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Buying a Business
Succession Planning and Exit-Strategies Are Too Important to Ignore
Business owners say they understand the importance of transition planning, yet few actually plan their exit. What is going to happen when you finally relinquish day-to-day control over your business? Are you going to sell it and live off the proceeds? Do you have a successor lined up to continue your legacy? Only you can know but, whatever you have in mind, it pays to have a formal and well thought-out succession plan and exit strategy.
Pre-Sale: Cleaning Up Your Balance Sheet
Before you sell your business, make sure to minimize your expenses and maximize your presented earnings.
You’re a business owner who is contemplating a sale. Intuitively, you understand that it’s important to make your business look as attractive as possible to potential buyers. If you haven’t sold a business before, you probably don’t know the best way to accomplish this.
Seller Financing: How to Strengthen Your Deal
In the right circumstances, seller financing can be the key to negotiating a better deal or closing more quickly. Seller beware, however, because cash is king and you will have to sue a buyer who defaults on an obligation to pay a Seller Note.
How Do I Evaluate Multiple Offers?
If you are fielding multiple offers for your business, it is important to keep a sober perspective and to work toward strengthening your final agreement. As the seller, you probably have greater leverage in a multi-buyer situation, but that does not necessarily make it an easier sale.
What Is the Due Diligence Process?
Buying a business is not like buying other assets. Much of a business’ value is intangible, and many of its component parts are difficult to price correctly. A wise purchaser relies on the due diligence process for protection.
Leading the Process: Investment Banker vs. Business Broker
To hear from other experts on this subject, we recommend this webinar. The proper role of a financial intermediary is to connect two parties who haven’t figured out they need each other yet, and to help craft a better deal than those parties could have made on their own. If financial markets were perfect, you […]
What Is a Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure Agreement?
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) typically begin with some form of confidentiality agreement, or non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA offers protection for sensitive information that may come up during due diligence. The goal is to protect confidential information from a third party’s eyes.
How to Find the Right Buyer for Your Company
You can sell your business to the right buyer (and avoid major headaches) with some basic understanding and the right people around you. Chances are you’ve never done this before, and almost certainly not enough to become an expert. Sometimes you only get one shot to sell it to the right buyer. And it can quickly become overwhelming without the right connections and experience.
How a Buyer Finances a Business Purchase
If you want to buy (or sell) a business, you need to know what the business is worth. Once that is calculated, you need to find out how much the owner (or prospective buyer) thinks it is worth. If you can get those two numbers to line up — itself a discovery process, and an uncertain one at that — you’re going to need a way to finance the actual transaction…
A Successful (Corporate) Marriage Requires a Plan
Most CEOs involved in a merger or acquisition rank integration [pdf] issues as one of their greatest concerns, and with due cause. Data shows us that corporate marriages fail over 50% of the time, with some quoting rates as high as 70-90% of the time. This high failure rate only reinforces the need for a detailed integration plan and the appropriate resources to execute it.
