You only get ONE chance to sell your business
Make sure you get the best possible advice, execution and result by calling us NOW
M&A Process for Selling a Company
Are you looking for a Boutique M&A Firm to sell your company? Do you want an M&A firm that has specialized experience in selling companies in mid-market in many industries.
We have a proven M&A process for selling your company. We’ll explain the details and walk you through the process with Experienced M&A Advisors to guide you from the initial consultation to the closing. Our merger and acquisition process maintains the confidentiality of the sale of your company while maximizing your sale price. Our boutique M&A firm has relationships with private equity groups, public companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capital-backed growing companies.
Selling your business is a complex undertaking that has many risks. To make the most of the onetime opportunity to sell your business, it pays to work with a company that understands the risks and the critical steps involved.
Service Offered
- Pre-sale discussion to identify and agree on objectives
- Plan and set the timeline for the sales process
- Prepare information for marketing and eventual due diligence purposes
- Go to market to find and attract the right types of buyers
- Manage buyer inquiries, get NDA in place and decide on potential candidates
- Release confidential information, answer questions and hold buyer meetings
- Collate and evaluate offers, and agree on Letter of Intent (LOI) for moving forward with sale
- Accept LOI, and complete negotiations, due diligence, and closing documents. Finalize transaction and exit
Is your business in optimal shape to fetch a high price?
Buyers mainly focus on two key areas when looking at a potential business acquisition: growth opportunities and risks to the business. Both usually affect the value the seller will realize and will influence whether a deal gets done. Most owners are too involved in the daily operation of the business to focus on preparing their business for a sale. The sooner you start preparing for an eventual exit, the better the chance that you will be offered a package that reflects the blood, sweat, toil and tears you’ve invested in establishing and growing the business. Talk to us now to find out how we can help.
Starting the Process
What the business adviser brings to the Process?
Will allow the owner to focus on running the business while removing a great deal of the hassle of the sales process. The adviser can filter out timewasters while still maintaining confidentiality. Most importantly, they can help maximize the amount from the sale.
Going to Market - Start Early
Early on, pick a business adviser who will provide a reality check and tell you “how it is.” Planning ahead will uncover problem areas that can be addressed. The adviser should be able to earn the owner’s trust and have the experience and knowledge necessary to help achieve their goal.
What the business adviser brings to the Process?
Business advisers know how to interpret the motivations of different types of buyers, are well versed in the impacts of different deal structures, and know what to expect during and how to prepare for the due diligence and closing process.
F.A.Q.
Whether it is your CPA, attorney, doctor, friend, banker or neighbor they frequently have one thing in common, they all think they know what your business is worth!
All businesses are unique and there are at least 39 different business valuation methods. If you then add in a multitude of other variables it is easy to see why many self-proclaimed “experts” can get it wrong! To complicate it further, you can then add in the impact of different deal structures.
Talk to us about how we work and how we can help you before you rely on advice from someone who doesn’t do this for a living!
We work closely with business owners to help them achieve their aims. We do this in an ethical, trustworthy manner using our knowledge and experience of the process to coach and guide them through every step.
We understand what buyers are looking for and which ones may be the best fit to achieve an owner’s objectives. We package company information in a specific way that will highlight the key characteristics of the company that buyers want to see. This includes recasting the financials and highlighting the business’s unique selling points and expansion opportunities. We identify any potentially problematic issues for buyers and help owners resolve them in advance.
We help safeguard confidentiality throughout the process and look for ways to resolve issues that may arise. We serve as a buffer between the owner and buyer, reducing tension during negotiations and ensuring there is minimal impact on the ongoing operation of the company. We work closely with the owner’s team of experts, always guided by our focus to achieve the owner’s aims.
We only work with companies that we believe we can help. After discussing the owner’s objectives and getting specific detailed information on the company, we see if what they are trying to achieve makes sense. We do not take on businesses where the owner has an unrealistic or inflated view of what their company is worth. Our preference is to work with good companies that are priced correctly. We only have a finite amount of time, bandwidth and resources, and we want to spend it with owners we know we can help.
Yes, and many of the companies we have helped started this way. In a number of cases, neither the owner nor the company was ready to go to market. Exit planning helps identify potential problem areas that may derail a sale or affect the end purchase price. An action plan can then be agreed to tackle these areas before the sales process begins.
Our representation agreements are mostly success fee based. However, every engagement is different and based on your needs, we can offer retained services. This ensures that our goals and objectives are aligned with and reflect those of the owner. There are out of pocket expenses related to an engagement that we must charge which are reasonable. We ensure our fees are much less than the value we add to your M&A Transactions.
CONFIDENTIALITY IS ESSENTIAL .Talking to potential buyers without having a fully executed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in place is highly risky. Any competitor who knows your company is for sale can share this information with suppliers, buyers, customers, other competitors and your staff members without restriction or recourse. We ensure that make sure we have a NDA in place before anyone else knows your company is on the market.
Let’s say that a competitor wants to buy your business. How do you know they are serious? Are they simply gathering information that they will then use against you? If they know they are the only interested buyer, they might not be incentivized to make you the best offer. Would another buyer pay more or offer a better deal structure for you and your company when the sale closes? We know how to ensure the best outcome for your sale.
Maintaining your business performance through the sales process is crucial. Every additional dollar of profit could add several to the sales price. How can you focus on your business while handling and vetting buyers, fulfilling their document requests, managing the due diligence process, and liaising with attorneys, CPAs and other advisors?
During the sales process, your company is under the microscope. It needs to continue to run like a well-oiled machine and deliver the highest possible cash flow in order to give buyers confidence in its value. We take on the details of the sales process so that you can keep your business operating at peak performance levels.
Running a successful business is not the same as selling it, and it’s unlikely that you have experience with the various stages of the sales process specific to business sales. We usually see a doctor when ill, an attorney for legal advice and a CPA for financial advice, so why would you risk everything that you’ve spent years building by trying to sell it yourself?
Dealing directly with a buyer can be problematic. When negotiating deal terms, tempers can flare, egos can intervene and deals can fall apart. Working with an intermediary puts a buffer between you and the buyer and helps the deal progress while preserving your relationship with the acquirer. This is especially important if you will both be working together in the near to medium term.