Article written by Meghan Daniels and provided courtesy of Axial.net

At the end of last year, an all-time high — 73 percent — of middle market company executives reported that their company’s overall performance exceeded that of last year, according to the National Center for the Middle Market. In Q3 2019, that number was 60 percent, down from 68 percent in Q2, according to the organization’s Q3 2019 Middle Market Indicator report, released last week.

This figure is indicative of the report’s overall findings — while performance is still relatively solid among middle market organizations, growth rates are declining, hiring rates are slowing, economic confidence is wavering, and companies are adjusting their expectations for expansion in the coming year. “Overall, leaders appear to be taking appropriate steps and hedging their bets for the time being, perhaps responding to growing national and global economic uncertainty. As attitudes and behaviors shift toward conservatism, many leaders are focusing internally on ways to cut costs and drive efficiency to ensure they are prepared for whatever the coming months bring,” according to the report.

Here are four takeaways from the National Center for the Middle Market’s Q3 report. For more, read the full report.

1. The percentage of companies adding jobs dips under 50% for the first time in 2.5 years:

For the past 2.5 years, more than half of middle market companies reported adding jobs, vs. 46 percent of companies this quarter. Year-over-year employment growth also fell this quarter vs. Q2 2019, from 6.4 percent to 4.1 percent, and the projected rate of growth for the next year is only 2.5 percent — the lowest number since 2014. Companies with annual revenues under $100 million were less likely to have added jobs than those with revenues between $100 million and $1 billion.

2. Middle market leaders are confident in their local economics — the global economy, not as much:

While 81 percent of middle market executives remain confident in their local economies, the figure for the global economy is much lower at 55 percent. This reflects a major decline from Q1 2018, when the figure was 82 percent. Confidence in the U.S. economy was 76 percent this quarter — lower than the five-year average of 79 percent.

3. Talent management is a persistent challenge:

Even as company’s hiring plans become more modest, today’s middle market companies struggle with retaining workers given low unemployment rates and persistent skills gaps, particularly in certain sectors. According to the report, 55 percent of companies cited talent management as a pressing short-term challenge and 46 percent as a long-term concern.

4. Nearly half of companies are consciously tightening their purse strings:

Forty-six percent of executives said they had “accelerated cost-cutting and efficiency efforts in the last six months.” This is likely tied to declining hiring rates and may lead to a decrease in raises for existing employees as well. In addition, “this suggests that bosses may be more Scrooge than Santa when merit increase time rolls around,” according to the report. These cost-cutting efforts come amid a widening gap between cost and profit expectations — this quarter, middle market executives reported their profit margin growth over the next year as 1.7 percent, compared to reports of 3 percent throughout 2018 and earlier this year.

The data seems foreboding — “this quarter’s report shows the biggest one-quarter drops in revenue and employment growth in the eight-year history of the MMI,” notes the study’s authors. However, they also note “it’s important not to make too much of these downward-pointing numbers,” as they only reflect a quarter’s worth of data and may prove to be an anomaly. Tracking growth and hiring, investment activity, and executive sentiment over the coming quarters will help determine whether this data is an outlier or a true reflection of economic softening.

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Walk down Nashville’s Lower Broadway any night of the week, and you can hear aspiring artists belting out cover tunes from Elton John to Garth Brooks.

In many cases, these musicians come to Nashville to be discovered but pay their rent using the tips they get by playing other people’s songs. Most are lucky to eke out a modest living while the stars they impersonate run thriving empires.

Forbes estimates[1] that Luke Bryan, country music’s highest-paid star last year, earned 52 million dollars on the back of his stadium tour and duties as an American Idol judge and Chevy spokesperson.

What’s going on here? Is Bryan that much more talented than the dozens of artists playing his songs in Nashville every night?

Probably not.

The difference comes down to who controls the product. In Bryan’s case, he owns the music and the personal brand he has created to perform it. The cover artist is just reselling his stuff.

The Value Of Your Brand

The music business can be a helpful analogy in explaining why creating a unique brand is such a big contributor to the value of your company. Acquirers want what they could not easily copy. If you’re reselling other people’s products and services, an acquirer will likely argue that there are probably dozens of competitors driving down your margin next to nothing. Further, they may even conclude that they too could earn a license to resell whatever you’re distributing and will, therefore, place little value in the company you’ve built.

However, if you have something exclusive – a unique product or brand that makes people believe what you do is different – an acquirer will pay more, arguing it is difficult to reproduce what you have created.

