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Incredible Exit Series: Taner Hasanoglu Sells His FBA Business

Taner Hasanoglu is an entrepreneur who successfully scaled and recently sold his Amazon FBA business. He is now an e-commerce and supply chain advisor that helps other entrepreneurs effectively launch and manage their businesses. Taner has a wealth of experience in e-commerce operations, product management, revenue generation, process improvement, and more.

Before this, Taner spent seven years in corporate America, where he worked as a Content Center Manager for American Family Insurance, a Customer Support Supervisor for Cenlar FSB, and a Project Manager for Centene Corporation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[2:25] Taner Hasanoglu talks about how he got started as an Amazon seller and his experience designing his own product
[8:58] The importance of patience when building and scaling your brand
[14:59] What is Taner’s top piece of advice for someone considering entrepreneurship?
[17:59] Taner discusses his transition from scaling to exiting his brand
[20:20] The emotional process of selling a business
[26:46] Taner shares the timeline of his sale and explains his approach to educating potential buyers
[30:26] Taner explains the success and satisfaction of his exit and what is on the horizon for his career

In this episode…

Are you a new brand emerging in the Amazon market, but aren’t sure how to succeed? Do you want to know how to transition from entrepreneur to exitpreneur?

Growing and scaling your e-commerce business takes time and dedication — and getting ready to sell can be another hurdle. How do you know the best practices when you don’t have any exit experience under your belt? Taner Hasanoglu successfully scaled and recently exited his Amazon FBA brand. As an entrepreneur, he knows the importance of patience and authenticity — and now he’s here to share his insights with you.

In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley and Ethan Alexander sit down with Taner Hasanoglu to discuss the best practices for scaling and selling your e-commerce brand. Listen as Taner discusses how he developed and eventually sold his Amazon FBA business, his tips for successfully launching your products, and the importance of a dedicated broker when selling your brand. Stay tuned.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Quiet Light, a brokerage firm that wants to help you successfully sell your online business.

There is no wrong reason for selling your business. However, there is a right time and a right way. The team of leading entrepreneurs at Quiet Light wants to help you discover the right time and strategy for selling your business. By providing trustworthy advice, effective strategies, and honest valuations, your Quiet Light advisor isn’t your every-day broker—they’re your partner and friend through every phase of the exit planning process.

If you’re new to the prospect of buying and selling, Quiet Light is here to support you. Their plethora of top-notch resources will provide everything you need to know about when and how to buy or sell an online business. Quiet Light offers high-quality videos, articles, podcasts, and guides to help you make the best decision for your online business.

Not sure what your business is really worth? No worries. Quiet Light offers a free valuation and marketplace-ready assessment on their website. That’s right—this quick, easy, and free valuation has no strings attached. Knowing the true value of your business has never been easier!

What are you waiting for? Quiet Light is offering the best experience, strategies, and advice to make your exit successful. To learn more, go to quietlight.com, email [email protected], or call 800.746.5034 today.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:07

Hi folks, it’s the Quiet Light Podcast where we share relentlessly honest insights, actionable tips, and entrepreneurial stories that will help founders identify and reach their goals.

Joe Valley 0:29

Hey folks, Joe Valley here. Welcome to another episode of the Quiet Light Podcast today I have Ethan Alexander as my co-host. Ethan, Welcome to Quiet Light Podcast.

Ethan Alexander 0:39

Hey Joe I am doing good thanks for having me on.

Joe Valley 0:42

For those that don’t know Ethan yet Ethan is an advisor with Quiet Light and with us for a while he is an entrepreneur turned advisor just like almost everyone else on the team how many businesses have you sold Ethan

Ethan Alexander 0:56

I sold two myself I’ve acquired another one and then I’ve been in the real estate space acquiring properties left and right for the last few years so there’s there’s quite a few acquisitions that are my personal self

Joe Valley 1:08

all at the tender age of half my age not quite half my age. I do remember when you joined the team I think I said you would you would be the youngest guy on the team. But man your success at the age that you are is just like I was still just bumming around trying to find my way on life so you’re rock stars for me. I’m concerned and and you’re joining me as the co host of the podcast today because we have your client Taner on the get hold on Taner, Taner I screwed it up already Hasanoglu.

Taner Hasanoglu 1:45

you got it yeah you got it on the second ish try

Joe Valley 1:52

Taner you sold the business Ethan was your advisor here on the team and we wanted to tell your story and share your your your journey through entrepreneurship to exit partnership with the audience so they could learn about you know how things worked really well for you and what you might have done differently and what kind of working environments you might have had to be successful so we’re gonna kick it off to you can you give us and the audience a little bit of background on yourself and what you what you’ve built that you ended up eventually selling through Quiet Light?

