisor.
Example: Traffic Think Tank, an SEO community, involved its founders in the post-sale period to help the new owners manage the community and keep its direction intact. This collaboration allowed for continuity and reassured members during the transition.
Action Tip: Work with the buyer to create a transition plan that includes clear responsibilities and timelines. Consider a consulting role to support the community post-sale. This handover period can smooth out initial bumps and maintain trust within the community.
Extra Resource: How To Help Your Team Thrive After You Exit

Assess How You Can Sell A Community-Based Business
Ready to see how close to a successful exit you are as the founder of a community-driven business? Here’s a challenge to help you evaluate your community’s readiness:

Engagement Check: List the top five ways you actively engage with your members. Could each of these methods continue to thrive without your personal involvement?
Revenue Health: Review your revenue streams. Do you have multiple income sources, or do you rely on just one? Identify one new revenue idea to introduce this year.
Cultural Alignment: Consider what values are at the core of your community. Write down three potential types of buyers who align with these values.
Transition Plan: Draft a rough post-sale plan. What roles could you play in the handover to ensure continuity?
Timing The Exit: When Should I Sell My Business?

By completing this assessment, you’ll gain insight into areas that may need improvement before you sell a community-based business. Taking these steps now can lead to a smoother, more profitable exit when the time is right.

Future-Proofing For 2025: Emerging Tech Trends For Business Leaders

Dustin Johnson is the CTO at Seeq, responsible for the advanced technology infrastructure, vision and roadmap of Seeq software solutions.

Technology leaders have long accepted the fact that as data volumes continue to skyrocket, the technology needed to harness and effectively leverage this data into actionable insights and competitive advantage continues to evolve at an unprecedented speed. This rapid pace presents both opportunities and challenges to organizations across industries. As we approach 2025, those organizations that proactively identify new opportunities and plan for risks will maintain their competitive edge.

To future-proof for 2025, here are three tech trends set to reshape industries, each with unique implications for business leaders aiming to strengthen strategy and operational resilience.

1. GenAI proliferation will lead to increased use of GenUI.

The spotlight on GenAI will likely dull in 2025, partly fueled by increasing cynicism around companies’ tendency to add poorly integrated chatbots to their apps as a minimal-effort solution. But as new innovations like generative user interface (GenUI) enter the scene, we’ll start to see GenAI integrate more effectively and sustainably into our tools and daily lives. Like the generative capabilities of GenAI, GenUI leverages GenAI to deliver personalized interfaces to provide software users with a highly customized experience that aligns with their specific goals.

One key area where I envision these dynamically generated user interfaces making an impact is in application or platform training. Today, courses are designed to satisfy a large group of users. With GenUI, the software can tailor the interface and learning experience based on each user’s mastery level, allowing a more natural progression of their skills. This approach could minimize the risk of providing training that is above or below their competency level, which can cause frustration and prohibit software adoption and change management initiatives.

GenUI is still in early development and facing challenges, like high processing power demands and expected user skepticism around differing interfaces. While tech innovators will need to re-imagine training and other practices in this new world through numerous iterations and customer feedback loops, we could see significant strides toward transformational GenUI experiences in 2025 and beyond.

2. Zero trust will become the norm.
GenAI cynicism doesn’t stop there. While the explosion of AI and GenAI has elevated efficiencies across nearly every industry and created value across organizations, we cannot ignore the security threats they continue to bring to our workplaces and personal lives.