If you find yourself reselling other people’s products or services, you can still drive up the value of your business by creating a brand around the way you do it. You could argue that Peloton is just selling a stationary bike. Still, it is the unique company they have created around the bike –including the community of riders that subscribe – that has recently driven Peloton’s value north of $7 billion (almost eight times trailing twelve months revenue at the time of their recent Initial Public Offering).

To drive up the value of your company, own the stuff you sell. If that’s not possible, create a unique brand that makes consumers feel as if you do.

[1] http://www.nashcountrydaily.com/2018/08/14/forbes-list-of-the-highest-paid-country-stars-of-2018-includes-luke-bryan-garth-brooks-kenny-chesney-more/

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Article written by Meghan Daniels and provided courtesy of Axial.net

The letter of intent (LOI) is an important step in most M&A transactions. The LOI allows buyers to signal that they’re serious about a potential deal and to make sure that their vision lines up with the seller’s before they spend significant resources on a full due diligence process.

Here are the answers to four frequently asked questions about the LOI.

1. What does the LOI include?

A letter of intent serves in some ways as a preview or summary of the deal terms that would be expected to appear in the purchase agreement down the line. LOIs typically vary in length from about two to 10 pages, depending on a number of factors. Some argue a shorter LOI can help speed up the negotiating process as it centers the conversation around the most important elements of the deal: if there’s not agreement there, the logic goes, there’s no need to discuss other factors. Others prefer to address all potential issues upfront to avoid any surprise dealbreakers later on.

Here are some of the typical terms you’ll see in an LOI, though of course this varies depending on the deal.

1. Deal Structure: Is the transaction a stock or asset purchase?
2. Consideration: What are the forms of payment? This can include cash, stock, seller notes, earn-outs, rollover equity and contingent pricing.
3. Closing Date: What is the projected date for closing the deal?
4. Closing Conditions: What are the tasks, approvals, and consents that need to be obtained before or on the closing date?
5. Exclusivity Period: This is typically a binding clause requested by the buyer, who wants to ensure that sellers are negotiating in good faith. It’s typical for buyers to request an exclusivity period from 30-120 days, while sellers will typically want as short a period as possible.
6. Break-up Fee: This clause is also typically binding, though break-up fees are less common in the lower middle market. In larger deals (>$500MM), break-up fees of approximately 3% are typical.
7. Management Compensation: Which members of the senior management will stay on? Who will be provided equity plans? This aspect of the deal may be vague at the LOI stage before due diligence has been conducted.
8. Due Diligence: How will due diligence will be conducted? This includes the nature of information that will be disclosed and the manner in which it will be disclosed.
9. Confidentiality (Binding): Both parties have likely already signed an NDA earlier in the process, but this clause further ensures that all discussions regarding the proposed transaction remain confidential.
10. Approvals: Does the buyer or seller need any approvals (e.g., from a board of directors, regulatory agencies, customers) to complete the transaction?
11. Escrow: This may not appear until the purchase agreement, but sometimes the buyer will include summary terms of their expected escrow terms for holding back some percentage of the purchase price to cover future payments for past liabilities.
12. Representations and Warranties: This also may not agree until the purchase agreement, but if there are contentious or non-standard terms the buyer may include them in the LOI.

2. Is an LOI binding?

LOIs are generally non-binding, though sometimes there will be terms that are specifically called out as binding, e.g., exclusivity periods or break-up fees. It’s important to note, however, that in certain cases courts may interpret letters of intent as binding documents if the buyer and/or seller treats it as a contract. Still, sellers shouldn’t expect that the terms outlined in the LOI will necessarily be the final terms offered by a buyer. Buyers are looking to portray themselves in the best possible light at this point in the deal process, and have not yet conducted full due diligence and therefore don’t have a complete sense of the business’ risk factors that may impact their ultimate purchase price and terms.

3. Are LOIs mandatory?

No. It’s not unheard of for buyer and seller to skip over the LOI and go straight to the purchase agreement. However, an LOI can be useful for a number of reasons. It helps ensure that buyer and seller have similar (or at least similar enough) expectations around deal structure, scheduling, and other big concerns. It also means that any potential deal-breakers come up earlier in the process, so that the parties can either a) stop the transaction process before significant resources are spent on due diligence and drafting deal documents or b) figure out a resolution sooner. The letter of intent also is a nice way to ensure that seller and buyer are on the same page about how due diligence will be conducted. In addition, the LOI’s terms serve as important protection for all parties in a deal (e.g., exclusivity periods product buyers, while break-up fees protect sellers). Creating a shared vision of the future transaction means that there are fewer unpleasant surprises down the line and can make the overall deal process run a lot more smoothly.