Taner Hasanoglu 2:22

Yeah, sure. I mean, my my entrepreneurship entrepreneurship story I think started probably similar to a lot of people who have ambitions I was working in corporate America for the past seven ish years and you know always kind of had that thought in the back of my mind of getting out of corporate america and maybe trying something new it all kind of happened randomly though it was you know, I was reading an article one day and so this must have been back in 2016 ish you know about some guy on Amazon that was selling $2 million worth a day planners on Amazon I mean I knew that you know you could be a third party seller and Amazon but that really just kind of caught my eye as I was like wow people are really spending that you know people are still buying day planners period and then you know he’s able to make that much revenue so that’s just really caught my attention so I bought his planner out of out of curiosity and yeah I liked it a little bit but it did spark a little bit of a little bit of you know some create got my creative juices flowing a little bit where I thought I you know, I think I could actually make one that’s a little better than his and so you know, while I’m working while I was working my day job I just kind of you know slowly but surely you know started to think of you know, my own design and then you know started to you know, kind of test it on myself

Joe Valley 3:40

and what kind of what kind of day job Did you have that that had you do designing for a day planner was it nothing to do with it?

Taner Hasanoglu 3:48

Nothing to do with it oh I mean, I guess I’ll just tell people I I just I just I designed it through the pages app on my MacBook you know for for the non Mac users that’s basically the Microsoft Word of Mac books

Joe Valley 4:02

okay. Alright so you didn’t you didn’t come up with this grand idea hire designers and you know industrial designers to create this amazing thing you just started the only way you knew how to start which was with your you know, Mac version of Microsoft Word.

Taner Hasanoglu 4:18

Yeah I mean I basically frugality is the story of my whole experience is just trying to find the simplest cheapest way possible to you know take a step into entrepreneurship any for some listeners that you know are interested you know I that’s one thing I you know I try to tell people is don’t get this idea that you got to get a quit your job and quit your life and then just go you know, all in on entrepreneurship I mean these days I mean with with technology things I mean you can you can do a lot of stuff just on the side without having to have the pressure of not getting a paycheck and so yeah, I just you know, started playing around on my free time just you know, started playing around with designs and then, you know, once I had a concept in place, I went to a local printer. Phoenix Arizona where I’m located and kind of went through a little process with them to you know manufacture it and again sticking with the frugal theme I mean I really just started out by I think they printed me like 40 planners to start off with you know just so I could you know get you know by Amazon page started and you know I remember the day and again I use I use the Amazon FBA Fulfillment by Amazon because that was most intriguing to me because that takes a lot of work off your put off your plate also gives you the opportunity to ship your product to customers, you know now in one day with one day shipping and I’ve ever dropping off my first set of 40 booklets and thinking to myself, I’m like, man, oh, that was just too easy. I thought about entrepreneurs, you know, 30 years ago that maybe had to like knock on Walmart’s door and things like that. It’s like how did they How did they even get to sell their products? I mean, these days, it was just amazing that 18 years

Joe Valley 5:54

ago, and then like 40, you just use the words drop off? Did you literally go? Did you put it in the mail and drop them off? That way it was shipped to Amazon? Or did you literally go to a fulfillment center?

Taner Hasanoglu 6:04

Now drop them off at UPS right now ups is a partner carrier of Amazon. Yeah. Well, it’s funny that you asked that. And, you know, I, you know, I do consulting, you know, right now for other people’s Amazon businesses, and a lot of people who get into it, they do have this vision of them driving over to a fulfillment center and chopping off inventory. But no, that’s not how it works. Amazon, there’s that kind of keeps you away from them, and you send your inventory to them. Yeah, yeah.

Ethan Alexander 6:30

So Taner, I think you have a unique perspective of designing your own product from scratch what what led you to doing that versus finding something off of you know, any any site and knocking it off rather than, hey, I’m going to build this myself, I’m going to build it bigger and better than anyone. That’s, that’s on Amazon right now.

