The process of buying a business

1. Commitment
Acquiring a business is a serious commitment for all involved. You must have the mental and financial commitment to offer price and terms consistent with the marketplace. American Business Brokers can help you find the right business and structure a deal if you’re committed to follow through and if you have the financial means to make a reasonable down payment.

2. Finding the Right Business
A business is available for virtually every budget and ability. American Business Brokers will help you find the right business and will help you develop an acquisition strategy that fits your price and background. If you’re looking for a specific business, we can perform industry and market searches to find the exact business that meets your needs. Then we can complete market evaluations and industry comparisons to help you value your selection fairly.

3. Confidentiality
Confidentiality is critical to the seller. You will sign an agreement and promise to keep the seller’s information confidential for each business we show you. American Business Brokers does its utmost to ensure that the seller’s confidentiality is maintained. A breach in confidentiality could significantly harm the seller.

4. Business Selection
We will help you select businesses that fit your criteria and circumstances. We will provide you with additional details of the businesses you have selected and will help you narrow the search to one or two of particular interest.

5. Buyer Background
At this point, American Business Brokers has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller to verify that you have the ability to purchase the business you have selected, before proceeding further with additional disclosures and meetings. American Business Brokers will have you complete a buyer profile that includes disclosures of your financial ability to complete a transaction and a résumé and background information about your experience. This step helps us to ensure that you’re considering a business that fits your skills, interests, and abilities before involving the seller in the process.

6. Showing the Business and Meeting the Seller
At this point, you will receive a complete package on the business. We can arrange for a visit to the business so you can walk through the facilities and view the operation firsthand. Then we can arrange a meeting with the seller so you can get answers to any additional questions you may have.

7. Making the Offer
Now you are ready to proceed by making an offer to purchase with an earnest-money deposit. This step always depends on the seller’s acceptance of the price and terms and on contingencies for such items as verification of records, lease assignment, lien removal, acquiring required licenses and permits, acceptance of a non-compete agreement, training period, and final inventory and inspections. During this period, your earnest money is held in escrow.

8. Presentation of the Offer
American Business Brokers then presents your offer, along with your background, experience, and favorable points. Remember, the seller is most likely going to finance part of the purchase price.

9. Negotiation and Acceptance
Now the seller will either accept or decline your offer or may make a counter offer. American Business Brokers will help negotiate the terms of the offer and find solutions that satisfy both parties whenever possible. Once the seller accepts an offer, the business comes off the market. The offer to purchase becomes a purchase and sale agreement, with contingencies.

10. Due Diligence and Contingency Removal
Now begins the in-depth inspection of the seller’s records and accounts. This step does not occur before the offer is made, because experience shows that in-depth due diligence is often wasted if the price and terms have not been negotiated first. Agreement for the lease to be assigned, public-records searches, and verification of assumable loans and trade agreements occur. Once all the contingencies have been removed, then the purchase and sale agreement becomes binding.

11. Open Escrow
The purchase and sale agreement and all other documents relating to the sale are turned over to an escrow attorney. The attorney prepares all the closing papers; performs lien searches; and prorates rents, deposits, taxes and other items to the closing date. The attorney also makes sure all secured creditors are satisfied, all other security agreements and related documents are completed, and final arrangements for the payoff or assumption of all notes and leases are made. All parties review these arrangements to make sure they meet everyone’s satisfaction. The escrow attorney also keeps copies for at least three years following the close of the sale. The attorney costs are minimal and are shared equally between the buyer and the seller.

12. Inventory and Closing
Final inventory is taken, and the transaction is closed. Then it’s celebration time—you’ve joined the ranks of those who are living the American Dream!

How Much Should a Business Appraisal Cost?

Steven Schroeder, JD MCBA ASA gives an opinion on how much you can expect to spend when you get a valuation for your business.

Preliminary Analyses, Value Studies - $3,000 to $10,000.
These kinds of less-than-comprehensive valuation efforts can be well-suited for situations where a client needs a ball-park estimate of value, perhaps as a starting point for sales negotiations, or to achieve a better understanding of the value drivers in his company. Often this type of assignment is begun with a Value Study to identify the value drivers of the subject business entity, and followed-on with consulting over a period of time to prepare the business and the owner for subsequent sale.