4. What happens after the LOI is signed?

The next stage is typically due diligence. The buyer may have been conducting informal due diligence already, but the formal process begins now, and the seller will be expected to provide detailed financials and customer information along with other requested materials. These findings will inform negotiations down the line as buyers aim to lower their risk and sellers look to optimize purchase price and terms. At the same time that buyers are conducting due diligence, they also begin to plan for integration — doing so early on helps buyer and seller think through potential roadblocks and concerns and address those prior to the deal close. The final stage, of course, is drafting and signing the purchase agreement, which may require significant negotiation to get to a place where both buyer and seller are comfortable.

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It can be tempting to offer shares in your company to finance its growth. These days, there are plenty of investors chasing promising new companies and, in today’s tight labour market, employees are getting more brazen in their demands for equity-based compensation. However, using equity as a form of currency dilutes your position and may not be necessary with a pinch of creativity.

How David Hauser Bootstrapped His Way To a 9-Figure Exit

David Hauser has been an entrepreneur for most of his life. He had a number of small money-making ventures in high school and studied entrepreneurship at Babson College. He started a web design business after graduation, followed by an internet advertising company.

Through his early experiences in entrepreneurship, Hauser discovered that one of the most frustrating parts of starting and growing a small business was acquiring a phone system. Back in the late 1990’s, big companies used a PBX system to route calls throughout a switchboard, but a PBX system was prohibitively expensive for most small companies to acquire and maintain.

Hauser and his friend Siamak Taghaddos imagined a “virtual PBX” which allowed small business owners to leverage the internet to create a phone system without having to buy any of the hardware. They built a crude version of the technology, named their new company GotVMail (later rebranded as Grasshopper), and launched in 2003.

By 2004, they had acquired their first few customers and could see that in order to scale they would need to buy servers and a lot of advertising to drive demand. The venture capital markets were starting to thaw after the dot com bust of 2001 but Hauser chose not to raise venture capital. Instead, they clung to their equity and bootstrapped their little business.

Instead of ordering servers from Dell, Hauser found a local computer company and sold it on his vision for the future. Hauser asked the owner to make a server for him below cost arguing that if Grasshopper achieved its vision, Hauser would soon buy many more. When Howard Stern moved his show to satellite radio, Grasshopper offered to support Stern’s new medium in return for major concessions on the price of a commercial.

Grasshopper also offered discounts if customers paid for a year’s worth of service up front, effectively turning its customers into financiers of the business. Despite its growth from start-up to $30 million in revenue in just 12 years, Hauser was able to retain the majority of the equity in his business, which he sold to Citrix in 2015 for $165 million in cash and $8.6 million in Citrix stock.

As the story of David Hauser illustrates, owners who focus on value building will guard their equity like a greedy child hoarding a bag of Halloween candy. Rather than selling their friends and family cheap shares or giving every new employee options, they use other forms of financing to start and grow their business.

Rather than thinking of your shares as a currency to distribute lavishly, consider your stock as the essential ingredient to building value.

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By Ryan Jorden, VR Business Brokers – Managing Partner

You’ve been thinking about selling your business for a while and now you’re finally ready to pursue a sale. But is your business prepared to withstand the scrutiny of a buyer and their professional advisors? If you haven’t been through this process before, then you may be unaware of some issues present in your business that a savvy entrepreneur is looking out for and seeking to avoid. These barriers to selling will undoubtedly show themselves during a buyer’s due diligence and likely derail your deal. So let’s take a look at some of the common issues that arise so you can start working on them in order to maximize your value in a successful sale.

1. You aren’t mentally prepared for the process

You thought you were ready, but now that you’re discussing it in depth with your trusted broker you realize that you have no plan for your life after the sale. Your identity and self-worth are very closely wrapped up in your business, or perhaps you’ve worked so hard at growing your business that you simply didn’t have much room for a social life or hobbies. What are you going to do with all of that free time? The great unknown looms large and you’re getting cold feet at the prospect of reinventing yourself.

This is an opportunity to draw up some goals and gain a clearer understanding of how your life will change and benefit from the sale of your business. Maybe you desire to spend more quality time with your spouse or grandchildren, finally enjoy some uninterrupted holidays, or pursue a completely different business venture. Write it all down and start filling in the blanks until you feel it becoming tangible. Because it’s crucial that you’re fully committed to the transition both emotionally and mentally.