Taner Hasanoglu 6:48

Well, it’s funny, I mean, I think, you know, just being naive might be the simple question of that is I was so naive about, you know, running a business that I don’t think that the thought of like hiring a designer ever came across my mind, I guess I just kind of thought, like, you know, Hey, man, if you’re gonna do this, you got to do it all by yourself. And I guess, you know, as far as entrepreneur, so one thing that always led to me given up on other entrepreneurial projects was, you know, if it involves having to get a team member, you know, now not only do you get to go through the trouble of motivating yourself to start a business, or kind of dependent on somebody else, you know, having equal, you know, ambition and motivation. And that actually led to a lot of, you know, previous projects on off. So I think what intrigued me with the goal planner idea is I thought, you know, I think I can do this all by myself, or Hey, I don’t have to depend on somebody else, you know, being there with me so So yeah, I guess the thought of, you know, involving a designer, somebody else never even came to my mind. And I just kind of played around on my computer. And yeah, I guess it was just kind of, I mean, it could have led to me realizing Oh, actually, I designed myself is not an option, but I was able to figure it out on my computer. And I don’t have any graphic design experience either. And I don’t consider myself an artist. So yeah, it’s kind of led to that.

Joe Valley 7:59

So Goal Planner are you differentiated a planning book by making it specific to goals and something of that nature? Was that a conscious decision? You thought, Okay, this guy’s selling $2 million worth of planners annually? How do I take that and get a little chunk out of it and make it specific to goals? Or was that just something you know, that was in your wheelhouse and what you’d like to do

Taner Hasanoglu 8:25

now you nailed it. That’s exactly what it was I you know, I bought his planner. And then I realized what people liked about this other what was now competitors planner is he had day planning where you plan out your day with it, but also you incorporated goal planning into it. And I found myself more intrigued by the goal planning versus the day planning. So that yeah, that’s exactly what I did. Joe is I, I took out the goal planning, and created a journal for people that just want to focus on goal planning versus using it as a daily planner to plan out their schedule, things like that.

Joe Valley 8:57

Gotcha. So for those that are listening, that have not quit their corporate job yet, how long did it take for you to get your first sale? Oh,

Taner Hasanoglu 9:09

let’s see. So yeah, went live, I want to say so I went live june of 2017. So you know, I started off by, you know, kind of being an old school direct sales person to friends and family members just to kind of, you know, get some get some sales there to get things going. You know, I think I didn’t get any sales, I want to say for at least a couple months, and I think I, you know, went through one point where, you know, and I thought it was gonna be a failed project. But, you know, the thought I had in my mind was, well, what the heck, you know, you came this far. And the question I asked myself is, instead of making it about me, I said, Well, you know, now you have this product, that’s an entity of itself, have you done this product, enough to give it a chance to do it and I actually kind of updated my Amazon listing with some better images and things like that thinking, you know, what the heck and then, you know, I remember the morning I woke up and I got an email where it tells you guys In order on Amazon, which I’ve seen that before, it’s like, oh, I told you no. So and so to buy one, but that itself is said to be Yes, a few months later, two and a half months later, you know, in August I, you know, think about something like I didn’t tell anybody to put my planner that is going on here. And that was, that was the most exciting moment, I think of the whole process was all sudden a stranger bought my product on Amazon. And then and then yeah, it just kind of slowly, you know, took off from there. You know, I think, you know, I get maybe one sale every few days here or there. And then the second most exciting times I remember, you know, probably, you know, three months after I launched for 72 sales in a day like that was just, you know, that was so elated. And so yeah, it was very cool how it just kind of just slowly but surely grew, you know, a few months after I launched

Joe Valley 10:47

And all this time you still get your your day job. Yeah, so

Taner Hasanoglu 10:51

yeah, so I launched the product in June of 2017, I started to get some sales around late August, early September, My birthday is October 6. So it’s actually coming up. And I told my I actually told myself, you know, I’m going to give myself a birthday present of leaving my day job. So I actually left my day job on October 6, so yep, about four months after I launched it, because I said, Alright, you know, if we’re gonna do this, let’s let’s do it and, you know, focus on it.

Joe Valley 11:21

And your sales at that point weren’t covering your day job. payroll, though?

Taner Hasanoglu 11:28

No, no, I don’t think I don’t think payroll was covered until at least six months after launch. If that So yeah, I mean, it was a little bit of a risk. But again, you know, it wasn’t a story of, you know, going all in again, I think, having a day job having some income to first, you know, find out like, is this something that can happen? So I think you like, even though it was minimal sales, it’s like, at least at the point before I left my day job, as I will say, okay, you know, there is opportunity here, people are buying this thing. So that felt like a good time for me to, you know, of course, have a budget plan on how to take care of myself for a certain amount of time. But now let’s get this business to focus. It deserves to, you know, turn it into something.

Joe Valley 12:08

And how long did it take before it could, you know, basically replace your day job?

