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  • Built to Sell

  • Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You
  • Written by: John Warrillow
  • Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
  • Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (140 ratings)

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Built to Sell cover art

Built to Sell

Written by: John Warrillow
Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
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Publisher's Summary

A business parable about how to create a start-up that won't trap you when you want to sell it. According to John Warrillow, the number one mistake entrepreneurs make is to build a business that relies too heavily on them. Thus, when the time comes to sell, buyers aren't confident that the company-even if it's profitable-can stand on its own. To illustrate this, Warrillow introduces us to a fictional small business owner named Alex who is struggling to sell his advertising agency. Alex turns to Ted, an entrepreneur and old family friend, who encourages Alex to pursue three criteria to make his business sellable:

  • Teachable: focus on products and services that you can teach employees to deliver.
  • Valuable: avoid price wars by specializing in doing one thing better than anyone else.
  • Repeatable: generate recurring revenue by engineering products that customers have to repurchase often.

©2011 John Warrilow (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

What listeners say about Built to Sell

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Horrible narration

This is unbearable, the narrator has the most annoying tone. Really unable to listen to.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

What is wrong with this voice actor?

Have they never spoken to another human being before? The narration is unbearable: strange inflections, intonations and pauses in places that make no sense. Buy the physical or ebook instead of the audiobook so you can actually make it through this.

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great if you can stomach a bad narrator.

at first I was put of by the narrator's style, and considered giving the book a miss. I'm glad I didn't though.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Must read for any business person

Got through this book in 2 days, interesting and relatable story line. Very knowledgeable and makes you think about your business or future business plans.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Great book but did not like the narrator

Overall great book, but the way the narrator compresses the last 2 syllables of each sentence made it really hard for me to focus on the message.

I think every service business owner wishing to sell one day should read this book.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A well written easy to read book for entrepreneurs

I give this book to my clients. Every business should begin with the end in mind- an exit that is a win win for all involved.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Life Changing!!

I've always wondered if I'm doing things the right way as a business owner and this really made me look at me, my process and asses if I'm putting my team in a winng position.

Thank you John

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I can’t get through the introduction

Can we get another narrator for this book? The emphasis used at the end of the sentences are exaggerated and unnatural

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The mental shift I needed

As a consultative service provider business owner who abhors how many services have been watered down in the name of scalability, this book helped me see how to productize and scale without selling out. On track now to a sellable business.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator voice is awful

story is ok but the narrator voice is so unbearable it made it hard to focus on the story

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