Selling Buying a Business in a Pandemic

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Selling Buying a Business in a Pandemic? -Not Another Covid 19 Letter

All of our mailboxes are filling up with businesses sending us a letter on the Covid 19 Virus and their respective plans to keep all safe and continue or discontinue operations.  This is not one of those letters.  I am a Business Broker.  I am also a business owner.  I own a small business I bought 6 years ago.  I have capable people in place running the day to day and we have achieved growth each year , with last year being our best year and this year strongly trending up.    But now as a business owner I have some decisions to make. Do we shut down, suspend?, what about my employees?, what about my employee wages.

Selling Buying Running a Business in a Pandemic

I started my 1st business 34 years ago.  I had been working with a Fortune 100 company.  It had used to be working for a large company meant secure paychecks, stability, benefits and all that goes along with it.   I guess you could say a certain comfort.  But I also would witness the occasional Friday when a Managers office door would close and a long time employee leave the office despondent.  He was being let go.   I decided I didn’t want to be that person.   Started a business, bought 8 other related business and 20 years later sold that business.  I really learned the significance to individuals on the absolute importance surrounding buying and selling a business. I decided to become a business broker.

Here I am today responsible for the decision on what happens to my employees.  But where the rubber hits the road is the question-  Would I rather be responsible for these very difficult decisions or have someone make those very important decisions for me?

Is now a good time to buy or sell a business? 

Buying or selling a business is so very dependent of financing.  The banking/ financing situation is very fluid right now and how the Stimulus package affects available financing to business buyers will have a significant effect. 

I don’t know your situation.  Are you thinking about buying a business?  One suggestion I have is asking yourself these questions:

Do  you want to be the person making the tough decisions regarding your employees, your business or…

Would you rather have someone else make those decisions for you .  The answer is different for all of us.

I would rather not have to make these decisions and just go back to the way things were- but we have some work to do first.

Scott Messinger is a Professional Business Broker working with business sellers and Business Buyers in Anderson South Carolina, Greenville, the Upstate South Carolina, Florida, the USA, and internationally. For further infomation email at Scott@GatewayBusinessAdvisors.com

Planning to Sell Your Business

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Planning to Sell Your Business

By Scott Messinger

Planning to sell your business may be the most important component when selling your business. When selling your Greenville SC business or Florida Business many aspects are important- Price, transition, taxes, contracts, financing, employees. But Planning to sell your business should be at near the top of the list. Too often small business owners run and grow their business for 20, 30 plus years yet fail to properly plan to sell their potentially significant asset. As a professional business broker helping business sellers in Greenville SC, Anderson, Upstate and most of South Carolina and Florida I work with businesses of varying sizes. While I work with many business with values of $1M +, many of the businesses I work with are considered Main Street businesses. (those with values under $500k. As a professional business broker I participate in quarterly surveys among 300+ Merger/Business Sale Professionals. A most recent survey shows that business owners are not planning/preparing as much as they should. (See below graphic).

As you can see above- maybe the 1st step in selling your business should be in developing a plan…. to plan. How does a Greenville small business owner selling their business , South Carolina Business Owner or Florida Business Owner begin to selling their business?

  1. Seek the advise of trusted professional that know the actual current market. This discussion/process would focus on steps or measures you may want to take with your business. Measures to prepare your business includes steps related to your systems, cleaning up any financial issues, and consideration of any potential transition issues. You need to understand the timeframe involved with selling your business. You need to understand potential value of your business. If you want to sell your business for $1M and its only worth only $500k you need to either change your business or change your expectations.
  2. Act on the advise and suggestions that you receive.

Scott Messinger is a Professional business broker working with business owners and business buyers in Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg, Easley, Greer, Upstate South Carolina and Florida.Former/current business owner that has Personally bought 9 businesses. For more information or Confidential discussion contact me at Scott@GatewayBusinessAdvisors.com

Selling Your Business- What You Dont Know

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Selling your Business is a complex process.   If someone says its easy, I would suggest either it’s a very very small business (which can also be complex) or that someone has not gone through the process.  I am a business broker with primary focus on South Carolina and Florida.  I have personally sold my business that I started and built, bought and built multiple other businesses, and assisted other business buyers and business Sellers as an advisor and broker.  As with all of my articles, these thoughts, ideas, suggestion are based on my personal experiences.

Selling Your Business
Selling Your Business

Business Owner know their business.  Much of this knowledge is based on familiarity.  The longer one owns and runs a business, the less you experience situations that are new. But selling your business is a new experience even to the  business owner that’s been operating for 20, 30 ,40 plus years.  When trying to sell your business, You don’t know what you don’t know.