Taner Hasanoglu 12:15

Oh, I would say, you know, before, it’s funny, I would say if you factor in, you know, having to pay for inventory, I would say somewhere around, you know, six months, you know that, I think the thing I realized were you know, many people might quit, you know, entrepreneur ambition, especially consumer goods is, you know, they don’t it’s like as successes is happening, you know, success also leads to spending more money. And you know, it’s like, when in consumer goods, you know, let’s say, you know, even if you get lucky very early on, you know, you’re getting you know, 100 sales a day, it’s like, Okay, great, but now you got to buy more inventory and more inventory means more money. So yeah, it does take a little bit of time to, you know, kind of get into the flow where you can have cash flow to support yourself. And then also, yeah, pay for paper inventory. I’ll just, I mean, for advice out there to any aspiring entrepreneurs, if you have good credit 0% introductory APR, credit cards were definitely my best friend, I would say, in that first year, I was able to purchase inventory without any interest rates. So that really helped.

Joe Valley 13:21

I will give some advice along those lines. If you if you own a property, folks, whether it’s a condo, a house, whatever it might be, like get a HELOC on it before you quit your job. You know, I’ve told this story once or twice in the podcast. I sold my last company in 2010. And I waited to file my tax returns. Yeah, obviously I filed my tax returns in 2011. But I actually waited to set up a line of credit on my house he like and had a ton of equity on my house, but I waited in probably may of 2011 to do it. And so I had almost seven figures invested in the market. I had a house that had almost that amount in equity, but I didn’t have a job. And I go to my local bank who is small local bank right relationship with and I say okay, I want to set up a line of credit. I want to get a HELOC and they say But Joe, you don’t have a job. We can’t give you a lock. That tiny little qualification. I was golfing with a mentor of mine and one of the best pieces of advice he gave me was to set up a line of credit I didn’t do it. I do that now and I recommend it now so but we’ve we’ve talked to people I sold businesses for folks that did exactly what you’re doing. They you know, 0% APR credit cards just to buy the inventory and give themselves some leeway once they knew they had us. You know a product that had some velocity, velocity and could sell Sure, give them a little bit of a ramp up there. Well yeah, while

Taner Hasanoglu 14:59

we’re at While we’re on that I mean I would just say you know because you’re kind of leading to an important thought because I’m sure some people are thinking you know, am I right for entrepreneurship My advice to anyone having that thought is I think this day and age everybody thinks that they got to be this you know ambitious person who you know wants to make it to the moon or they’re good salesmen on this topic, I would say if you’re the type of person that doesn’t enjoy managing your personal finances if you don’t enjoy managing money and doing basic accounting entrepreneurships probably going to be pretty difficult for you You got to you got to be you know creative at how you’re going to make the money work, you know, definitely for that first year, if not longer.

Joe Valley 15:37

That’s great advice. It’s a great tip. And you can always pick up where do I have a copy of it? It’s not here. Gino Whickman’s got a new book out called the entrepreneurial leap. And you might want to read that pick it up take his test before you leap yourself into entrepreneurship and be miserable I’d love to find a job someday we don’t we don’t want to ever to have to happen to you. Now, you you have a ponytail now right so for those that can’t see him, you got a ponytail and I’m assuming you’re never ever going back to the corporate world. Right?

Taner Hasanoglu 16:12

Well yeah, I mean, I actually I was able to I was able to make it work at one job but believe it or not, it actually can work in your favor if if you if it turns out that you’re actually not the guy who matches a ponytail that’s one thing I learned is I’m actually a Wisconsin farm boy so you know you can begin kind of surprised on words like Oh, hey, the guy with the ponytail actually has good Midwestern work ethic so you can work in your favor. surprise him a little bit. Yeah.

Joe Valley 16:41

tools and resources that you use to grow the business early on. What did you do? What did you Where did you go any masterminds any forums anything like that that you’d recommend folks look at

Taner Hasanoglu 16:51

that well again, I mean, well, what makes this business unique is it was 100% in Amazon FBA so I mean that’s kind of a world of its own so anybody who’s willing to you know start their own FBA business Yeah, there’s a world of knowledge out there you know, watch watch some YouTube’s game and there actually is seller forums on Amazon So yeah, I would say yeah, definitely read up on FBA and Amazon as much as you can. As this case of a lot of things will get contradictory advice but you know, just kind of gain as much knowledge as you can and then you know, do the balancing act of taking wisdom that’s out there out there but then also kind of following your gut because again in a consumer good it’s you know, this shouldn’t be a product that you know, when you love so it’s like yeah, you wanna you want to steal some things from your competitor but at the same time you know, you want to know what your product is and it’s up to you to how to market that so I think I did a good job of that I think I did a good job of researching my competitors watching YouTube videos reading some articles but then also understanding what it was that I wanted to sell kind of balancing that out a little bit

