Alternatives for Owners of Eroding Industries
Let’s assume that you own and operate a company that manufactures a product in an industry that is eroding or going downhill. What are your choices or alternatives?
- Run the company as a “cash cow,” resigning yourself to the fact that your industry is slowly declining or is no longer a growth industry. Keep what you are doing profitable even if you
have to increase prices and/or cut costs. - Increase R&D to develop new products.
- Acquire or merge with a competitor or strategic partner.
- Expand geographically.
- Diversify within the same familiar market.
- Sell the company now before there is further erosion in your industry
© Copyright 2015 Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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Over and Above the Numbers
A close review of the financial statements is always in order when considering the acquisition or merger of a company. However, that is only part of what a buyer is acquiring. Other important assets are:
- Repeat customers or clients
- Patented product, government approvals, profitable copyrights
- Broad customer or client base (diverse & growing)
- Long-term contracts
- Recognizable brand or product name
- Experienced management team and trained work force
- Valuable intellectual property
- Proprietary products
- Profitable alliances
- Contracts/non-competes with valuable employee
© Copyright 2015 Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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Improving Your Prospects for Selling
According to a Price Waterhouse Coopers survey of more than 300 privately held U.S. businesses that have been sold or transferred, the most common steps companies take to improve their prospects for a sale, prior to taking the company to market, include:
- Improving profitability by cutting costs
- Restructuring debt
- Limiting owners’ compensation
- Fully funding the company pension plan
- Seeking the advice of a consultant or intermediary
- Improving the management team
- Upgrading computer systems/processes
© Copyright 2015 Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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Business Buyers Can Leverage SBA Lending
Finding the money to start your own small business can be a challenge. Over the decades, countless people have turned to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for help. A recent Inc. Magazine article, “Kickstart Your Business Dreams with SBA Lending,” by BizBuySell President, Bob House, explored how SBA lending can be used to the buyer’s advantage.
The article covers the basics of an SBA loan and who should try to get one. House notes that the SBA doesn’t provide loans itself, but instead facilitates lending and even micro-lending with a range of partners. The loans are backed by the government, which means that lenders are more willing to offer a loan to an entrepreneur who might not typically qualify for one. The fact is that the SBA will cover 75% of a lender’s loss if the loan goes into default.
Entrepreneurs can benefit tremendously from this program. In some cases, an SBA loan even means skipping the need for collateral. SBA loans can be used for those looking to open a business, expand their existing business or open a franchise.
House points out that getting an SBA loan has much in common with receiving other types of loans. For example, it is necessary to be “bank ready.” By “bank ready,” House means that all of your financial documentation should be organized, clear to understand and ready to go.
Next, a buyer would need to check that he or she qualifies, find a lender and fill out the necessary SBA forms. In order to be eligible for an SBA loan, it is necessary that the business is a for-profit venture and that it will do business in the United States. Once the necessary forms have been submitted, it can take between 2 to 3 months for an application to be processed and potentially approved.
The simple fact is that the SBA helps thousands of people every year. If you are looking to buy a business or expand your current business, then working with the SBA could be exactly what you need. Of course, business brokers are experts on what it takes to buy. Working with a broker stands as one of the single best ways to turn the dream of owning a business into a reality.
What Kind of Buyers are You Most Likely to Meet?
Selling a business can be an exciting and rather lucrative time. But going through the sales process means embracing the notion that you’ll have to be very prepared for whatever might be thrown your way. A key aspect of preparing to sell your business is to know what types of buyers you’re likely to encounter.
It is only logical to anticipate the types of buyers you may be dealing with in advance. That will allow you to plan how you might potentially work with them. Remember that each buyer comes with his or her own unique desires and objectives.
The Business Competitor
Competitors buy each other all the time. Frequently, when a business is looking to sell, the owner or owners quickly turn to their competitors. Turning to one’s competitors when it comes time to sell makes a good deal of sense; after all, they are in the same business, understand the industry and are more likely to understand the value of what you are offering. With these prospective buyers, a great confidentiality agreement is, of course, a must.
