I Have Grown My Company…Now What?

If you need assistance in implementing any element of this book, feel free to reach out to GROW and SELL Advisors (www.growandselladvisors.com).  We have spent our entire careers – nearing 40 years – helping CEOs accelerate and optimize their growth opportunities and, often, realize the value they have built through a sale process.

But if you have met your personal needs, created and followed a clear, rational, and executable plan for success, have a solid team around you, have a clear understanding of cash, and have primed the engine that is your company…now what?

If you don’t want to sell, congratulations, you have optimized the value of your company, and the world is your oyster.  If you want to keep running your company, you are now operating a finely-tuned machine optimized on all levels, including your profitability and enjoyment.  If you want to work less and perhaps slowly withdraw from leadership, your machine is primed to run well without you.  If you want to leave it to your heirs, or employees, you will be leaving them a highly valuable asset.

If you want to sell, check out How To SELL Your Business, authored by me and Carl Stratton, my long-time partner in managing the sales of scores of businesses across the United States, for detailed guidance on:

·      Determining how much you can sell your business for – including deep dives on valuation of businesses, the types of buyers of businesses, the basic structures of business sales.

·      Determining whether your business is ready to sell – asking yourself if you are ready to sell and, then, is the business ready to be sold.

·      Determining whether to do it yourself or engage a mergers and acquisition (“M&A”) advisor.

·      Preparing your business to sell – including hiring the right lawyer and tax expert, preparing books and records, what we call “cleaning house” for a sale, performing a “quality of earnings” (“QOE”) report, preparing a data room of due diligence materials, preparing a financial presentation, preparing a confidential information memorandum, using non-disclosure agreements, identifying potential buyers, and perhaps listing your business on brokerage sites.

·      Managing the sales process – including how to create favorable demand of the appropriate size, scheduling and managing the milestones of the process, managing visits by prospective buyers, the letter of intent process, the definitive agreement process, avoiding a “re-trade”, driving to a closing, and post-closing issues.

 GROW and SELL Advisors, wholly-owned by Traversi & Co., LLC, is a premier sell-side M&A advisory firm – a boutique investment bank – serving the lower middle market.  Visit us here.

For a short video clip on this topic, click here.