Selling your business for the maximum value is often the dream of many entrepreneurs. Finding buyers for your business, however, can be difficult if you haven’t been proactively planning and aren’t prepared for a transition. One option to gain access to a larger pool of buyers and a well structured selling process is to consider a business broker.
Business brokers provide the match-making service of bringing together buyers and sellers. The right business broker can help your business achieve the highest potential sale price with the proper exit strategy.
“Transition360 is known for our development process which is focused on bringing premium companies to market. This process is an effective experience and the buyer of a business will often come back to Transition360 for help preparing and executing their sale because they were so impressed with our process when they bought the company,” says Tod Fiscus (Principal).
Identifying the best business broker for your business requires some research on your part. The first step should be to get referrals from people you trust in your area. Ask your accountant, lawyer, peers, and industry association for names of good business brokers. The longer the broker has been in business, the more likely it is that they have a solid reputation.
Just as a prospective buyer of your company will exercise due diligence, so should you. Examine your broker’s background, experience, and credentials. Are there any lawsuits or complaints against them? Check the Better Business Bureau. Investigate their references. Have they handled sales of your type of business before? These are questions that each business owner should consider.
Tod explained, “In the past 35 years, we’ve been honored to help several successful, growing companies double or triple revenue and successfully transition a third time. This success is due to our existing buyer pool, the development process we follow, and the fact that we only bring well prepared, profitable companies with proven business models to market.”
“Dozens of successful deals done with attorneys, CPAs and Banks from all over the Northwest has helped us earn a reputation of integrity and transparency. When buyer pools and financing institutions know that we’re planning to list a company, they know the due diligence will already have been done and the financials and value will be verifiable. This is often all they need to know to determine if they’re interested in moving forward with the first steps of a deal. We treat every business as if it were our own and that seems to be the secret to success.”
A credible business broker who spends all their time selling businesses will add more value to your sales transaction than a part-time agent or a brokerage with less experience. A full-time business broker can not only bring in a network of contacts but provides the understanding of the principles of business valuation.
The selling of your small business is a highly confidential matter. Your business broker should ensure all safeguards are in place to protect your company. Communicating that you are selling the company with suppliers, employees, or customers before the appropriate time can have disastrous repercussions on your business operations.
Dan Stone (Principal) explains the Transition360 approach this way, “Our approach is different than most. We depend on a Fee-For-Success business model. This aligns our goals with the goals of the owner: To sell the company for maximum value and make sure the deal happens as smoothly as possible. The success fee means we only get paid when the client’s business is sold. This means we are making a significant investment of our time to work with clients, sometimes over several years, to help maximize the value of our client’s business. When the client’s business is prepared to sell, we invest our own capital into marketing the business. This requires a great client-broker relationship built on transparency, integrity and trust.”
Selling your business is a complex matter littered with potential liabilities, confidentiality issues, client and employee piracy risks and potential litigation. Aligning yourself with the right business broker and a team of professional advisers can reward you with a smooth transition and a maximum financial reward.
“Bottom line, our model is designed so that our client’s success is our success and this means both our objectives are aligned,” says Dan Stone.
About the Transition360, 93% Close Ratio
The 360° Development Program™ is an exclusive multi-phase service designed from 30 years of best practices and experience learned from selling businesses. This process helps the team at Transition360 eliminate deal killers before they happen. The Result…………a 93% success ratio.
What’s Your Exit Strategy? Who is Helping You Make It Happen?
Please contact us today for more information about the Transition360 process.
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