Exit Planning

Exit Your Business: What Are The Options?

Gregory Pearl

There are many different ways for an owner to transfer the ownership of a business and make an exit. You will probably first think of a sale to an outside buyer as the most likely method. That is true, it is the first thing that comes to mind for most privately held business owners. But there are other methods that you should think about. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.  Each has unique characteristics that make sense for some situations and not others. Exits that are External To The Company Sale to an outside buyer outright. This is referred to…

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Business Valuation

Inflation is showing its ugly self – affecting business valuations

Gregory Pearl

In the USA, we are starting to see an increase in prices for raw materials creating the threat of higher inflation going forward. This has implications for interest rates.  Most people expect the Fed to raise rates in the next year or two. But higher inflation could mean more increases earlier than that. Oil has reached a high and is expected to increase from here.  Oil is often a large component of inflation.  Some inflation indexes ignore energy and others do not.  But energy costs are embedded in the end price of most products so higher oil costs will eventually…

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Buying & Selling a Company, Decision Making, Exit Planning

Times Are Good Now. But What Happens When They Are Not?

Gregory Pearl

The current economic climate is strong, with M&A activity being strong also. But what happens when the economic environment is difficult?  Challenging? Many business owners are thinking of selling in the next few years. What can they expect? Looking back at the activity in the last recession, which was a hum-dinger, gives us a clue. Despite the difficulty of the extremely challenging environment the last time around, business sales still happened. Activity was slower, deals were harder to close.  But still, it did happen. Whatever the economy, some baby boomers will want to retire. Some younger people will want to…

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Business Valuation, Buying & Selling a Company

M&A Trends May 2021

Gregory Pearl

Alteris LLC tracks Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) valuation and other trends/metrics from its various partners and research sources.  We will periodically report on what we find here.  For more detailed information on valuations and M&A trends contact us directly. Please note that this information is a summary, generalized for many different types of companies of various sizes. This data is collected from various sources and includes proprietary deal information from over 200 PEGs (Private Equity Groups) on $10-250mm sponsored transactions, with an average TEV near $50mm. The information available as of May 2021 show that M&A activity continues to increase…

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Buying & Selling a Company, Exit Planning

How Does Your Company Look To A Buyer? Or Don’t Be That Company (Ouch)

Gregory Pearl

You want to sell your company. An outside buyer has approached you and is evaluating it. What are some of the things they will be looking at? The best way to handle this question is to look at it from the buyer’s perspective. In fact, it is always a good idea to look at things from the other person’s perspective, but that is a different topic. While every company is different, there are a few things that will really stick out to a buyer.  Know what those are. It is a good idea to consider three important areas a buyer…

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Buying & Selling a Company, Exit Planning

Why Do Companies Fail to Sell at the Last Minute?

Gregory Pearl

When deals fail to close (companies fail to sell), everyone is disappointed.  This includes everyone involved in the transaction:- the seller, the buyer, the intermediaries. Everyone. The issues causing the closing process to stop may be fairly minor or impossible to resolve. If the problem is somewhat minor, it still may be possible to resolve the issue if handled well. There are hundreds of reasons why a business sale may not reach a successful closing. It may begin with the Letter of Intent which formalizes verbal understandings into a written document. A bunch of items in the LOI can cause…

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Exit Planning

Some Non-Obvious Ways an Exit Plan Can Help

Gregory Pearl

You own a high-quality business and want to sell. You are motivated to sell and have taken the actions necessary to ensure you can obtain the most for your But what is a motivated seller? Sellers are motivated when they have had a major life event that strongly indicates that selling the business is a good idea.  Or are just old-fashioned burned out. The business owner may recognize they want to sell. They need to sell but something just doesn’t seem right. If that is you, maybe you haven’t adequately addressed these important questions. How much money will you get…

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