Joe Valley 17:58

gotcha There you go. Let’s talk about your your transition from you know entrepreneur to exit trying to think about you know, what, at what point did you say to yourself I could I could actually sell this and and that you actually decided to do it and work with Ethan to get an eventual exit Was it something that you wanted to do all along thought about a wall you want to build it to sell or you were just doing a side hustle and figured out that you could actually exit at some point

Taner Hasanoglu 18:26

No, there was never any attempt to sell and if you’d never had that in mind in terms of my goals with the business i think you know, I don’t know where the first time I heard it I think it surprised me a little bit to find out that I could even sell an Amazon FBA business you know, I guess you know, when you have that it’s just harder to imagine selling that as an asset versus having a website so I guess the first time I read that you could do that that caught me off guard a little bit where I was like, Oh, I didn’t even know that selling was an option. And I think you know, once that seed was planted over time, for me I kind of realized that the business got to a point where it was going to take it to the next level it needed a certain amount of time, energy and willingness to take at the level and I think I had to kind of have a hard time with myself where I said you know, I think I potentially kind of hit my peak in terms of the amount of time and ambition and money that I want to put into this business and then having already you know had the knowledge that Oh, you can’t actually sell a business that’s where I thought I would explore it and yeah found found Quiet Light you know, on the web got connected with with Ethan and yeah, and when I got connected with Ethan, you know, he was a great advisor because I mean, just because you’re looking to sell or looking to close your business doesn’t mean that’s necessarily what you’re going to do. And you know, that’s that’s the great thing about Quiet Light, you know, structure is I mean, you guys don’t make money until the business you know, actually gets sold. So there’s never any pressure, you know, as far as you know, hey, it is this Is this the go time you know do you have to sell your business or there was always relief of like let’s see where it goes let’s see what kind of offers we get oh but you don’t have to sell and you know as neat as Ethan knows there was a bit of a journey where there were some times where you know I did you know have to think about like, you know, is this the you know the right move or now you know, maybe should we back out of this

Joe Valley 20:20

Yeah, well it’s an emotional process for sure. I think it’s a number but you know, it’s your business and a lot of dough coming your way so it can get very and generally always does get very emotional. Yeah was Ethan at times did you think he was you know, a therapist and a counselor in that regard keeping your emotions in check.

Taner Hasanoglu 20:42

I mean, it would be more entertaining you know, Ethan was ready with some text messages to read off for the audience Yeah, I mean there’s yeah Ethan and I definitely you know went through you know, I should have known it was going to happen because I bought my first house a few years ago and the the realtor told me that that was the most seamless purchase she’s ever gone through like she’s like Taner This is not how buying a house goes so I should have known that when I was going to sell my first business that it wasn’t going to be quite the same and it was quite an emotional roller coaster for Ethan and I you know, we had some Yeah, we had some backups with some buyers for you know specific reasons and yeah, that was you know, that’s very hard I mean, it was very hard to be in the mental state of you know, hey, you’re ready to sell it you got a buyer but then you know as you know, the leverage is kind of in their court where they’re the ones that are able to you know back out at any time including after signing a letter of intent so yeah, it was pretty emotional and there’s definitely some days of being demoralized I think we’re Ethan was great as Ethan never even never gave me the impression that he It was his job to keep us focused on we’re going to sell this business it was never like him trying to talk me into like you know hey Taner I know this buyer fell through but we’re gonna do this we’re gonna sell this as it was out he was always just very like you know hey yeah sorry that that happened you know what what do you think you want to do you know he was a good therapist I mean that is a good word to use Joe because he was you know, making me feel empowered you know throughout the process of like hey Taner, like I know that you know, yes, I mean obviously Ethan wants to get a commission check but he never gave me the impression that he was pushing me to get there and I think that kind of helped you know, take me off the ledge a couple times and in the end let led to us getting a good sale at the asking price I should say I don’t want the audience to think that you know because we had some bumps in the road that you know, we kept lowering the asking price he even did a great job where it’s like no we’re we’re staying firm on this price because we know that this is what this business is worth and Yeah,

Joe Valley 22:40

sometimes you just get a situation where it’s a bad buyer and all you know I looked at the at the timelines prior to recording here and it took a long time to get to fly by today’s standards. It was 60 days from signing the engagement letter to getting the business listed and getting your first letter of intent. But then it looks like from that letter of intent to closing at least the very last one it was only about 15 days. Ethan Can you talk about why the deal fell apart and how you managed it What was your process Did you really did you go to backup buyers What did you do?

