High-end Business Brokers / M&A
By Ney
Compass Point CEO Ney Grant has written a blog on buying and selling a business for Allbusiness.com for over three years, and has been published in BusinessWeek online and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, Ney uses a single engine Cessna airplane to visit clients around the west coast. He enjoys photography and often takes a few pictures along the way. Follow him on some his business and personal trips with his personal blog, www.westcoastflyingadventures.com.
By Ney
We say this a lot during our conversations with possible clients when they ask why deals don’t get done. And I know it is far easier said than done – to not let performance slip while we are going through the selling process. Sometimes things just happen. I know, I started, owned and ran a company for years.
But it does happen and it just happened again. We signed a letter-of-intent and things were looking good. However, when the seller produced a mid-year update, things no longer were looking so good. The frustrating thing is that he didn’t shrink, he just didn’t grow. Plain and simple, he didn’t do what he said he would do. When that happens, it does a few things. It changes the financial model that was built by the buyers and lenders that justify the price being paid (in this case there was an earnout, so that had to modeled in as well). It also brings into question the ability of the seller to produce a sales forecast for the current year.
In this case it killed the funding that the buyer had lined up. At least that is what he said, but he may well be taking a wait-and-see attitude himself.
This is a big reason why you use an intermediary like me in the first place – so you can focus on the business during the selling process and not get (too) distracted. I have to admit it didn’t quite work in this case. The seller is confident sales will be back in forecast range by the end of the year, and it is looking likely we’ll have to wait until then to make the buyers comfortable with the price that the seller wants.
By Ney
I’ve written about this a few times: the dark side of business brokerage via the practice of marketing using the message, “I have a buyer for your business”, when that clearly isn’t the case. This message gets delivered on hand written cards, computer generated “hand written” cards, postcards, letters and phone calls.
Now, you can look forward to automated calls to pester business owners with the same message. On behalf of the business intermediary industry, I apologize.
The following is an email I received today. Hopefully it will be used as described when there really is a buyer, but I predict it will used to generate business listings when there isn’t a buyer.
Do you have people who want to buy a business but not enough businesses that are for sale to show to them?
We can help.
The very first six brokers we showed this to came on board instantly after seeing a demo because they said it was the perfect way to get more flower shops, carpet cleaning companies, restaurants, etc. that their clients were looking to acquire.
There are two ways to generate leads.
First, let’s say you have a guy that wants to buy a flower shop somewhere in the state. You just use our software program and type in “flower shop” and the city/state and it will pull every single name and number within seconds. Then, you record a message along the lines of, “Would you be interested in selling your flower shop? I have a buyer right now that would be interested in buying it. For more detail, please call 702-555-1212.”
Then, hit a button and it calls every single number the software found and delivers the message. (Some brokers have asked me about reaching the decision maker. The best way to do this is send the messages early in the morning before they open so the message goes to voice mail).
If you want to do a mailing, the software will also format everything to print as mailing labels. No more buying lists.
The second way is to have the software scan craigslist for businesses for sale, extract their numbers, and call with a message, “Hi, this is Tim. I’m interested in buying your business for cash. Please call me at 702-555-1212.”
Our software package is a one-time cost of $397 (with a monthly $20 maintenance fee).
The software can also extract email addresses.
Also, once you buy the software, you have re-sell rights. Every broker told me they have several clients who would love to have it for themselves. Flower shops, restaurants, bars, carpet cleaning…..the list is almost endless for the types of businesses that can use this.
I will sell it to only one business broker per city on a first-come, first-served basis.
To see a demo, please email me back or call me at 702xxx
Thanks,
By Ney
We decided to update the website and start a dedicated blog, instead of just the national blog we write for AllBusiness.com.
“I had no idea how much work was involved in getting a deal done. Graeme and Ney were key to getting the deal to close.” – Mark Stapleton, PowerChem Technologies.
Compass Point Capital, Inc.
Sacramento, CA
compasspointcapital
com