According to CyberArk’s 2024 Identity Security Threat Landscape Report, 93% of organizations expect a negative impact on cybersecurity due to AI. Interestingly, the same report found that 70% of organizations are confident that their employees can identify deepfakes of their leaders. However, recent incidents, including one 2024 example where scammers used deepfakes to impersonate a CFO on a video call, duping an employee at an engineering firm into transferring $25 million to bank accounts in Hong Kong, suggest otherwise.
As increasingly sophisticated AI techniques emerge, including deepfakes, advanced phishing and digital spoofing, organizations can no longer trust internal or external personnel to manage their security systems. Instead, we will see an increased shift toward zero-trust security models that require individuals, devices and services to undergo strict authentication methods each time they request access.
A fundamental component of zero trust is the principle of least privilege, which ensures that users and systems are granted only the minimum permissions necessary to perform their job functions. This further reduces the attack surface for organizations. As of April 2024, Gartner reports that 63% of organizations worldwide have fully or partially implemented a zero-trust strategy, and I expect this number to rise throughout 2025.
3. Workforce optimization efforts will lead to more regulations.
When it comes to increasing data volumes, organizations, especially in manufacturing, have spent decades working to optimize machinery. Now, thanks to advancements in data access and analysis, the industry has made significant strides in this regard, enabling companies to look at the bigger picture. Initially focused on optimizing processes, the emphasis is now shifting toward enhancing the workforce—the people operating, analyzing and interacting with the machinery.
However, unlike consumer electronics that can easily collect personal data with the consumer’s consent in a single click—whether it be fitness, sleep or other information—collecting data on plant personnel requires navigating a complex landscape of regulations that vary by location. For example, organizations must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when collecting personal information from employees in the European Union or European Economic Area or the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) in California.
While 91% of employees trust their employers to keep personal data private, nearly half are unaware of the data being collected about them. For organizations to maintain employee trust and obtain consent as they increase global workforce optimization efforts in 2025, we can expect to see the emergence of new regional regulatory frameworks in regions like North and South America, which currently lack such regulations.
Additionally, as regulations are established and organizations gain a clearer understanding of workforce optimization, we can also expect to see fewer people on plant floors and more in operating consoles, observing and controlling the process optimization remotely.
Preparing For Tomorrow’s Technology Landscape
Technological innovations and ongoing AI transformation are pushing organizations to constantly reassess technology investments and strategies. To ensure their businesses and employees are realizing the full potential of these innovations, business leaders must prepare now for these changes.
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Six Strategies To Ransomware-Proof Your Business

Aliasgar Dohadwala, CEO of Visiontech Systems, is a visionary and serial entrepreneur with a knack for turning challenges into opportunities

Imagine logging into your company’s network on a typical Monday morning, only to find that every system is locked, and a ransom note demands millions to regain access. It’s a scenario that’s become far too common—and far more expensive. The average ransom in 2024 is $2.73 million, almost an increase of $1 million from 2023.

In response, more organizations are fortifying their defenses, employing robust data backups and crafting swift recovery plans to minimize downtime and costs. The stakes are high, and ransomware attacks don’t just affect finances; they disrupt operations, damage reputations and sometimes even halt critical services.

Developing an effective ransomware-proofing strategy has become an urgent priority for businesses of all sizes.

Why Ransomware Resiliency Matters
As of 2022, the average downtime a company experiences after a ransomware attack is 24 days. In today’s landscape, it’s not just surviving an attack. It’s more about thriving in an environment where threats are inevitable. Building cyber resilience can help businesses reduce the likelihood of successful ransomware attacks and minimize the impact when they do occur.

Earlier this year, for instance, Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, was hit by a ransomware attack orchestrated by the Blackcat/ALPHV group. Affecting one-third of Americans, the attack caused disruptions in claims processing and payment services, with UnitedHealth reportedly paying a $22 million ransom. This high-profile breach illustrates the critical importance of resilience and robust recovery plans for even the largest enterprises.

Resilience helps you build trust. Clients, partners and stakeholders are more likely to have confidence in an organization that demonstrates its ability to handle and recover from cyber incidents effectively.