Ethan Alexander 23:20

Yeah I want to get Taner’s opinion on this as well since he was involved in the very middle of it but but basically this this this occurred on two separate times where we didn’t move forward with the buyer and then for random reasons to no fault Taners or the business some buyer issues came up where unfortunately they had to pull out after a lot so I wanted to bring up Taner you know this is something we we usually don’t expect to happen it’s it doesn’t always happen but it can unfortunately in this case Taner it happened twice so I don’t know you know if you’re lucky or not miss scenario but but I guess going through that process knowing what you know now what what would you tell buyers who are who are kind of in that emotional state of a excuse me sellers who are in that emotional state of hey I’m talking to buyers we’re getting offers and you know I have decisions to make I don’t know which direction to choose you know there are emotions like Joe has been describing here involved throughout the entire process but I know you yourself throughout our many conversations whether it’s phone text email you know zoom whatever it had to be you know it was very calm collected professional what what would your advice be here to others going through a similar situation

Taner Hasanoglu 24:32

well I think be another it’s all been finished I think what should have you know, kept me calm and relaxed you know, the whole way through is we did get a good amount of interest right? I mean, is that fair to say that I mean, I was kind of pleasantly surprised. You know how much interest we got in the beginning. And now in retrospect, I wish I would have just use that as kind of a calming effect because yeah, even though we had a couple buyers fell through You know the the key thing that I should have kept the My mind is like hey you put this on the market and people want to buy it and so you know so it’s anybody who you know wants to get involved I mean yeah use your use your broker’s knowledge I mean Ethan did a great job of you know putting a right price we did not under we did not do we didn’t add a put to lower price we also didn’t put too high of a price I appreciated that where Ethan was very pragmatic where he’s like yeah we want to get interest so let’s not you know price too high and in the end we came up with a fair price and then yeah if you if you get some interest just look at that as a win right away I mean if you get you know even just like two or three interested buyers right away just feel good about that and use that as confidence you know that hey, you’re putting your business on the market and people want to buy it and then yeah, if there’s some bumps in the road you know, hey Just don’t don’t get too worked up about it because if there’s interest out there I mean, there’s there’s plenty of people out there these days where somebody is going to buy

Joe Valley 25:56

Yeah, if it wasn’t a sellable business, Ethan would not have taken it on for you.

Taner Hasanoglu 26:01

Exactly.

Joe Valley 26:02

Taner Can you talk about what type of things you had to prepare and get the business together to get it sellable and if you could turn back time Is there anything that you would have done differently six to 12 months before listing the business

Taner Hasanoglu 26:16

for sale? Well, I mean this is gonna sound like I’m plugging for Quiet Light I mean I have you know, I’m feeling kind of dumb right now because I feel like I had to come up with an answer the artist didn’t have to do much because I mean even even to do the work which was

Joe Valley 26:32

a long time ago chatting before we decided listen business was it was it a while

Ethan Alexander 26:35

I don’t think so. No, I think it was just I don’t I don’t remember the exact timelines Taner but it a week or two maybe that’s probably

Taner Hasanoglu 26:46

oh yeah it was it was incredible I mean I yeah cuz I mean we must we must connect at some time and like may ish or something like that maybe late April and you know I had the my I had the mindset that you know this is going to be a process where we you know, we like get some clothes by the end of the year but then I was like before I knew yeah week or two later like you can you know sending me outlook invites to meet with interested buyers I went through one very very fast so and I think that was the problem with making the buyers who bought who opted out you know kind of demoralizing is I think we got off to such a fast start we’re also like man we might be able to sell this thing within you know, three weeks like this is this is going great so yeah, but yeah, I mean it’s I mean again anybody like I mentioned selling a home earlier i think you know most people who sell a home unless you have real estate experience yourself you know realtor does a lot for you that makes it worth it and I mean that’s definitely the case with having a broker if you’re interested in selling your business as it was nice to have Ethan there who helped with getting a lot of the financials together he did put the ball in my court in terms of like what’s going to be my sales pitch which I like that you know Ethan didn’t coach me as much as I thought he was going to and you know, I was kind of you know coming up with what my sales pitch was gonna be or telling you know, but potential buyers you know why I was on a business he didn’t edit it he didn’t edit me much at all you know, he’s just like hey, this is your story Yeah. To show up Yeah.