If you’re on the fence, then your business will suffer in the meantime, your broker will get frustrated trying to drag you along and any buyer you meet is going to confuse your reluctance of selling with disapproval of them.

2. You have unrealistic expectations of the timeline required

If you thought you could walk away six months after the day you decided to sell, the reality is going to be a difficult adjustment to make. Especially if you’re already mentally burned out or suffering from health issues. It’s better that you know now what it all entails so you can realistically prepare yourself to do what it takes to ensure a successful transition.

So how long does it take to sell your business through a brokerage? On average you’re looking at nine to twelve months to locate a suitable buyer, however, some businesses may even take up to two or three years. The length of time will often depend upon the type of business you have, how much financing you’re willing to extend, whether or not your price is market friendly and who you’re using to represent your business for sale.

It may also take a couple of years of pre-sale planning to resolve ignored or unknown issues or to implement a tax friendly strategy. And depending on your business, you may be required to stick around for one or two years to play a key role in the transition.

The best advice I can give anyone is to start planning your exit today, regardless of when you think you’re going to sell.

3. You don’t have the documentation required

You have to be prepared to disclose a fair amount of information to a serious buyer in order for them to gain the confidence required to move forward. I’ve had numerous business owners approach me over the years with a request to help them sell their business, however they weren’t even willing to share their financials with me. I simply won’t allow a buyer to potentially risk their life’s savings on a mystery box, so these are business owners I will not work with.

What are the basics you should start getting ready today? In addition to a copy of the lease, current inventory status, itemized list of furniture, fixtures & equipment, you will also require accountant prepared financials for the past 3 to 5 years. A serious buyer needs to understand the revenues and expenses of a business, as does their accountant and lender. Not having accountant prepared financials will unnecessarily introduce a level of risk to the buyer that makes it impossible for a business to sell.

The more detailed and confidential information such as client lists and existing business contracts aren’t made available until the period of due diligence after an accepted offer is in place, however, you need to have it ready to go. Delays will kill your deal by eroding the confidence of your prospective buyer while also giving them time to find another option.

The bottom line is don’t expect a buyer to simply take your word for anything, they’re going to require proof.

4. You have internal issues that haven’t been fixed

The buyer of your business isn’t going to pay you top dollar if they have to come in and sort out a mess. They want to be able to plug themselves or a manager in and start immediately growing the business.

Common issues we encounter are inventory management concerns, missing or outdated systems & processes, decreasing revenue, poor earnings, a cash component that’s throwing off the expense to revenue ratios, a missing safety program, or the lack of key staff in place that can assist the new owner after your departure. If you’re doing three roles and all of your customer relationships are with you personally, get a manager in place and train your customers to call the business instead of your cell.

These are all matters that can be fixed, however, they can take a varying degree of time to address and correct. Make a list of all your known issues and start working on it. You may also want to consider hiring a small business consultant or contract CFO who can discover additional unknowns and assist you in improving them.

5. You are asking too much

An ill-informed expectation of value is going to cause you frustration as you watch buyer after buyer pass you by. Since they’re primarily purchasing your cash flow, the package it comes in is often less important to many buyers than the payback period, risk and ROI. An experienced entrepreneur won’t pay for your location, client base or name recognition if it’s not translating into profit.

Get a professional business valuation completed immediately so you can set your expectations of fair market value. This will also help your broker in establishing and justifying the value of your business to a buyer, their accountant and the bank.

If you’re asking too much then you’re not going to sell, and if you’re asking too little then you’re cutting yourself short and leaving good money on the table.

If you’re thinking of selling your small business, we would be pleased to answer your questions and assist you with starting this process. Let us put our expertise to work for you!

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Article written by Danielle Fugazy and provided courtesy of Axial.net

KLH Capital is a lower middle market private equity firm that specializes in making three types of investments: management buyouts (MBOs), recapitalizations, and family/generational successions. Founded in 2005, KLH has completed over 35 platform investments. Axial’s Middle Market Review sat down with James Darnell, a partner with the Tampa, Florida-based firm, to talk about when and why MBOs make sense for sellers and buyers, and other types of transactions that are happening in the lower middle market today.

What is a management buyout?
An MBO is a fancy term that private equity guys like to use to describe a situation when the management team that is currently running a business buys out some or all of the business’s existing shareholders, and in the process obtains some ownership in the company for themselves.