We can provide a valuation for much less. Please contact American Business Brokers

What is the value of your business?

valuation methods for companies

Excerpt: Dave Pollard gives a great introduction into the Discounted Cash Flow method valuing a company. He is also pointing to comprehensive presentation elaborating deeper on this topic....

What other brokers won’t tell you about OPEN Listings

Many business owners think they will put all the Agents in the world to work for them without their having any commitment with anyone and, with the hope, in the back of their minds, that they will sell it themselves and have to pay no one.

Well, it is partially true. They will get lots of Brokers. However, this arrangement benefits the Broker so little that good Agents will stay away from open listings. While losing the good Agents you will also lose the good Buyers working with those good Agents.

No Agent in his right mind will spend time, money or effort marketing an open listing. If they do, they will complicate the life of many Brokers and the Buyers who are working with them. This is another way of keeping the best Buyers away from your business.

The Seller thinks: “I’ll give my home to all the agents and whoever sells it gets paid. Plus, the more agents, the more buyers I am likely to find.”

This is what’s known as an open listing (or a ‘general listing’). The advantage with this method is that you are not committed to one agent. If your business does not sell, or if you sell it yourself, you owe nothing to any agent. With so many horror stories about agents, an open listing appears an ideal solution because you can sack the agent at any time with no further obligation.

There are two disadvantages with an open listing - and they are BIG ones: you are almost certain to have either a low priced sale or no sale.

The reason you often receive a lower price with an open listing is that the agents are being paid to find a buyer before another agent finds a buyer. It’s a race to get your business sold. The focus is to get any price and persuade you to accept it before another agent finds a buyer.

You may say that you will only sell with the agent who brings a buyer at the highest price - which sounds good, but it doesn’t happen that way. Most buyers shop around among many agents. If they see your business in the listings of more than one agent, the question they ask each agent is: “What is the lowest price I can pay for this business?”

The asking price may be the same with each agent but all it takes to ruin your chance of the highest price is for one agent to say, “I can get it for you for less.”

Open listings tend to have a lower priority than exclusive listings, and receive much less exposure. Would you spend a lot of time on an investment if there was no guaranteed return?

-Advantages of an Exclusive Listing
Having an exclusive listing allows you to deal with one professional agent, who is dedicated to marketing, and selling your business. A Non-Exclusive listing results in having to speak to a number of people who are not as committed to selling your business, and may not even be recognized real estate agents. Imagine having pre-qualified buyers, professional showings, high-quality flyers of your business printed in full color, written offers and professionals handling the legal issues, and all of the paperwork commonly associated with selling a business.

For example, if the business was initially priced at $500,000, Agent A may quote $498,000 to Buyer. In order to secure Buyer, Agent B will quote lower $495,000 while Agent C will quote $490,000 for the same business. Finding $490,000 attractive, Buyer approaches Agent C to buy the business. In turn, Agent C tells seller that there is only one interest buyer who is will to offer $490,000. Thinking that $490,000 was the best offer from the only Buyer, owner sold the business. To an agent, it is only about $200 difference in commission (assuming 2% of selling price) when the business is sold at $490,000 compared to $500,000. However, to an owner, the difference amounts to $10,000!

Each time you hear something too good to be true, ask again. There is no free lunch.

Exclusive right to sell listings
An exclusive right to sell listing is also referred to as an exclusive authorization and right to sell or just a plain, old exclusive. The exclusive is the most widely used form of listing contract in the United States. Here are the reasons it's popular with sellers and brokers:

Maximum incentive for brokers: Under this form of exclusive listing, the listing broker gets paid if anyone -- even the owner -- finds a ready, willing, and able buyer for the business during the life of the contract. Owner and broker are allies, not adversaries, with a mutually beneficial goal of getting the listed business sold as quickly as possible for as much money as possible.

Maximum effort for seller: An exclusive right to sell listing gives your listing broker a strong monetary incentive to focus his or her time, energy, and advertising dollars on one priority -- a fast, top-dollar sale of your house. To that end, the listing broker should immediately cooperate with any and all other brokers who might have buyers for your business by offering to split the compensation 50/50 (or whatever split is customary in your area) with the broker who generates a ready, willing, and able buyer.

In short, an exclusive listing works towards the advantage of the business owner.