Selling your business you need to:

  1. Know how to get your business ready to sell
  2. Speak to trusted advisors significant others including spouse, lawyer, CPA, business broker and others. While maintaining circle of confidentiality.
  3. Plan on the process taking X amount of time. ( So often its longer than anticipated)
  4. Plan on the process to produce some unknowns and situations to address
  5. Plan on running your business while business selling process is undergoing.  One of the biggest reasons a business owner hires a business broker it that the owners schedule is already full and selling your business is almost like adding another fulltime job to an already full day.
  6. Plan on what you will be doing after selling your business.. Plan on the financial changes, lifestyle changes, and most often the least understood emotional changes.  You will feel different after selling your business.  Its hard to imagine that feeling until they occur, but foremost the responsibility that follows you as a business owner for multiple decades slip away.  That should be a very good feeling.

Every business sale has unique problems and situations.  The ability to work through those situations often are the difference between deals that consummate and those that don’t. You as a business owner may not know what you don’t know when selling your business, but you can surround yourself with people that have been through the process.

Scott Messinger is a Professional Business Broker working with business sellers and Business Buyers in Anderson South Carolina, Greenville, the Upstate South Carolina, Florida, the USA, and internationally. For further infomation email at Scott@GatewayBusinessAdvisors.com

A Word on Buying or Selling a Business

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Considering Buying or Selling a Business?

 Taxes Transition Risk Future Asset List Owner Benefit  Working Capital License transfer CHANGE Liabilities  Seller Financing SBA,  Trucks, Intellectual Property EBITDA Cash Flow Inventory Debt Depreciation Goodwill  Money  Customer Base When to Tell Employees    Balance Sheet             Business Broker  Attorney  How?    Accountant    Marketing  Adjusted Net  Non Compete     Negotiation  Training  Management  Offer to Purchase  Confidentiality Lease  Accounts Receivable    Franchise Valuation Multiples   NDA      Revenues             Net Income  Depreciation   Earnout  Closing Agreement  Job  Deposits  Employees Trademarks       Fear       Trade Name Retire  Security     Promissory Note  CPA     Personal Guarantee Timing Work UCC  Family Business  Exit Plan   Website   When?  Partner      S-Corp  Clients    Relationships  Price    Payment     real estate  Assignment  Plan    Help!   

WWW.SellaBusinessAdvisors.com

Exit Strategy for your Business

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Exit Strategy for your Business

There are several ways one may exit their business. Business Owner NEED an exit strategy.   Business Owners may want to exit a business they have owned for decades just because they just no longer have an interest.  Or a small business owner may “get out of their business” after a short period of time of just owning it a year or 2.  I am a Business Broker based in Anderson South Carolina and and assist business owners with this very important decision. Most business owners lack an exit strategy

Most all entrepreneurs and small business owners  think long and hard before they decided to buy a business or start a business.  So often so little thought goes into an exit strategy.

A small business can also be and usually is one of the largest asset a small business owner may own.  It can be a passion but it also is an investment. A significant investment.  Most investments one enters into an exit strategy should exist before the investment is made.

You buy a commercial property to rent out with the intention to rent it for 10 years, hope for market appreciation and  plan to sell in 10 years. You have an exit strategy

You buy a stock.  You buy at $10 a share and plan to sell if stock goes to $15  (unless the company fundamentals change). You have an exit strategy.

You decide to start or buy a business, it gets going and does well- is your plan just to run it forever? Well you cant, because none of us are here forever.Greenville Business Broker

 

These are a few methods a small business owner may utilize to exit a business.  Some are good, some not so good.

The Good, the Bad and Ugly Ways to Exit Your Business:

  1. Sell at a Gain/ profit- can include “merger with other companies
  2. Sell at Loss
  3. Close your doors-bankruptcy, long term negative cash flow.
  4. Poor Health, Significant Injury, Death
  5. LBO (Leveraged Buy Out)
  6. Successfully grow it to such a size and take it public
  7. leave to children

Or some combination of the above- one could die and leave the business to the children

But when you look at the above list you recognize that some of the exit strategies you choose on your schedule and others are “chosen for you” and you have less control over the time frame.

Business Exit Strategy

Emphasize On Making Plans For Your Business

If your plan is to start a business grow and run the business until you are 65 and then sell it- you have a plan, a start towards an exit strategy, and are ahead of most.  It is so easy to start and buy a business and spend a lot of time preparing for that acquisition or start up, then get wrapped up in the transition or start-up, then get wrapped up in the day to day, and then one day you get real sick, and you have no one in your business that knows how to run your business, and laying in bed decide that you may need a plan- it may be to late then.

I am currently a business broker  based in Anderson South Carolina and find my role of meeting with small business owners brings awareness to the need for an exit strategy.  I had owned my own small business for 20 years and realized how ensconced with the day to day one can get with their small business.  There are several ways to exit ones business- I primarily work with small business owners looking to sell their South Carolina or Florida businesses, but observe some of the other exit mechanism and have been personally involved with several of these methods.

 

 

 Your plans can change and often do, but I suggest you plan to have a plan.

For assistance on exit strategy planning and for Free no obligation consultation:

Scott Messinger

Scott@GatewayBusinessAdvisors.com