Your Orlando Florida Business Broker

There are certain intangible assets that have no monetary value if you try to sell them by themselves, but their worth is essential to the market value of a business. In fact, it is assets like these that give your business a  competitive advantage  over others in your industry. What makes your business different, unique, and special? These are all questions to consider when deciding to sell your business in a sea of endless competition because you will want to stand out more than ever when your company is for sale. Brand Loyalty and Other Intangibles Customer loyalty  is a big competitive advantage because those same customers will continue to purchase your services or products, no matter who the business owner might be. The key to this loyalty lies in your well-established brand name and reputation. If you are popular among the public, you give a potential buyer more of an incentive to purchase your business. This loyalty exists because your business is wel...

Confidentiality is an important factor in the successful sale of any business and should be taken seriously. Preserving the value-adding aspects of your business like your customer base, relationships with reliable vendors, experienced employees, and your market share helps you command a good price for your company. A breech in confidentiality can create havoc for a seller trying to sell it for the highest possible value. Unfortunately, in many cases, when the word slips out that you are looking to sell your business, people can’t help but talk. And that is when the rumors start, which can spread as quick as wildfire. It’s human nature to resist change. The rumors may start to make your employees feel anxious and worry about their future. They may start looking for new jobs and also share the concerns of the business sale with your customers. This could trigger a negative reaction and your customers might start looking for another business to work with. When customers and em...

Is it a Buyer or Seller Market for Selling Your Business? June 16, 2017  by  Michael Shea PA Is it a Buyer or Seller Market in Selling Your Business?  Not a simple question and reflects some specifics to your particular deal but there are some macro stats you should consider if you are considering selling your business At present the sales price to asking price gap is tight. This reflects low inventory and high demand making it, in essence, a seller’s market. So, if you were looking to sell an environment like this is ideal.  The following image accurately reflects the trends we have seen for the several quarters. The next data point is multiple of Cash Flow. Again the tight inventory has driven multiples up once more reflecting a seller’s market dynamic.  The term multiple is bandied about and sometimes confuses parties but in general buyers pay a multiple of the cash flow or profits of a business.  When it is observed that multiple...

Avoid Unwanted Surprises in Due Diligence April 12, 2017  by  Michael Shea PA   (Edit) Avoid Unwanted Surprises During Due Diligence Buyer of Businesses often uncover unwanted surprises during due diligence — resulting in downward purchase price negotiations, lower valuation multiples, lenders getting scared off, or the deal falling through. In today’s economic climate, potential buyers are willing to search long and hard to identify the best acquisition candidate. Transparent financial and operating information is more important than ever. For companies anticipating sale, sell-side due diligence can identify and quantify issues and exposures that could negatively impact a deal. How Sell-Side Due Diligence Helps Sellers According to a recent survey commissioned by BKD, 66% of closely held/family-owned businesses anticipate a change in ownership in the next 10 years. For would-be sellers looking to maximize value, it is prudent to begin preparing now. Sel...

Negotiation in a Business Sale and a “Beautiful Mind” March 10, 2017  by  Michael Shea PA All too often in business sales when negotiating a deal a seller or buyer and or their representatives look to defeat the opponent and “win”. Statistically speaking when reviewing outcomes of deals the reality is that when this approach is taken one simply does not win in the long term. Several years ago, there was a wonderful film called “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russell Crowe. The film chronicled the life of American Mathematician John Nash. Nash suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia but pioneered the game-changing thought in “game theory” and differential geometry. If the sale of a business is anything it is a game. I would challenge all of us as principals and as consultants and intermediaries to rethink our theory regarding negotiation.  The following video largely demonstrates both the traditional mental model regarding negotiation and Nash’s innovative appro...

It is 2017 and in my 11 years in the business I have 215 deals and worked on probably another 225 or so. 50% close rate is what I run. To some that seems like a horrible number but when you consider that in this industry the average close rate is closer to 20% you may want to check yourself and your assumptions. But it begs the question? Why do deals die or fail to close? The circumstances of deal closure are many and I have seen them all: Financing, poor records, Pirate Ships (yes pirates ..think Captain Phillips), death, divorce, divorce attorney's, personal injury attorney's, remorse, fear. The list can go on and on. But in short I can sum it up to lack of teamwork and control. You see the moving parts of a transaction are many and someone must control the parties and the flow so that things are done in alignment without creating waves and while meeting a timeline. One closing attorney calls it "bird dogging". Someone must be that person who dots every i and...

Lister or Seller…what kind of business broker do you choose? October 15, 2015  by  Michael Shea PA Confucius said “Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.” This applies to business as well as art, and the other disciplines. So when I read that quote I thought of the beauty in my own profession and how and why I appreciate certain aspects of high performing professionals. IF any of you have seen the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” there is a scene where the main character makes a cold call sale in a room of his peers that are frankly mediocre. What the witness is beauty in motion. They all stop what they are doing and are mesmerized by the ability of the man to capture a clients attention and more importantly close the sale. Now in no way do i applaud the behavior of the penny stock pumpers of the 80’s and 90’s…..frankly I find them to be the lowest of the low but one can with proper perspective appreciate the talent and beauty of the moment where he was abl...

