A solid, factual and compelling offering memorandum maximizes the chances of not only selling a business, but obtaining the highest possible price.  An offering memorandum is also referred to as the selling memorandum, a confidential descriptive memorandum, or simply as…

Important questions to ask when looking at a business…or preparing to have your business looked at by prospective buyers. • What’s for sale?  What’s not for sale?  Does it include real estate? Are some of the machines leased instead of owned?…

A January 2004 survey conducted by the DAK Group/Rutgers found the following breakdown of why businesses are for sale: Reasons To Sell Risk reduction      44% Competition or market changes   41% External pressures     27% Lifestyle factors (age, health, etc.)   14% Lack of capital      9% Ownership/management…

The closing is the formal transfer of a business. It usually also represents the successful culmination of many months of hard work, extensive negotiations, lots of give and take, and ultimately a satisfactory meeting of the minds.  The document governing…

Another important factor relating to the asking price is the amount of cash involved in the sale. There is an old saying that the higher the full-price, the lower the down payment – and vice-versa. The sale of almost any…

Many business owners would like to receive all-cash for their business when selling. And yet they are often told that this is really not possible. Why? Most people are accustomed to financing just about everything – home, car, vacation home,…

Structuring the purchase of a business is an issue that should be faced early in the selling decision. Ultimately, the final structure of the sale will be determined by actual negotiations between buyer and seller, but the seller must still…

When contemplating the sale of a business, an important option to consider is seller financing. Many potential buyers don’t have the necessary capital or lender resources to pay cash. Even if they do, they are often reluctant to put such…

In the practical sense, when selling a business, goodwill is all the hard work and effort the seller has put into the business over the years. When acquiring a business, goodwill is the difference between the tangible assets and the…

“Confidentiality Agreement – A pact that forbids buyers, sellers, and their agents in a given business deal from disclosing information about the transaction to others.” The M&A Dictionary It is common practice for the seller, or his or her intermediary,…

The following might be a subtitle for this true account of how one deal was put together: “In spite of everything, you need only one buyer – the right one!” (Although the details are factual, names and financial data are…

Unlike that poetic title of an old-time standard song, Red Sails in the Sunset, red flags are not a pretty sight. They can cause a deal to crater. Sellers have to learn to recognize situations indicating there might be a…