MBOs are really effective for management teams who have created a lot of value in the business and established themselves as the leadership of the company. These teams already understand their customer base and their market, and have demonstrated successful leadership skills. They make for good owners! They have created a great business, but they haven’t been able to fully enjoy the financial benefits as they aren’t owners themselves. To complete an MBO, the management team works with a private equity firm like ours to facilitate a liquidity event for the current shareholder(s), and through that transaction, the management becomes shareholders themselves, alongside us.

What are the advantages of completing an MBO?
The shareholder(s) who are selling the business or realizing liquidity are able to get fair market value for their business and ensure the company remains in the hands of people they already know and trust. Sellers also often feel they have done the right thing by both their employees and management teams when they sell to management.

For the new private equity investors, MBOs are a chance to invest in a deal that has a lower amount of risk than a typical deal because they are backing an incumbent management team that has already demonstrated they can lead that particular company. Lower risk for an investor is always a good thing.

The managers that are participating get ownership in the business going forward. They also continue to run and grow the business as they have been. Because of this ownership event, employees are usually happy and remain motivated. Employees’ biggest fear when there is a sale is that the new owners will try to steal the business or change the culture of a company. In the case of an MBO, management and employees should already share the same vision and values.

Are MBOs a popular strategy today?
There are many baby boomers who have enjoyed the growth of their businesses and would like to pursue retirement. The MBO option allows sellers to do something a little different from a regular sale or a recap. With a traditional recap, sellers will receive partial liquidity, but likely be asked to stick around for three or four years and then get a second bite at the apple. For business owners who want to step back, an MBO will speed up that process.

How does an MBO differ from an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)?
With an MBO, the business owner is going to be able to realize more of the business’s value in cash immediately and can direct specific ownership amounts to key employees. With an ESOP, the seller will carry a note that pays out over time and they will likely need to personally guarantee the third-party financing to bond them to the business. An MBO is a clean break at full valuation.

How does KLH find businesses that want to participate in MBOs?
We find our business through a network of referral sources that we have developed over 15+ years. We network on a daily basis and help business owners understand their liquidity options and how private equity can play a part in their growth strategy or financial stability, or how we can help address any financial problems they may have.

Recaps are a big part of your business. When does it make sense to do a recap?
We frequently invest in recap transactions. In fact, we do more recaps than MBOs. They are similar transactions. The question is how involved the seller wants to be going forward? If you have an owner who is in full control, it’s hard to do a management buyout if there isn’t a management team to step in. If the seller can totally remove themselves, then an MBO may be a viable path for the seller to cash out fully.

How do generational transitions differ from recapitalizations and MBOs?
They are similar to both MBOs and recaps. Generational transitions happen when a younger generation of a family business wants to take over from prior generation(s). Often, the younger generation doesn’t want to mortgage the company to put all the money in the prior generation’s pockets. Additionally, it’s very hard for families to navigate the trickier parts of these types of transactions, like the equity and debt raises and the risk allocation between the “buyers” and “sellers.” It’s too personal and familial relationships are more important. A third party can usually provide the liquidity and help get the transaction completed on a more arms-length basis.

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Small businesses often operate as if their sole purpose is to fund the owner’s lifestyle, but the most valuable companies are run with financial rigor. You may be years from wanting to sell, but starting to formalize your operations now will help you predict the future of your business. Then, when it does come time to sell, you’ll fetch more for what you’ve built because acquirers pay the most for companies when they are less risky. There’s nothing that gives a buyer more confidence than clean books and proper record keeping.

Jay Steinfeld is a great example of how to run a business like a public company. Steinfeld studied Accounting at the University of Texas and joined KPMG after college. His wife owned a small retail store selling blinds and window treatments. The store was successful, but by 1994, Steinfeld had noticed a little Seattle-based outfit that was trying to hawk books online. This company with the peculiar name “Amazon.com” started to succeed in selling books online and Steinfeld wondered if he could get consumers to buy blinds online.

Soon after, Blinds.com was born.

Unlike many of the first-generation online companies that were run with little financial controls, Steinfeld grew Blinds.com like an accountant. He was determined to run his business with the same rigor as a publicly listed company. He built an experienced management team and took the unusual step of assembling an outside board of directors even though Blinds.com was private and Steinfeld owned all of the stock.

The board met quarterly and each of Steinfeld’s senior managers were asked to prepare and deliver formal presentations to his board. Steinfeld hired a big four firm to complete a full audit of his financials each year even though all he needed to satisfy Uncle Sam was a simple tax return.