Selling to Family Members
It is not at all uncommon for businesses to be sold to family members. These buyers are often very familiar with the business, the industry as a whole and understand what is involved in owning and operating the business in question.
Often, family members are prepared and groomed years in advance to take over the operation of a business. These are all pluses. But there are some potential pitfalls as well, such as family members not having enough cash to buy or not being fully prepared to run the business.
Foreign Buyers
Quite often, foreign buyers have the funds needed to buy an existing business. However, foreign buyers may face a range of difficulties including overcoming a language barrier and licensing issues.
Individual Buyers
Dealing with an individual buyer has many benefits. These buyers tend to be a little older, ranging in age from 40 to 60. For these buyers, owning a business is often a dream come true, and they frequently bring with them real-world corporate experience. Dealing with a single buyer can also help expedite the process as you will have fewer individuals to negotiate with.
Financial Buyers
Financial buyers are often the most complicated buyers to deal with, as they can come with a long list of demands. That stated, you should not dismiss financial buyers. But just remember that they want to buy your business strictly for financial reasons. That means they are not looking for a job or fulfilling a lifelong dream. For financial buyers, the key point is that your business is generating adequate revenue.
Synergistic Buyers
A synergistic buyer can be an excellent candidate. The reason that synergistic buyers can be such a good fit is that their business in some way complements yours. In other words, there is a synergy between the businesses. The main idea here is that by combining the two businesses they will reap a range of benefits, such as access to a new and very much aligned customer base.
Different types of buyers bring different types of issues to the table. The good news is that business brokers know what different types of buyers are likely to expect out of a deal.
Confidentiality Agreements: What are the Most Important Elements?
Every business has to be concerned about maintaining confidentiality. In fact, it is common for business owners to become somewhat obsessed with confidentiality when they are getting ready to sell their business.
It goes without saying that owners don’t want the word that they are selling to spread to the public, employees or most certainly their competitors. Yet, there is something of a tug of war between the natural desire for confidentiality and the desire to sell a business for the highest amount possible. At the end of the day, any business owner looking to sell his or her business will have to let prospective buyers “peek behind the curtain.” Let’s explore some key points that any good confidentiality agreement should cover.
At the top of your confidentiality list should be the type of negotiations. This aspect of the confidentiality agreement is, in fact, quite important as it stipulates whether the negotiations are secret or open. Importantly, this part of the confidentiality agreement will outline what information can be revealed and what cannot be revealed.
Also consider the duration of the agreement. Your agreement must be 100% clear as to how long the agreement is in effect. If possible, your confidentiality agreement should be permanently binding.
You will undoubtedly want to outline what steps will be taken in the event that a breach does occur. Having a confidentiality agreement that spells out what steps you can, and may, take if a breach does occur will help to enhance the effectiveness of your contract. You want your prospective buyers to take the document very seriously, and this step will help make that a reality.
When it comes to “special considerations” category, this should be elements that apply to the business in question. Patents are a good example. A buyer could learn about inventions while “kicking the tires,” and you’ll want to be quite certain that any prospective buyer realizes that he or she must maintain confidentiality regarding any patent related information.
Of course, do not forget to include any applicable state laws. If the prospective buyer is located outside of your state, then that is an issue that must be adequately addressed.
A confidentiality agreement is a legally binding agreement. And it is important that all parties involved understand this critical fact. Investing the money and time to create a professional confidentiality agreement is time and money very well spent. An experienced business broker can prove invaluable in helping you navigate not just the confidentiality process, but also the process of buying and selling in general.
What Do Buyers Want in a Company?
Selling your business doesn’t have to feel like online dating, but for many sellers this is exactly what it can feel like. Many sellers are left wondering, “What exactly do buyers want to see in order to buy my company?” Working with a business broker is an excellent way to take some of the mystery out of this often elusive equation. In general, there are three areas that buyers should give particular attention to in order to make their businesses more attractive to sellers.
