business brokerage Archives - Your ExitMap

Why You Can’t Sell Your Business Overnight

Mark C. Hegstrom — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:00:53 +0000

Business owners are often told they need to get ready to sell their business, why can’t they just up and sell it? The short answer is that they are unlikely to sell it. Listing the business may be easy, getting someone to buy it, that’s the hard part. According to the Exit Planning Institute, only some 20-30% of businesses sell today.

The post Why You Can’t Sell Your Business Overnight appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Delegation and Depth – Company Readiness for Exit

John F. Dini — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 14:21:30 +0000

Delegation and depth are critical when presenting your business as a buying opportunity. For many business owners, exit planning means getting the company ready for sale to a third party. There are a number of approaches to enhancing preparedness for a third-party sale. Assessing Readiness Some planning software products begin with a comprehensive survey of the owner’s impressions of readiness. Note that we say “impressions.” A Likert scale questionnaire that asks a client to rate their understanding of a statement and its possible implications with questions like “How confident are you that you know the value of your business?” and a ranking from “no understanding” ... Read more

The post Delegation and Depth – Company Readiness for Exit appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Your Exit Plan: The 3 Inarguable Reasons to Start NOW

John F. Dini — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 01:00:38 +0000

What is Your Exit Plan? If you’ve ever done a business plan for the purpose of raising capital, one of the key questions is “What is your exit plan?” Many business owners think that question is self-serving, intended merely to let the venture capitalists figure when and how they will get their return on investment. In truth, however, that question is far more important. An exit plan is a strategic plan with an end date. Putting a time frame on your plan, and defining the goals to be achieved by that date, creates a future-focused mindset for the owner. It controls and reduces your tendency ... Read more

The post Your Exit Plan: The 3 Inarguable Reasons to Start NOW appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Quarterbacking is Not Exit Planning

John F. Dini — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 13:58:14 +0000

Quarterbacking is a popular term when exit planners are talking to clients. It’s supposed to invoke a vision of someone who is in control. Think about a Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes standing tall in the pocket, surveying the offense and defense unfolding before him. There is a real problem with using “Quarterbacking” when referring to your exit planning professional team. The quarterback calls the plays. The job of the rest of the team is to run them as instructed. I’ve yet to meet a CPA or attorney who thinks that is the best way to develop a client’s exit plan. Teamwork Exit ... Read more

The post Quarterbacking is Not Exit Planning appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Selling to Employees: Exit Planning for Small Business Part 4

John F. Dini — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 06:08:53 +0000

Selling to employees is one method of transition that is growing rapidly in popularity. Usually the driving motivation is a desire to help the people who got you this far enjoy some of the benefits of ownership, but there is a substantial list of other benefits. Pricing is agreed at the start, not in adversarial negotiations. Valuation is flexible. The business can be sold for more or less than its Fair Market Value, as long as both sides agree and cash flow supports it. The legacy of the business lives on in the community. Where there are substantial challenges to an outside buyer, such as ... Read more

The post Selling to Employees: Exit Planning for Small Business Part 4 appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Exiting a Small Business #2 – Selling to a Third Party

John F. Dini — Sun, 08 Sep 2019 09:14:12 +0000

“In our last episode,” (I’ve always wanted to say that) we discussed the exit paths that are not usually available when exiting a small business. Those are ESOP, Private Equity, and Strategic Acquisition. Now let’s talk about what you can do. The Realities of Selling to a Third Party Multiple surveys over the last decade all show the same result. About 85% of small business (5 to 20 employees) owners say that their exit plan is to sell to a third party. Let’s do the math. There are currently over 3,000,000 small business owners over 55 years old in the USA. We can assume that ... Read more

The post Exiting a Small Business #2 – Selling to a Third Party appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Manage Activities; Lead for Results

John F. Dini — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 09:23:17 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted a comment in the Business Journals Leadership Trust Forum about a life lesson I learned. The difference between effort and outcomes – Manage Activities; Lead for Results. They reached out and asked if I could expand my comments a bit. Those of you who know me won’t find it surprising that it grew into an article. You can find it here. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, lead for results. Invest 15 Minutes and take our FREE Exit Readiness Assessment. We do not request any confidential information. John F. Dini develops transition and succession strategies that allow business ... Read more

The post Manage Activities; Lead for Results appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Video on Preparing for Your Exit Plan

John F. Dini — Tue, 14 May 2019 11:08:03 +0000

I contributed this video interview about preparing for your exit plan to SuccessionMatching.com for their recent Summit. It is about preparing what you need before starting your exit planning process. Succession Matching has made it available for free for another week. (requires creating a user name and password) I hope that you enjoy it. Invest 15 Minutes and take our FREE Exit Readiness Assessment. We do not request any confidential information. John F. Dini develops transition and succession strategies that allow business owners to exit their companies on their own schedule, with the proceeds they seek and complete control over the process. He takes ... Read more

The post Video on Preparing for Your Exit Plan appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Four Basics of Exit Planning 3: Know Your Buyer

John F. Dini — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 12:29:00 +0000

Know your buyer? Your initial reaction to this title may be “How can I know my buyer? I haven’t even decided to sell yet!” Nonetheless, understanding the type of buyer that your company will attract is vital. More importantly, gaining that understanding long before you go to market will impact many decisions about how to run your business between now and when you start to actively market the company for sale. The classes of buyers are not interchangeable. I once worked with the owner of a subcontracting company. He told me “I want to find a strategic buyer. I know they pay higher multiples than anyone else.” That’s nice ... Read more

The post Four Basics of Exit Planning 3: Know Your Buyer appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Exit Planning: Ripples and Ripples.

John F. Dini — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 10:19:20 +0000

Every stone thrown into a pond creates ripples. Every advance in technology does the same. The late Stephen Hawking said that we were progressing too quickly. Along with other technology and science notables, he argued for a slowing down of development in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Most current “AI” is actually machine learning. As computing speed increases exponentially, the ability of a computer to calculate, test hypotheses and weigh varying outcomes increases as well. Computers can now beat the best humans at every game ever invented. From Chess to Go, and from Texas Hold ‘Em to Ms. Pac Man, binary geniuses are sorting through billions of possibilities, and ... Read more

The post Exit Planning: Ripples and Ripples. appeared first on Your ExitMap.

Your Transition Advisor Team

John F. Dini — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 14:13:30 +0000

Nothing impacts the success of your business transition more than the advisor team. Let’s say you receive a free pass to play in the Super Bowl. You will be playing against the New England Patriots, but you can choose any NFL player not on their roster for your team. Who would you pick? There are a multitude of opinions about who is the best quarterback, wide receiver or free safety. One thing is pretty certain. You wouldn’t choose the guys you grew up playing touch football with. At least, not if you wanted to win. Owners feel loyalty to the trusted advisors they already have relationships with. ... Read more

The post Your Transition Advisor Team appeared first on Your ExitMap.

What’s Wrong with the Buyer Generations?

John F. Dini — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 12:04:50 +0000

Many of the upcoming buyer generations can’t or won’t run Baby Boomer businesses. This is (or should be) of concern to sellers everywhere. “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households.” Attributed to Socrates by Plato. Elders have been complaining about their offspring for 2,500 years. The complaints change only in the activity bemoaned. “Chatter in place of exercise” is replaced by those damn radios, or automobiles, or television, or rock’n’roll, or cell phones or texting. It’s amazing when you realize that ... Read more

The post What’s Wrong with the Buyer Generations? appeared first on Your ExitMap.