By 2014, Blinds.com had grown to 175 employees and, at more than $100 million in revenue, was the largest online retailer of blinds in America. Even though Home Depot had close to $90 billion in sales at the time, Blinds.com was outperforming them in its tiny niche, which – coupled with their fastidious bookkeeping — made Blinds.com absolutely irresistible to Home Depot. On January 23, 2014, Home Depot announced its acquisition of Blinds.com.

Running your business like it’s public will make it more predictable as you grow and ultimately a whole lot more attractive when it comes time to sell.

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Article written by Meghan Daniels  and provided courtesy of Axial.net

Selling a business is a big decision, and a little anxiety about the process is normal. We asked five M&A advisors about the biggest concerns they hear from clients.

What’s the top concern you hear from prospective sellers, and what’s your advice?

Dexter Braff,  The Braff Group

Once we get past price and terms, the “softer” elements of the deal become more meaningful. Will the buyer retain most of my employees? Will they carry on the legacy of the business? If the seller is not retiring, how restrictive will the covenants not to compete be? How long will the seller be on the hook for any post-deal issues that are covered by indemnification language?

Depending on just how important these, or any other items, are to a seller, they may choose to incorporate language addressing them at the letter of intent stage, before due diligence and crafting the definitive purchase agreement. That said, sellers should take care not to add so many provisions such that letters of intent become de facto purchase agreements, less they slow the momentum down or frustrate the buyer. Better to address the “want-to-haves” (as opposed to the “have-to-haves”) later on in the process, when the buyer becomes more invested in the transaction and may be just a bit more accommodating to insure a successful close.

Robert Rough,  Telos Capital Advisors

We had a big increase in inquiries about selling in Q4 2018 when the public markets fell off, there was lots of talk of recession, and trade tariffs were a big item. Prospective sellers were concerned that they had missed “the top”. In general, prospective sellers’ biggest concern seems to be leaving money on the table by selling too early. We counsel our prospective clients against trying to time the market, especially since it takes so long to close a transaction once you begin the process. Buyers are generally pretty smart; if you wait until the market in your industry has peaked or a recession has begun, you probably waited too long. Buyers will price the uncertainty of the depth and length of the trough into their bids, if they even bid at all.

Sellers should sell when the market is good, their business is solid, and potential buyers can still envision some upside.

Allie Taylor, Orange Kiwi

The list of concerns varies widely, but often includes things like “will I get a fair enterprise value”, “what will I do after I sell”, “how do I avoid paying too much tax”, “will I have enough money to do what I want”, “are the multiples really the highest they will get or should I wait”, “who do I trust, my CPA, attorney, wealth and asset manager, coach…”, “how do I resolve competing advice”… and the list goes on.  What owners that have achieved successful transactions (meaning they are happy 12 months later) ask is, “How do I get the transaction I really want?”

No matter what the concern, my advice is often the same: a) the presenting concern is rarely the real issue holding an owner back from successfully selling their business; b) achieving a successful transaction depends on the owner’s ability to  conquer their own psychology  so that it does not get used against them; c) this requires owners engage in creating clarity about what they do and do not want for 22 variables in 3 domains (business, money, and self). This understanding increases the owner’s control of their exit and enables them to avoid making compromises they later regret.

Keith Dee,  Osage Advisors

“What is the value of my company in today’s market as I am constantly getting calls from people looking to buy my business?”

Our advice to them is that after running your company for 10, 20, 30, or more years, you owe to yourself to test the market when you are ready to sell. By hiring an investment banker who will run a controlled auction process for your business, potential buyers will competitively bid for your company and set the current market price. The business owner will then have options to choose who he thinks the best buyer is for his business based on several factors including price, culture, what’s best for his/her employees, and the legacy of the company

Steve Raymond,  The DAK Group

Sellers are constantly asking us questions like: When is the “best” time to sell my business? It seems that we are in a seller’s market now; should I put my toe in the water now or should I wait to generate stronger revenue or profitability? Am I leaving money on the table not selling now?

All businesses are unique, and the market for them is just as unique.  When selling a business, an owner has to consider a myriad of issues. Valuation, while important, is not the only consideration. Owners need to consider not only what is best for themselves, but also for the business. Think carefully through the implications of a sale, both to the owner and the business.  This exercise will allow the owner to prioritize what is most important. Allow these priorities to set the timing and the potential targets in a sale process. An owner is more likely to develop a successful outcome when success is defined at the front end.

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