Selling Your Business is Your Broker Selling the Value? December 1, 2016  by  Michael Shea PA   (Edit) When selling your business you will get lots of opinions regarding how to value it. There are several accepted valuation methodologies accepted by valuation experts. However, as a seller of a business you should know what “soft” items create value in the mind of a buyer. In addition your business broker should emphasize and sell those elements. Lets list just a few of the elements that increase value of a business. 1. Clean Books and Records: Having clean books and records in a software and up to date is critical and in this day and age inexcusable for not having. Why is it important? Because buyers generally in most cases have not bought the type of business you are offering and can’t understand the the business without a road map to reference. In addition given that most buyers are first timers and are scared to death of making a bad decision they will invariab...

Why Use Transworld to Sell Your Business? March 12, 2015  by  Michael Shea PA   (Edit) When asked why someone should use Transworld Business Advisors to sell their business over other Brokerages a Picture is worth a thousand words.  Selling a business is a complicated matter with many moving parts and variables not the least of which is the legal, financial and procedural pitfalls that can occur when the transaction is not handled properly. When selling your business use a professional that has sold over 200 transacations successfully in over a decade. Filed Under:  Buy a Business ,  Immigration and Business Buying for Foreign Nationals ,  Selling A Business, Selling Your Company ,  Uncategorized Tagged With:  #business #businessbroker #sell your business ,  #business sale ,  #sellingabusiness #sellerfinance #buyingabusiness

Let's get one thing straight right now.   If you are  looking for  the perfect business, stop looking, it doesn't exist.   And if you really want to buy a business you need to settle!  That's right buying a business is a lot like being in a bar at 2am...ponder on that for a moment.   Seriously all businesses have their drawbacks, risks, pain points, skeletons in the closet and warts.     Your job is to find them all, understand them completely, decide if you can manage them and if they will stop you from buying. Let look at some of the business attributes you will want to rate: Income - This is my number 1 concern.   You are not buying a hobby, you want to buy a future  income stream.    So you want to know if it is provable, sustainable, and can you grow it. Length in business  - I love businesses that have been around for more than 5-10 years.   You should too.   Cu...

Books and Records what do they mean July 28, 2015  by  Michael Shea PA Buying a business is a scary thing. And there is a direct correlation with the quality of the records and the sale “ability” of the deal. The simple fact is that buyers and their advisers relay upon those books to prove to them what the business is really doing. That being said there are some realities that buyers need to live with. 1. Being a business owner is hard and taxes on business owners makes it very difficult to operate. The simple fact is that banks generally do not lend or offer favorable lending terms to business owners. In almost every circumstance I have ever seen the operators of businesses use credit cards, lines of equity, and personal guarantees to finance operations. Regardless of your political position this is reality and business owners have to scrape and scratch to survive in a less than business friendly environment. So what does that mean to you? It means you need to under...

The Role of the Business Broker in a Business Sale September 15, 2015  by  Michael Shea PA We are certainly in interesting times. I recently put to market a #property #management company. Here in #Orlando these #businesses are highly sought after. It is a fragmented industry where the operational model ranges from owner operator to web based platforms with multi revenue streams. In Orlando, there are something like 700 of these companies of varying sizes ranging from mom and pop operations to publicly traded entities. Anyway when these things come to market the wolves come to dinner namely larger companies trying to scale come to the game and try to beat down a seller by telling them “how valuations are done” and “what the rule of thumbs are for selling prices”. So back to my title….”What is the role of the Business Broker in the Business Sale?” It is in short to drive competition to create as high a demand for the business and subsequently the highest price for the ...

The Misconception about M&A Brokers vs Main Street Business Brokers February 9, 2016  by  Michael Shea PA I was approached yesterday by someone who said he was looking for a M&A brokerage to handle a big deal. I asked, why are you not considering me? His comment back was that “all i did was main street and he didn’t feel I had the resources.” WOW what a eye opening experience. But then I thought about it and laid out for him and myself some subtleties that I felt he had overlooked. 1. Business Brokerage and M&A firms are businesses and have to make money in order to have resources. As a contingency based firm who only gets paid on success the fact that we do literally hundreds of transactions a year while our average competitor only does less than 20 on average means we have the Financial Bandwidth to spend on the front end and go the distance in the Negotiation. 2. Fiscal Strength: One would think that a larger firm thinking of engaging a professional wo...

Consistency Matters in Business Sales April 26, 2016  by  Michael Shea PA You would never know it to look at my but some 30 years ago I was about 100 lbs lighter and was a distance runner. I had the joy and pleasure of running for a school with a long history of success in Cross Country and Track & Field. A large part of that success was due to the Head Coach, Mr. Tom Heath. Words like: legendary, iconic, great, genius are commonly used to describe the man who in his 45 years of coaching put together a national records 42 year 343 consecutive dual meet streak (and still going) , 21 Meet of Champions Titles, 27 State Titles, a national title and more conference wins than you can count. Sure this school and coach had it share of talented athletes but the lion’s share of kids who ran for him had never ran before and performed through nothing but hard work and effort inspired by a man decades older than themselves. Heath before the end of every year would pull his cros...