Joe Valley 28:09

And we don’t you know, there’s there’s no sales pitch generally, when you’re selling a business of this size you just present the facts and the facts speak for itself somebody is going to stroke a check for amount this amount of money is not going to be talked into anything exactly presented factual information and it’s educating potential buyer whether it’s a good investment for them or not, and then they decide to make an offer or not which is which is interesting. So you were pretty well organized then if you saw it sometime in May you’re like yeah, you know what, I think I’m ready to sell this is the first time you reached out most people are not that organized with their financials and it’s to do evaluation Ethan Would you say that’s pretty well his books were in pretty good order

Ethan Alexander 28:52

well I helped them get there a little bit we really figured I’d it took a couple conversations let’s figure out okay where we’re at the actual valuation is I remember after our first call you know we were kind of estimating and kind of figuring out okay, if this is the estimation what’s what’s our game plan look like? What’s you know, what What’s your goal? What’s your timeline here? Taner you know, when are you actually looking to sell and then we kind of finalize that conversation afterwards dug into the details and then after that, yeah, it was once we kind of had that post conversation after initial conversation. The rest of it was pretty easy.

Joe Valley 29:27

Was there accounting software with QuickBooks or Xero involved? Yeah,

Taner Hasanoglu 29:30

yeah, we had we had QuickBooks and then Amazon helps with a lot a lot of it to me unfortunately you know all my business was through Amazon so that helped with reporting much but yeah I mean for any you know for any self employed schedule see taxpayers out there it’s like as you know, you know, personal finance it’s easy for personal finances to you know, blend in with business finances, and I I thought that I was well organized, but no, if you’re gonna look to, you know, if you’re gonna look to sell your business someday Yeah it’s probably easy to just get that separation organization you know ready to go and kind of keep it that way versus having to do a little bit of catch up which yeah it wasn’t too bad way to do a little bit of catch up but yeah Ethan was definitely very helpful

Joe Valley 30:13

I think a separate LLC is great great idea you can still write some things out through the business that are first personal business related your mobile phone it’s your business phone now right it’s just Yeah it is. Let’s transition to how you feel today or actually it’s been roughly now almost 60 days since the transaction closed you had a goal and objective you had a date range date and a time that you want to sell the business for a certain amount of money you achieve those but you know I want to know how you felt when it was all said and done and the transaction was closed money hit your account how did you feel you know about the accomplishment that you you achieve there did it were you like okay, that’s cool I got more money in the bank are we excited for your next adventure? How did you feel about the transaction closing and being able to move on

Taner Hasanoglu 31:10

well I mean relief was definitely part of it too It was you know i mean when you have you know issues with two buyers you know then then you start to get a little then you start to get in a mindset of the deals not done until the deal was done and even though there were moments where you know Ethan told me like no we’re done deal I’m like happy until I see that money in my bank account we’re not done so so there was definitely relief and then you know after after the relief any emotions settle down a little bit you know, I think I got a you know a little bit emotional you know, which is which is a good sign I mean if you’re going to you’re going to start a business you know, you got to have your heart in it you know when I advise you know other people on you know selling things on Amazon you know many people are too focused on you know, finding what they think is going to sell well versus the advice I always give is not pick something that you like pick something that you enjoy and feel good about because that’s that’s going to help kind of get you over the hurdles and the inevitable bumpy process but but yeah with that you know meant that once I gave it up yeah I felt a little emotional but at the same time you know, I also felt a little proud because you know, again if you’re gonna get an entrepreneurship you know, you kind of they taught me entrepreneurs talk about their early on failures I got very lucky where you know my first crack at it you know went very well and then once I successfully sold it you know, now you can’t take that away from me you know now the you know, now the business Nothing can happen to the business where I can call it a failure so to be able to now 100% say it was a success and nobody can take that away from me that that made me feel really good and that that’s also brought some competence where Yeah, I mean I’m not in a rush to do it but I do see myself you know starting another consumer goods business someday And so yeah, now I have you know, some some good confidence and you know, being able to do it again so feels good.

Joe Valley 33:01

So what’s your next adventure? You want one now you talk about consulting What are you doing now?

