They are highly sought after by aggregators: successful brands in e-commerce, especially FBA sellers. At the Seller Barcamp, Nathan spoke about this topic and the only 25-year-old Felix Mik (Schwarzwald Spirit & Listing-Guard) gives insights and shares experiences about his way from the foundation to the sale of his company.
Investing in advance pays off: capital company and trademark search!
Nathan: What are some of the things that you might need to take care of right in the early stages, before you even start a company, to make sure that an exit is successful but also smooth?
Felix: As a classic FBA seller, like me, you don’t have a lot of financial resources, especially at the beginning, and you might only have a few euros set aside. You don’t have VC capital and you have to see where you are first. But the bottom line is that you want to buy products, for example in China, and for that you need the money you saved in the first place. But still, there are things that can be done up front that are worth investing money in to make an exit easier in the foreseeable future.
An important point the corporation. Those who do not yet have the necessary share capital for a GmbH can also establish a UG. The important thing is to basically have a corporation, in whatever form, to maybe put a holding structure over it as we go along. This means that if you sell your business at some point and do a share deal, for example, the tax side is much more interesting, because you save yourself a lot of money.
Another big topic is also the legal side. I am thinking explicitly of a trademark search. Sure, you can do a research yourself. However, a proper trademark search by an attorney can take away a headache for a seller in an exit if you are well positioned here. So if you have a lawyer confirm that the trademark you want to register will go through and will also go through in the event of a legal dispute – should there be one – you are on the safe side. Exits also involve very large sums of money and the buyers invest a lot of money in the brands. Therefore, it is only logical that the other side has the trade marks examined in detail by lawyers. Of course, it is difficult to spend 3,000 euros for a trademark search by a lawyer, especially at the beginning, when you do not yet have much money. In the end, however, it will be worth it and I can only advise everyone to “Do it!”.
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