Seller FAQ

We use industry standard valuation methods for valuing our clients’ companies, but we also have our own proprietary methods that we use if traditional methods seem outdated or otherwise not relevant. And for certain asset classes, we use our own internal systems. Determining the value of a company cannot come from a book. Every company is unique and has its own set of circumstances, including but not limited to growth rate, IP holdings, asset values, EBITDA level, comparable company sales, risk profile, and 100+ additional factors that our systems take into place in order to ensure that we’re maximizing the Enterprise Value of our clients’ assets while at market.

We use a proven process for selling a business, which includes, but is not limited to:

1. Reviewing a company’s full financial and operational picture to ensure the business is in it best position to be successful at market, and if not, providing consulting to help it get there.
2. Developing an exit strategy with the client to ensure that we understand the best timing for the exit, the best buyer profiles, and the best structures to match what company ownership needs to see in a transaction.
3. Building marketing collateral, a marketing plan, and executing on the exit strategy to take the business to market in a light most favorable to the client business.
4. Ensuring client confidentiality by having an NDA signed with all clients and ensuring that the marketing plan does not indirectly or accidentally advise the market of the true name of the company.
5. Connecting highly vetted Buyers with our clients to introduce the parties, respond to initial questions, and begin receiving offers.
6. Fiercely negotiating offers and working with the client to obtain the best structure, best Enterprise Value and best buyer for the deal that has the highest likelihood of closing.
7. Managing the due diligence process through a secured data room, regular calls to keep the momentum of the deal progressing and staying on top of any capital raises (if any) by a buyer to ensure progress is being made.
8. Introducing 3rd parties as necessary, including attorneys, accountants, tax advisors, etc.
9. Managing the legal process with the purchase agreement and ancillary documents by supplements legal advisors with deal negotiation assistance, all while ensuring that the momentum of the deal continues to drive forward.
10. Closing and popping Champaigne!

Since we manage the sale of companies as small as $1M and as large as $500M, as you can imagine, this varies greatly. However, on average, deals under $10M tend to close in 90-120 days and deals over $10M generally take 90 – 180 days. Much of the timing is dependent on whether a capital raise is necessary (e.g., SBA Lending for deals under $10M, or capital raises for deals over $10M) or if the buyer is using proven lending partners or has the money on the balance sheet for the deal (cash buyer). Much also depends on the type of company being sold, the demand for the company, and whether 3rd parties need to analyze the company’s financials (QoE for deals over $10M and Bank Underwriting for deals under $10M). Contact us to get a better feel for how long it will likely take for your particular company to close.

We are part of a global franchise, including our sister company, WebsiteClosers. Collectively, our brokers have over 125 years of deal making experience. With thousands of deals closed and a University and Continuing Education platform for our broker teams, our advisors are highly educated, experienced in business ownership, and can provide not just brokering oversight to represent your business at market, but also a great deal of consulting based on their vast experience to ensure that the business is in the best possible position when it comes time to exit.

With over 1.3 million followers worldwide, and growing every week, we surge a massive amount of demand into every listing. Besides our broader following, we also have a Buyer’s Club and VIP buyer development program that ensures that we have a large pool of highly active buyers ready to pounce once a deal goes on the table. This is where we truly shine – the demand itself can increase selling multiples by as high as 2X due to the multiple offers received, which results in buyers pushing higher to win the deal. Very few brokerages can bring this level of buying power to a listing, and none can do it as well as we can.

Pricing for our services is 100% performance based. We are a full-service firm, so we handle the entire process, including all necessary consulting, marketing and deal negotiation. Outside of legal and accounting, which are performed by 3rd parties, we handle the rest of the deal for you, from A to Z. And we do not earn anything if the deal doesn’t close. Our pricing is based on flat fees, straight Lehman or reverse Lehman approaches, depending on the deal and industry that the company falls into. We keep a close watch on the competition and know where our pricing needs to be in order to be “market”. Once a business owner has the chance to speak with us, they realize that they’re getting a higher quality service for the same mid-level pricing. To learn more about what your pricing would be for your particular business, please reach out so that we can set up a free consultation and get the ball rolling.

A lot goes into this answer. This can be influenced by your own family needs, burn out, or just wanting to do something new. It can also be influenced by knowing that your company is growing nicely and it just seems like the right time to sell. Generally speaking, our clients tend to be growing year over year and are look to exit so that they can capitalize on their hard work and have a new party take it to the next level. Most entrepreneurs are amazing at building, but tire easily of the mundane day to day affairs. Other clients might want to sell a majority of the business and keep 20-30% so that they can capitalize both on the initial sale, but then the second sale as well (2nd bite of the apple). Whatever your situation, our brokerage team has been trained to walk you through the pros and cons and work with you to get the timing right – you will never be pressured to sell now with our brokerage. We are service-focused … and realize that by always being there for our current and potential clients, in the end we will always win engagements.

When you first contact us, we will set up a meeting to introduce our team so that we can provide insight into how our process works. We can meet in person or via zoom, either is fine. While on the call, we will get to know you and your business better and start to identify what your exit goals look like. We’ll do a high-level overview of our process and get a high level overview of your operations. Following our call, we will send you a needs list that includes the financial statements that we will want to review to ensure that your books are in good order for the market. If they aren’t, we will help you and your bookkeeping team fix them; if they are, we’ll begin crafting an exit strategy and valuation for you. The next meeting will focus on a deeper dive into your business operations, and following this, we will have the information we need to provide an in-depth valuation and go-to-market strategy for your business.

Once we agree on the best Enterprise Value for your company, we will create a highly in-depth Offering Memorandum that summarizes your business and provides interested buyers with the information they need to make an informed decision about whether to look deeper into the business.

Once we go to market, we handle everything from A to Z for you, including all marketing collateral, negotiations, conversations, documentation and management of the LOI, Due Diligence and Legal stages. Then we close!