Great – let’s get the sale process right so you can get the outcome that you are after and / or need.

There are many triggers that drive the decision to sell your business. You may have been approached by a competitor or by a shareholder or director of the business, or there may be entirely different factors involved. 

While there may be immediate opportunity to take action, it is prudent to pause and take stock of the situation. 

There are no 100% certainties in a sale process. I help to make sure your sale process is robust and gives you the best probability of success.

For any situation, there is will always be an opportunity to shape the business and sale process so that you maximise the value and the benefit to the shareholders. 

There will always be the question of how much time you have to prepare. Bar external factors, usually the more time you have, the better you can prepare and the better the outcomes will be. 

I help my clients avoid making hasty decisions and taking actions that lead to common and potentially costly mistakes by:

• Getting legal advice and having a suitable confidentiality agreement in place
  It’s your business so my best advice is that you get your own legal advice council and certainly legal input on any documents that the other party may provide to you. Yes, lawyers cost money, but good lawyers are worth their weight in gold and an early conversation with them is critical.
  
  
• Providing just the right amount of information; at the right time
  I am often guiding clients to get the balance right with providing information, especially where that information might be commercially sensitive (confidential information). It is essential to provide enough information to the potential purchaser to enable them to make an informed decision about their level of interest in, and the value of their offer for, your business. However, that does not mean that you should provide all the information at once and certainly not information that may be commercially sensitive without serious consideration. Otherwise you might be taking unnecessary risks, especially if a transaction does not progress.
  
  
• Improving their understanding of business value beforehand
  The best outcomes come from leading a transaction and that is especially so when it comes to valuation. I help my clients by providing a business appraisal to better understand the value of their business before discussions advance too far. This helps avoid the feeling that you are being dictated to by the potential purchaser and what they want to pay.
  
  
• Providing an understanding of the wider market
  Dealing exclusively with one party has advantages, but it does mean that you are not running an open market transaction, which is ultimately the best judge of business value. I can provide advice and expertise to help reduce this gap in knowledge and also to run a secondary or concurrent process to the wider market, if necessary.
  
  
• Helping with the potential demands of a transaction
  While initial approaches can be straight-forward and not very time consuming, ultimately there is a point where you will need to throw significant resource at the process to get the job done. A transaction can be a significant distraction to a business that does not have the necessary expertise and manpower. I can provide resource and experience to help you get a successful transaction, while enabling you and your existing management team to continue to run the business successfully in the meantime.
  
  
• Having a back-up plan
  It’s great if you have a preferred option (and let’s do everything we can to make that happen), but what is your back up option if things don’t eventuate as you expect? Know what else you can do.

Sale processes have many uncertainties, twists and turns, pitfalls and risks, but ultimately these can be managed and therefore are avoidable. That’s why it’s essential to get experienced transactional expertise right at the beginning, even for the most innocent and casual of approaches from potential purchasers.

ASK ABOUT OUR SALE READINESS REPORT.