Key Strategies And Technologies For Ransomware-Proofing
Here are some essential strategies and technologies to investigate to prepare your organization and avoid becoming a ransomware target:
1. Backup And Recovery Plans
• Frequent, Automated Backups: Regular backups are essential to prevent significant data loss in the event of an attack. Solutions like Veeam Backup And Replication and Acronis Cyber Protect allow for automated, frequent backups stored securely—preferably offline or on a separate network. These solutions can help protect your data from being reached by ransomware by isolating backups.
• Recovery Objectives: Define recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) to determine acceptable downtime and data loss. Tools like Commvault and Rubrik enable businesses to set RTOs and RPOs, ensuring efficient and targeted recovery to minimize disruption.
2. Network Segmentation and Security
• Network Segmentation: Isolating your network into different segments can contain ransomware and limit its impact. Technologies like Cisco TrustSec and VMware NSX allow organizations to segment networks, making spreading ransomware across systems harder.
• Zero Trust and Access Control: Implementing a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) model restricts users to the resources necessary for their role, minimizing potential vulnerabilities. Solutions like Zscaler Private Access, ProofPoint and Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access enforce zero-trust principles, verifying each user and device before granting access and protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access.
3. Employee Training and Awareness
• Phishing and Social Engineering Awareness: Educate employees to recognize phishing attempts and social engineering tactics through training tools like KnowBe4 and Cofense PhishMe. These platforms deliver simulated phishing emails and provide learning modules, making employees less susceptible to common entry points for ransomware.
• Cybersecurity Drills: Conduct drills and simulations to prepare employees for potential ransomware scenarios. AttackIQ and SimSpace offer simulated attack environments to test employees’ responses and improve their readiness in a controlled environment.
4. Incident Response (IR) Planning
• Clear IR Plan: Having a detailed incident response (IR) plan is essential to guide your team during a ransomware incident. IR platforms like IBM Resilient and Splunk Phantom streamline the planning process by defining roles, establishing clear actions and coordinating responses in real time.
• Regular Testing: Testing the IR plan is vital to confirm its effectiveness. Tools like Cortex XSOAR and FireEye Helix allow teams to run scenario-based tests, ensuring everyone understands their role and that the plan functions effectively under pressure.
5. Immutable Backups And Air-Gapped Systems
• Immutable Backups: Think of immutable backups as your untouchable safety net. By storing data copies that can’t be modified or deleted, you’ll always have a secure version of critical files—an invaluable resource if ransomware strikes.
• Air-Gapped Storage: Storing data on isolated, “air-gapped” systems ensure hackers can’t access it remotely. This extra layer of security means that even if one system is compromised, your most essential data remains safe and recoverable.
6. Continuous Monitoring And Updating
• Regular Updates and Patches: Keeping all software updated may seem routine, but it’s one of the most effective ways of preventing ransomware. Each update closes off potential entry points, protecting your network from new vulnerabilities.
• Threat Intelligence: By staying informed on evolving ransomware methods, you’ll empower your team to take proactive measures. Leveraging the latest threat intelligence gives your organization the insights needed to adapt and reinforce defenses in real time.
Each of the strategies, supported by the right technologies, can reinforce your organization’s defenses against ransomware, ensuring swift recovery and minimal operational disruption. By combining these tools, your organization can create a robust and proactive approach to ransomware-proofing.
Conclusion
Reflecting on the evolving cybersecurity landscape, it’s clear that resilience is just as critical as prevention.
While it’s tempting to focus solely on shielding our systems from every possible threat, I believe true security lies in building a foundation ready to withstand breaches, especially with ransomware growing more sophisticated day by day. A robust cyber recovery plan goes beyond protecting data; it’s a lifeline for business continuity, preserving operations, reputation and trust.
Preparedness, rather than an over-reliance on prevention alone, is key. Cyber resilience starts with proactive actions, from regularly auditing security protocols to creating real-time recovery strategies. Ensuring these systems are resilient means treating cybersecurity as a business-critical priority.
I urge readers to evaluate and strengthen their current systems—not out of fear, but from a position of empowerment—to stay agile, protected and ready for whatever challenges arise.
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