Cashing In!
Douglas Group
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Gathering Ammunition For Selling Your Business At Maximum Price
One
extremely useful element in preparation for sale, which can and should
be practiced well in advance of sale, is the gathering of market
intelligence. Such intelligence includes data about who the buyers
commonly are in your business segment, but it's also much more. It's
about how buyers determine value, and what types of companies they like
to buy.
Discovering long-term trends and patterns in your
industry can be immensely helpful when it's time to cash in.
Additionally, the accumulation of operating statistical information
about others in your industry can be a great tool. It will alert you to
the problems and opportunities, whether you're considering sale or not.
Finally, when the time comes to sell, it gives you the powerful
ammunition with which to identify and better prove your strengths by
comparison to industry norms.
The process of gathering functionally useful market intelligence is best pursued from several different angles:
1. Who is buying whom, what are they paying for purchase, and what are the long term strategic targets,
2.
What is average and what is good performance in your business niche,
and how do you measure in comparison to others in your market, and
3.
What are the long-term trends and shifts taking place in your industry,
with respect to the basic shape and form of your prime customers, your
product, and its delivery?
In some industries, an owner can
gather excellent data, such as industry norms, directly from trade
associations and magazines. More commonly, however, the information
which is publicly available is imprecise and not quite on point to your
particular business. For example, industry categories are often too
broad to allow accurate comparisons. Obtain all possible information,
but don't use it without careful scrutiny.
Mark Twain said,
"There are three kinds of lies: (1) lies, (2) damned lies, and (3)
statistics." Statistical comparisons are worth the time to obtain and
analyze, but only with due care to find information of real pertinence
and comparability.
The best information may come from buying
groups or joint-venture alliances, or even from conversations with
friends. The more you're able to build your understanding of how you
fit into the picture of your total market, and where your company is
particularly strong or weak, the better you will be able to deal with
the questions that will arise in marketing your company.
It pays
to be vigilant and attentive to changes in your marketplace; the
gradual but significant trends. When business is tough or stressful,
most owners tend to buckle down and focus on the details with such
intensity that they totally lose sight of the big picture. Once every
few months, the prudent owner will lift his head and try to look from
afar. Such vision will offer keen insights not only into prudent
operating or marketing direction, but also into sourcing for premium
buyers of the future.
Written
by Deborah Douglas, Managing Director of the Douglas Group, a St.
Louis-based private investment banking firm which represents sellers of
middle-market companies. Ms. Douglas is also author of "Cashing In,"
(2004). For more information, contact her at ddouglas@douglasgroup.net or call 314-991-5150.
Click here to read more articles on buying/selling a business
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Deborah Douglas Seminar at SEMA Show
Deborah Douglas will be a presenter at The SEMA Show, the premier
automotive specialty products trade event exclusively for the Specialty
Equipment Automotive industry. It draws the industry's brightest minds
and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center Nov.
3-7, 2008. The SEMA Show attracts more than 120,000 industry leaders
from over 100 countries who attend educational seminars, product
demonstrations, special events, networking opportunities and more.
Debbie's session will be Nov. 3 from 10:30am-noon. Under the Leadership
in a Challenging Economy track, the session is titled, "Prepare for
Sale: Specialty Vehicle M&A Environment."
Debbie
feels that specialty vehicle equipment manufacturers and distributors
in the U.S. are in a strong position to "cash-in" on their many years
of hard work. Offshore companies are aggressively looking to buy a
presence here, and/or to buy U.S. specialty products for sale to
emerging international markets This seminar will show how to best
prepare a business for sale, how to buy an "add-on" company at a
reasonable price and how to find private funding sources. There will be
perspectives from both the buy-side and sell-side from Debbie, as well
as from Tom Marx of The Marx Group. See the SEMA website at www.sema.org for more information. |
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FREE AUDIO CD
discusses how to
sell your business for
MAXIMUM PRICE!
Topics include:
- Owning a Salable Company vs. Owning "A Job"
- Why & When To Sell
- How Competition Increases Selling Price--Significantly!
- The Secret Benefit of the Intermediary Shield
CLICK HERE
TO ORDER
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All New Website!
Visit our new educational, informative website at:
www.douglasgroup.net
It's easy to follow format is content-rich and well worth visiting to learn about buying
and selling a business.
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Free Value Assessment
By
knowing what causes value and how great deals are made, you can put
your company in position to someday be the source of enormous personal
wealth. We
can show you the key control points to maximize business value, to
solidify your business foundation, and to eventually ensure top value
in your company. Just visit our website at www.douglasgroup.net.
You may even qualify for a
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We've
created this newsletter to share timely and relevant industry expertise
on buying and selling businesses. Here we share stories,
anecdotes, and expertise in the world of business sales; also known as
mergers and acquisitions. We can also provide other educational
resources such as webinars, audio CDs, industry books, and
consultations. We're always eager for and appreciative of any
suggestions or feedback you may have. Thanks for reading.
We would enjoy hearing from you.
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