When selling all or part of a business, identifying qualified buyers is very important to an effective sales process.  Before I go into my process I would like to share a story that involves my joining CFA in 2004 and being interviewed by a senior investment banker from our Dallas office.

When I was explaining to him my “deal experience” from the four prior years he responded, “Oh, you have been working as a business broker”  I then asked him to explain to me how he distinguished between a business broker and an M&A advisor. He stated that if the “buy-side” was an individual as opposed to a professional buyer (i.e. a Private Equity Group or Corporate Acquisition Group) he would describe the transaction as business brokerage rather than M&A.

His point was that professional buyers are in the market everyday and need very little assistance in evaluating opportunities.  The individual buyer, no matter how sophisticated they think they are, is not in the market on an ongoing basis and therefore, will be less proficient and therefore a more risky prospect.

With that introduction, since joining CFA I no longer deal with individual buyers.  My concentration tends to focus on Read the rest of this entry »

In these times of unprecedented economic turmoil, an opportunity exists for small businesses to utilize the current financial “perfect storm” to grow through strategic acquisitions.

With changes in the economic climate and the halt in highly leveraged lending, companies that were patient during the M&A boom are now poised to make strategic acquisitions that can strengthen current operations, increase market share, decrease customer concentration, add new product lines and position them for significant future growth — all without the heightened competition experienced over the last five years.

Less competition from financial buyers: The window has closed for the highly leveraged transactions popular with Private Equity Firms during the M&A boom of the last few years. With these financial firms reassessing their approach and struggling to raise debt, it removes them from the market and/or diminishes their buying power.

Healthy companies have a better balance sheet and better banking relationships: Quite simply, companies that were patient will be rewarded for keeping cash high and debt low. Banks, some that are frozen to new lending, look for ways to cultivate existing relationships with healthy customers. Read the rest of this entry »