ExitAdvisor Blog

Key employees in place can be very important in the sale of a business!

Buyers are always interested to know if there are well-trained key employees that will stay with a new owner of the business. That expertise within the company's operations can be very important in the transaction and future performance.

Key employees can include top managers, department heads and other long-time employees in important positions throughout the company.  In order to sell their business, owners must give t…

Technology and the internet are essentially changing every business in some way or other. It can be challenging, but business owners must keep aware of what ‘s going on in their industry and where it is headed.

Some businesses have a bright future, others need to make drastic changes.  Business owners can search on the internet, go to trade shows and seminars, read books, articles, blogs, talk to others in the industry.

In order to have future value for a buyer, business owners can't ignore …

As a business owner, you’re likely proud of the results you’ve achieved in the past, but when it comes to the value of your business, your future is critical. That’s why your growth potential is one of eight factors that drive the value of your business.

One metric that acquirers may use to evaluate your growth potential is your revenue per employee.

Alphabet (Google’s parent company) generates around $1.3 million in revenue per employee. Compare that to the advertising agency WPP Group, who…

You've likely heard the adage that it is far easier to cross-sell an existing customer a new product than it is to find a new customer.

And if your goal is to grow at all costs, then cross-selling makes sense. 

However, all of that sales growth may not do much for the value of your company. If you cross-sell your existing customers too much stuff, it could make your business far less valuable.

When you cross-sell a customer so many things that they begin to account for more than 15–30% of y…

"Due Diligence" or the "Right of Inspection" gives the buyer the full rights to inspect all items in a business -- financials, equipment, inventory, premises and anything else. And if the buyer finds any material discrepancies, he or she usually has the legal option of backing out. Some transactions fall apart during due diligence, only because the sellers have ignored fixing the problems of their business and just hoped for the best.

Let's talk confidentially about how you can prepare your b…

Jim Estill is one of the most successful entrepreneurs you've probably never heard of. 

In 1975, Estill started EMJ Data, a technology distribution company, from the trunk of his car and grew it to $350 million in sales before taking it public. 

In 1997, Estill joined the board of Blackberry and stayed through the company's heyday that ushered in the era of the iPhone.

He then became a partner at CanRock Ventures, a venture capital firm.

In 2015, Estill bought Danby Appliances, the company…

Repeat business drives the value of your company, and you can categorize these sales into one of two buckets:

1. Reoccurring revenue comes from customers who purchase from you sporadically. They’re satisfied with what you offer, and they buy regularly yet not according to a specific timeline.
2. Recurring revenue is predictable, and you get it from customers who buy on a cadence. Usually in the form of subscription or contract revenue, the main difference is your recurring revenue comes in on …

Henry Hyder-Smith and Steve Denner started UK-based Adestra in 2004. Adestra is a digital marketing software that helps big companies handle email campaigns, among other things.

The company grew nicely. By 2016, it had around $9 million in revenue and a client list that featured some of the U.K.'s best companies. Hyder-Smith and Denner decided it was time to go beyond their borders and enter the U.S. and Asian markets. To fund the effort, they raised $7.2 million from the Business Growth Fund (…

No matter what price a business owner wants for his or her company, the market is the true indicator of what buyers are willing to pay. Selling a business can be very emotional - all the hard work over the years, attachment and loyalty to employees, the profitability in the past, etc., etc. But if the business has been properly presented to the market and there are offers, the business owner must pay attention to "the writing on the wall".  He or she should negotiate hard, but must consider th…

These days, you're just as likely to watch a football game on a mobile phone as you are on an old-school TV. The technology that enables you to watch your favorite show on whatever device you have handy was made possible by Jason Flick. Flick co-founded a company called You.i TV with a vision to "own the glass." He struck deals to provide the user interface, which enabled content to be viewed across devices with the likes of the NFL, NBA, and just about anyone else who produces original conten…