Area #1 – The Quality of Earnings
The bottom line, no pun intended, is that many accountants and intermediaries can be rather aggressive when it comes to adding back one-time or non-recurring expenses. Obviously, this can cause headaches for sellers. Here are a few examples of non-recurring expenses: a building undergoing foundation repairs, expenses related to meeting new government guidelines or legal fees involving a lawsuit or actually paying for a major lawsuit.
Buyers will want to emphasize that a non-recurring expense is just that, a one-time expense that will not recur, and are not in fact, a drain on the actual, real earnings of a company. The simple fact is that virtually every business has some level of non-recurring expenses each and every year; this is just the nature of business. However, by adding back these one-time expenses, an accountant or business appraiser can greatly complicate a deal as he or she is not allowing for extraordinary expenses that occur almost every year. Add-backs can work to inflate the earnings and lead to a failure to reflect the real earning power of the business.
Area #2 – Buyers Want to See Sustainability of Earnings
It is only understandable that any new owner will be concerned that the business in question will have sustainable earnings after the purchase. No one wants to buy a business only to see it fail due to a lack of earnings a short time later or buy a business that is at the height of its earnings or buy a business whose earnings are the result of a one-time contract. Sellers can expect that buyers will carefully examine whether or not a business will grow in the same rate, or a faster rate, than it has in the past.
Area #3 – Buyers Will Verify Information
Finally, sellers can expect that buyers will want to verify that all information provided is accurate. No buyer wants an unexpected surprise after they have purchased a business. Sellers should expect buyers to dig deep in an effort to ensure that there are no skeletons hiding in the closet. Whether its potential litigation issues or potential product returns or a range of other potential issues, you can be certain that serious buyers will carefully evaluate your business and verify all the information you’ve provided.
By stepping back and putting yourself in the shoes of a prospective buyer, you can go a long way towards helping ensure that the deal is finalized. Further, working with an experienced business broker is another way to help ensure that you anticipate what a buyer will want to see well in advance.
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When Two Million Dollars is Just Not Enough
Not everyone wants to sell when they feel as though they have to sell. Life changes, such as divorce or illness, can trigger the sale of a business. Everything from declining business revenue to partnership problems and more can send business owners scrambling for the exit sign. However, selling isn’t always an option, especially for small businesses. In this article, we will take a closer look at just such a situation.
The business under consideration is a successful distribution business, which is also a classic example of a value-enhanced business. The two owners each draw several hundred thousand from the business each year to go along with a range of other benefits. If hypothetically, the business was to sell for $2 million dollars, each of the owners would receive approximately $1 million. Of course, this sounds like a sizable amount. So, what is the problem?
When one stops to factor in such variables as taxes, closing expenses and debt, that $1 million-dollar number has shrunk dramatically, leaving each owner with much less, perhaps as little as just two years of income. In such a situation, selling isn’t a great idea. Many owners of small companies want to “cash in” and retire only to discover that their business isn’t worth enough to do so.
Owners who want to retire but can’t afford to do so are in a difficult position. Such owners may have already “checked out” mentally and in the process, have lost their focus resulting in a failure to both invest financially and creatively in the business. In turn, this decreases the value of the business even more, as competitors may likely move in to fill the void.
So, what does all of this mean for business owners? Business owners don’t want to get stuck in the position we discussed thus far. Instead, business owners want to sell at the optimal moment, when a business is at its high point and the owners are not considering retiring and feel as though they have to sell.
Determining when is the best time to sell can be one of the single smartest business decisions that a business owner ever makes. Working with a professional and experienced business broker is a fast and simple way to determine if the time is right to sell your business or if you should wait. Waiting until the optimal moment to sell has passed you by could be a painful experience.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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Understanding Issues Your Buyer May Face
Not every prospective buyer actually buys a business. In fact, out of 15 prospective buyers, only 1 actually makes a purchase. Sellers should remember that being a buyer can be stressful. The bottom line is that buying a business is usually one of the single largest financial decisions that a person can make. In this article, we are going to explore a few of the reasons why being a buyer can be both stressful and taxing. Keeping a buyer’s perspective in mind will help you on the road to successfully selling your business.
