How Diane Prince Scaled Her Business to $50M
Do you think you might be a serial entrepreneur? Meet Diane Prince–she founded and sold her first company for over $28 million back in 1996. Now coaching fellow entrepreneurs to scale with a people-first focus, Diane joined us on Buy Build Sell to share the many lessons that have been life changing and hard learned.
As a kick starter, Diane forged through her twenties with focus, determination, and a plan to retire in her thirties. Though the rise and expansion of her recruitment firm grew larger than she ever imagined, scaling and exiting was her plan from day one.
Six years later and ready to leave the game, Diane and her partner worked on exiting their first company–while she simultaneously started another. With start-up and exiting experience spanning recruitment firms, software companies, and women’s fashion, Diane now focuses her efforts on coaching up-and-coming businesses to help them scale from learned experience.
Since stepping back from the day-to-day operation of her companies, Diane has learned more than a few big lessons that can only come from putting in the time. Believing that she is now approaching work and life with a more mellow approach, she can see how her identity as a twenty-something business owner was an unsustainable one--but ultimately also contributed to her success.
If you’re interested in learning from a bonafide serial entrepreneur who can coach, consult, and teach from first-hand experience, you won’t want to miss this episode.
What you will learn in this episode
In this episode we’ll cover everything from:
- The trials of going through a business sale transaction
- What’s involved in terms or timing and owner effort in the deal process
- Getting inside the head of a business owner who’s goal was to retire in their 30’s and how she made that happen
- How to harness shared goals of your business partners and ensure the business is the vehicle to deliver those goals.
About Our Guest
Diane Prince
Diane Prince started her first business in the back of a house, grew it to $50 million in 6 years and sold it to a public company. She has co-founded, built and exited several companies since then. Now, she coaches founders and entrepreneurs.
She knows the rush, and the fear, of creating a business. She has scaled from zero to million-dollar weekly sales.
What she has done in business allowed her to travel the world, build homes that were featured in magazines, meet tons of incredible people, and got to spend most of her 30’s retired.
Connect with Diane Prince
Website: https://dianeprince.co/
The Total Team Makeover Program: http://totalteammakeover.com/simon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianeprincejohnston/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedianeprince/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatswithdiane
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLNcfeJwsAL8m66K-eWEnbA
Show Notes
If you’re looking to zoom in on some of this episode’s most insightful moments, my personal favourites include:
(3:02) How Diane and her business partner approached their first startup plan. (Hint: they zeroed in on the all important why.)
(5:00) What Diane believes to be the single most important factor to a successful business idea.
(11:45) Hear about the process behind her first business sale that closed for $28 million–as well as the number of times her investment banker advised the deal would fail before going through.
(18:40) Why she doesn’t believe that every person on your team has to believe in your mission–and the importance of seeing the business as a vehicle for reaching individual goals.
(24:05) The two most common questions she gets asked–one from inexperienced business coaches and the other is all about money.
(24:50) Diane’s answer to people who ask how to start growing their business without money.
(31:30) An insightful tip to take-away from Diane: How to deal with all the advice and ‘noise’ that you will be given as an entrepreneur.
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