Taner Hasanoglu 33:06

Yeah right now I’m doing consulting Where do freelance basically freelance business operations consulting Amazon consulting as part of that helping people with their Amazon businesses but really you know what’s cool is you know it’s funny how you know where you can end up in your career I mean I never supply chain management was not a thing that ever entered my mind and and I even think about it when I was you know, starting the business I just sold is like just inevitably I had to become a supply chain manager just to make the business work and before I knew it I’m like I realized oh my god I’m consulting people on supply chain it’s like okay, I guess I know supply chain management which is a pretty cool thing and I have to say I’m actually enjoying that I mean I’m enjoying you know being an advisor I’ve always enjoyed coaching and mentoring people so right now yeah, I think I’m in a good place where Yeah, just doing it it’s nice to make some income and then not have to you know, send it out to pay for inventories I think I’m just enjoying that a little bit but I’m enjoying that my income stays as income versus having to spend it on inventory and other expenses so I think I might enjoy that for a little while but no, I really enjoy running a consumer goods business and I think I just I guess I just picture the the same story happening again is you know, I’ll some product idea will come about just kind of randomly, you know, just the same as the first business it just started with reading some articles somewhere about some other guy’s Amazon business so I think that’s what I see happening. Something like that is

Joe Valley 34:38

just gonna let it happen. You know, yeah, you know, desperately trying to figure it out. You’re just gonna let it happen. That’s awesome. We weren’t I wasn’t planning on going this route, because I didn’t know what your next adventure was. But you know, some of the audience might need your services. How would they find you if they wanted to?

Taner Hasanoglu 34:55

Okay, well, let’s see. First they would have to spell my name right. So yeah. Taner if you search Taner with one n. Taner last name Hasanoglu So yeah, that’s h a s a n o g l u so I’m actually I have a profile on upwork.com so I guess this I’ll give a little plug to Upwork I don’t know if you’ve heard of each other a freelance brokerage site so they connect businesses with freelancers and I actually use it as a on both sides of it I’m a freelancer on there but I’m also a customer and yeah, it’s really cool it’s a real easy way to just go on there and look for somebody that can do what you want to do on a freelancer site I think that their their fees are very reasonable fact that they’re able to connect you with a lot of business so yeah, if anybody you know ever you know, if anybody’s thinking about you know, starting their own consumer good business and I’d say have a little bit extra specialty in Amazon FBA. Yeah, just Google and find me on upwork.com. And yeah, be happy to happy to help you out.

Joe Valley 35:56

I tell you what, we’ll, we’ll share the link in the show notes. Folks, if you go to the back to where the the link that you got this. There’s some links down below. That will have Taner’s contact information that you can reach out to him there. Okay. Taner, it’s been great. Thanks for sharing your story. The journey you took with Ethan it’s been awesome. I’m excited for you. Exterior excited to see what your next full on adventure is and having you back on the podcast someday telling the next story. Yeah, well, thanks,

Taner Hasanoglu 36:25

Joe. I mean, you didn’t tell me to do this. But I do want to say thank you to Quiet Light. This is my choice to plug Quiet Light at the end here. I didn’t want to thank you then. I mean, again, I just, you know, Ethan never showed any conflict of interest in the process. I really felt like, you know, he was just my business partner wanting to, you know, sell the business with me versus pushing us to get to a sale. So I mean, you know, again, that’s, uh, I think that was actually just good business on his part. I mean, whether he’s doing it consciously or unconsciously, it just really, it really helped as a seller where I felt like you know, Ethan was my partner versus the guy who’s trying to push us to sales so you can get as commission check. So I again, I wasn’t told to do this, but I do. Highly recommend quiet light and definitely recommend Ethan specifically.

Joe Valley 37:17

No, I appreciate it. I was gonna say I’m sure you do, too. Ethan. Yeah, it’s just part of the process helping first and and making friends. Right, you guys right, it’s part of the process. We were we were

Taner Hasanoglu 37:33

we were forced to become friends. were we? It was like, because like we were we were gonna be friends the way that process is going. So no, it was it was a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean, he’s answering my text messages, sometimes a little too late. I should have texted you that late sometimes. But yeah, it was. It’s all much appreciated Ethan.

Ethan Alexander 37:51

That it worked out the ad sets. It’s fun along the way for me. It’s all good, right?

Joe Valley 37:57

So awesome. Taner, appreciate you sharing your story. Folks, if you want to reach out to Taner, just look in the show notes and get some advice from him. He loves Supply Chain Management now. And other things. Amazon related. Appreciate it Taner. Thanks for coming on.

Taner Hasanoglu 38:13

Awesome. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, guys.

Outro 38:17

Today’s podcast was produced by Rise25 and the Quiet Light content team. If you have a suggestion for a future podcast subject or guest, email us at [email protected]. Be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.