A prospective buyer has many decisions to make before he or she decides to buy a business. Many prospective buyers are employed, and that means they will have to leave their existing job in order to buy a business. Simply stated, a buyer will have to leave the safety and security of their job and “strike out on their own.”
There are also other substantial financial concerns for buyers as well. The majority of buyers will, in fact, have to take out loans in order to purchase a business. Additionally, the new owner will need to execute a lease or assume the existing list. At the end of the day there exist an array of weighty business decisions that a buyer must make.
Ultimately, a buyer has to decide whether or not he or she is ready to take a giant step and purchase a business. This is more than just a financial decision. The enormity of the decision to purchase a business is such that touches every aspect of a person’s life. Owning a business can be very time consuming and demand a great deal of one’s attention. The end result, is that buying a business has a direct impact on both one’s financial life and one’s personal life. Owning a business can be extremely time consuming and this is particularly true for new business owners.
Prospective buyers need to weigh all the factors involved in buying a business. Caution must be exercised. Buyers need to step back and fully assess whether or not owning a business is right for them both on a personal and financial level. When sellers put themselves in their buyer’s “shoes,” things begin to look a bit differently.
When it comes to buying or selling a business, the assistance of a business broker is invaluable. A business broker understands what is involved in owning a business and can help both buyers and sellers evaluate the pros and cons of any transaction.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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Can you Understand Your Buyer’s Key Motivations?
Negotiations can be tricky affairs. One wrong move can undo a tremendous amount of work. In negotiations, it is best to take a moment and think about where the other party is coming from.
What are their needs and how best can you meet them? Understanding your buyer’s motivation increases the chances of a successful negotiation.
What Appeals to Most Buyers?
When it comes to selling a business, you likely will not know your buyer personally. This means that you will not know what they value most, how exacting their standards will be, and how easy or challenging they will be during negotiations. That’s why it is imperative to err on the side of caution and act in such a way that would appeal to most buyers.
Ensuring that your business is in strong financial health means that your business will be appealing to both a corporate executive as well as an individual buyer with a leadership/managerial background. Keep in mind that individuals who buy businesses will want a strong ROI, and often they will want the responsibilities that accompany that investment to not interfere too greatly with their current lifestyle.
Playing into Emotions
In general, buyers tend to be the most excited at the beginning of the sale process. It is at this point that you can expect your buyer’s passion to be its strongest. As a result, the first stages are when you want to keep your presentation and approach the most realistic. The reason is that once the surge of passion has worn off, your buyer may otherwise feel that you have tried to oversell your business.
Being Forthcoming with Information
It is quite common that you will not at first know if your buyer has previous experience in your market. As a result, you shouldn’t assume that they understand anything about your business or industry. In short, it is definitely in your best interest to be very honest about your business and what is involved in running it. If there are issues that they will invariably discover, then it is best to go ahead and disclose those issues early on as it establishes trust and goodwill.
Understanding Expectations
Another area to consider is what a buyer may expect of you after the sale. A buyer who already possesses a background in your niche would already be very familiar with the ins and outs of your industry. Having you around after the sale may not be viewed as necessary or beneficial.
However, with that said, the exact opposite may also be true. You may be dealing with a buyer who is in dire need of your expertise. These factors could be of critical importance in what you offer your buyer in terms of your availability. Again, that’s why it’s best to not make assumptions and make sure your terms would appeal to a wide variety of backgrounds.
An Investment of Value
Invest the time to understanding your buyer’s motivation. The more you understand what it is that your buyer wants out of the transaction, the greater your chances of focusing on the areas of your business that best match those expectations.
When it comes to the motivations and concerns that prospective buyers may have, a business broker can add a new level of understanding. The value that your broker adds to the process of selling a business is difficult to overstate.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press
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