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Buying and Selling a Business

A business broker, entrepreneur, and executive who has been involved with buying and selling companies for almost 20 years offers advice to help you plan for the sale or purchase of your business.
Latest Posts

You Name the Price, I’ll Name the Terms
July 02, 2009, 4:55 PM
We brought seven offers to our client for the purchase of his company, ranging from $39 million to $12 million. The client choose an offer in the middle for $25 million.

Delegate!
June 19, 2009, 12:35 PM
Business owners should learn to delegate. Why is this so critical? One, it is the only way your company can get any scale and two, it can help greatly when selling your company.

How to Choose a Mergers and Acquisition Advisory Firm
June 11, 2009, 1:25 PM
Selling your business is likely to be one of the most important events in your life, so don’t just sign up with the first intermediary you find. As with all professions, there are good and bad intermediaries and M&A firms ...

When to Tell Employees You are Selling Your Business
June 07, 2009, 2:45 PM
Selling your company can be a long process, so when do you tell your employees about your decision?

Deals Are Not Always What They Appear To Be
June 03, 2009, 6:45 PM
...Then a few days ago Jim called, "Hey, do you remember Steve? Watch the six o'clock news. He's in jail, five million dollar bail " ...

Finding the Leak: Breach of Confidentiality in Business Sale
May 29, 2009, 11:20 AM
We sold a steel fabrication plant and although we had a purchase agreement in place and ready, we were waiting on funding. We recommended the seller not disclose the sale to his employees yet, but that was easier said than ...

Timing the Sale of a Business: A Tale of Two Companies
May 26, 2009, 2:10 PM
Timing the sale of a business can be difficult. You don't want to go out on top because a buyer doesn't want to ride it down from there. But it pretty hard to sell on the way up because it ...

How Not to Perform Due Diligence in a Business Sale
May 19, 2009, 4:30 PM
In my last blog post I described what due diligence is. Here are some stories of due diligence gone astray...

What Is Due Diligence in Business Acquisitions?
May 13, 2009, 1:00 PM
What is due diligence, and how the due diligence process fits into the flow of a business acquisition.

Unlock The Hidden Value In Your Company!
May 05, 2009, 5:05 PM
Sell-Your-Business seminars and workshops typically pitch paying for a valuation of your business, and the message during the seminar is that there may be hidden value locked up in your company. Maybe. However for most businesses, it just isn't so.



Latest Comments in Buying and Selling a Business posts

Roberta,

Thanks for the comments. Do you hink perhaps you consult with larger firms than I deal with? I work with privately held firms between $2 million and $50 million in revenue, and the employees don't generally have easy access to info. Often there are very few people that know the business is for sale.

I'm open to softening my position as I'm all for transparency, but I've seen that being transparent too soon in a business sale causes uneccesary anquish.

I'll send you a private email and we can discuss this further. - Ney ...
By: on 6/11/09 at 1:42 PM
When to Tell Employees You are Selling Your Business
Ney,

Clearly you have been there and you know what you are talking about but I have to say I am a little disappointed. I think that all the rational for NOT doing it the way you did hold true if you don't tell employees upfront. In your analysis, perhaps there were other things at play in how it was handled?

Everything we teach in our M&A Post Merger Integration Readiness Training is the opposite. If you tell them up front - perhaps trust isn't lost but engagement goes out the window. The challenge is how to re-engage people and it isn't just by keeping them informed and asking for input. Don't tell them and I assure you all trust is lost and very difficult if not impossible to regain.

The real reason to not tell seems to me that often you are "selling" your knowledge talent a well as your technology. Truth is people leaving would devalue the company. Funny thing, if you do not find a way to engage them in the new entity you will loose them anyway. As you say - people do lose jobs in M&A's.

In this day of transparency - not because it is the right thing to do - but because it is almost impossible to "hide" I believe your strategy is not only dangerous but flawed. Most of your time will be spend managing rumours instead of getting on with the business at hand.

Thank you for opening this discussion up.
By: Roberta HIll on 6/8/09 at 11:03 AM
When to Tell Employees You are Selling Your Business
Ney:

First of all, really well-done blog with great information. I believe we're starting to see signs of a recovery here in Boston, but perhaps it's wishful thinking. The link below lays out some observations I've had relative to what's going on in this market. Keep those posts coming!

Link:
http://blog.coral-group.com/2009/05/01/rebound-in-boston-for-small-business-ma.aspx ...
By: Sam Liss on 5/11/09 at 9:46 AM
Did We See the Bottom?
Sam,

As far as I know, BLX did get into trouble and stopped doing SBA loans a few years ago. They now do AR factoring loans, and I think they even changed their name.
By: Ney on 4/30/09 at 2:09 PM
SBA Acquisition Lending Update
For the last several years, BLX have been under very heavy civil and criminal scrutiny for alleged fraudulent practices related to SBA loans. I would be very careful doing business with them.
By: Sam Thacker on 4/28/09 at 1:04 PM
SBA Acquisition Lending Update

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