Thank you for downloading this program. In this edition of the bottom line, we're talking to three

guests who've all been involved in setting up a successful business and then selling it,

and we'll be asking them what happened next to them and the business. Hello and welcome to

the bottom line. The word exit may have been hijacked by the word Brexit in the last year, but in the world of young businesses, exit is a concept of central importance.

You set up a business and then exit is what you often do with it when it grows up.

You might have other interests. The investors may want to get their money out.

So the business has to be sold. The founders find their exit, and the business moves on.

Now, so central is the idea of exit. Venture capitalists are often thinking about how it can be executed before they are willing to enter into a deal with a startup.

So this week we have three guests who set up firms and then let them go. We'll ask

why, how, to whom, for how much, and how they've got on since. Any lessons for this most

important stage of the life cycle of a firm? So let's meet my three guests now. And before we

get to the sale and the way they moved on, I'll ask each to set out the business they've sold.

And my first guest is Liz Earle, founder of Liz Earle, active skincare.

Just tell us a little bit about the origins of this business, Liz.

So I started life as a journalist.

So I started writing for women's magazines about health and beauty, writing books, doing daytime television.

And it was in around 1995 when my good friend spotted the elusive gap in the market for a brand of skincare

founded by a real person, somebody who was still alive. A lot of the old beauty doyons were

no longer with us. And she said, listen, you have the knowledge and she had the expertise

for marketing and logistics. So let's make a partnership and do it. So you were basically

the face of the brand and the name and the name and the fame, I suppose, and the knowledge. So for me,

it was the research into the botanicals and the plants, putting ingredients together. How big did the business get? When are we talking?

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