2/15t'2015 Selling Your Business- IBBA Selling Your Business When selling your business, you don't want just any buyer, you want the best buyer. With the market we're now experiencing, many sellers are getting multiple offers, but the buyers they choose aren't always the ones offering the most money. Would you consider a lower price for a buyer that fits the company's culture? Would you consider an offer that's a million dollars lower if it meant the difference between years of seller financing and cash at close? It's common for deal structures to include a variety of options which must be carefully considered and evaluated, long before you get to the negotiating table. You may not realize it, but you're positioning and negotiating from day one of a sale. Be sure your priorities are well thought out or … [Read more...]
Do You Really Want to Meet Employees Prior to Closing?
Many business intermediaries, like myself, have been through this many times. Should you tell your employees you are selling the company prior to the actual closing? The following is a well written scenario by Jeff McAdam co-founder of the Bridlebrook Group. We have all been there before—you are cruising along with some great momentum, on the verge of putting a deal together, until suddenly the buyer thinks they should be allowed to meet and speak with employees prior to the closing. This can sometimes stop a deal in its tracks, but in my opinion, it never should. This article will focus on how to deal with this issue and cite a real life example to demonstrate why meeting employees ahead of time is a bad idea for both the seller and the buyer. As intermediaries, we always look to protect our clients. When a buyer wants access to employees before closing, the risks to the seller are numerous and obvious (loss of confidentiality, disruption to the business, concerned employees, … [Read more...]
Boomers and Retirement
New this survey, advisors reported that 65 percent of their new sellers and 41 percent of their buyers were baby boomers in first quarter 2014. “The older boomers are selling and the younger boomers are buying,” said Scott Bushkie, president of Cornerstone Business Services. “The boomers are affecting both sides of the transaction, helping create more activity on top of the strong interest from corporations and private equity to grow through acquisition. It’s easy to see why activity is at an all-time high for the last five years. “That said, the Main Street market remains a buyer’s market,” Bushkie continued. “It’s unlikely values will increase as long as there’s a larger number of baby boomers selling than there are buyers looking for Main Street opportunities. We’d need to see other market scenarios take precedence for valuations to change.” For Main Street, retirement was the number one reason driving sellers to market, followed by burnout. Notably, in the lower middle market, the … [Read more...]