Sell a Business
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Is It Time To Sell Your Business?The following information provides an overview of the services and benefits you can expect as a Sunbelt client. For your convenience, this information is also available as a PDF Presentation.  1 - A Complex Process - Made Easy 1 - A Complex Process - Made EasySelling a business is a more complex undertaking than most entrepreneurs realize. At Sunbelt, we understand the issues and we'll help alleviate much of the anxiety traditionally associated with such a significant decision and undertaking. With Sunbelt you can rest assured that you’ll get what your business is really worth; we’ll also help you sell it with the least possible disruption, headaches and risk. Here are a few important considerations in choosing Sunbelt:
2 - The Services You NeedThere are many benefits to working with Sunbelt. The following list provides a quick overview of several ways that we help our clients succeed.
3 - Our Strategic Selling SystemSunbelt’s refined and time-tested approach to successfully selling your business has 5 distinct phases. During each phase, we’ll guide you through the details, strategic thinking, and critical decisions while providing professional insights to ensure that you’re completely comfortable Stage One - Business Appraisal/Valuation Complete Understanding: Before you commit to selling your business, we want to be sure that you have thought everything through in detail. We also want you to have a thorough understanding of the entire process you are about to embark upon. A Sunbelt intermediary will be pleased to take the time to explain everything, and answer all of your questions. A Thorough Review: One of our early goals is to try to get to know as much as possible about both you and your business. This involves considerable candid discussion about your business, your reasons for selling, your goal in selling, what you plan to do after selling, and what you plan to do with the proceeds of the sale. Each one of these areas of discussion impacts how we undertake selling your business as well as the terms of sale. Engagement Agreement: Once you are comfortable with Sunbelt’s capabilities and approach to selling your business, it’s time to get started. This requires your signature and the signatures of all owners on our Engagement Agreement. This agreement sets out the terms of our relationship, as well as disclosure and confidentiality considerations that allow us to go to next steps. Detailed Business Analysis: One of the most critical steps in this process is the determination of what we expect will be the most probable selling price for your business. This process involves gathering a tremendous amount of data for analysis on a confidential basis including: financial statements, operational details, inventory, furniture fixtures and assets, market conditions, company history, building details, leases, staff, proprietary technologies and processes. We need to look at every single consideration of value in order to determine the Most Probable Selling Price of your enterprise. Financial Recasting: An important part of determining the Most Probable Selling Price of your business involves revealing and reflecting some of the hidden value of your business that doesn’t always show up on the financial statements. This process of recasting of financials is essential to more accurately reflect the true value that a purchaser might actually expect as the future owner of your business. Most Probable Selling Price: Once all of the information has been collected, digested, analyzed and researched against similar businesses, comparable purchase options and industry standards, we present you with a comprehensive report that forms our professional “broker’s opinion” of what we realistically think your business might sell for in the current marketplace. IBBA Accredited Process: Our Most Probable Selling Price recommendation is based on an evaluation of thirteen different approaches to business valuation that have been developed and recommended by the International Business Broker’s Association. They also comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice as set out by the Appraisal Foundation, the world authority in appraisal practice. These complex calculations involve considerable number crunching, detailed industry analysis, objective analysis, and the use of comparable statistics and industry research. The result is an exceptionally detailed and insightful report that has tremendous value to any business owner. Decision Time: Because of the large amount of work that goes into the process of determining the Most Probable Selling Price of your business, we charge a small fee for this process. However, the work is done without any contractual obligation on your part to either sell your business, or to sell it through Sunbelt. Once the report is complete, you and your intermediary will determine what the best asking price for your business should be. If for any reason you choose not to sell your business at this time, the Most Probable Selling Price analysis process and the discussion with your agent will most certainly reveal strategic opportunities to increase the value of your business for future selling consideration. Stage Two - Market Preparation Engagement Agreement: Stage two begins after you have reviewed and agreed with the findings of the Most Probable Selling Price and signed the Engagement Memorandum to confirm that you wish to proceed at the agreed upon asking price. It is now time to get your business ready to take to market. Marketing Tools Development: We use two primary documents to begin marketing your business throughout a wide range of media and marketing opportunities. Blind Profile: In order to begin attracting prospective purchasers for screening, we create a teaser document that we refer to as a Blind Profile. Our Blind Profile is a one or two page advertising overview of your business that gives just enough information to solicit interest in a business of your type in a general classification with only high-level financial information, in order to ensure the identity of your business remains confidential. All marketing materials used to promote your business are approved by you. The Confidential Business Profile: Our Confidential Business Profile is an elegant marketing document or business prospectus designed to provide prospective buyers with a detailed overview of your business. This substantial presentation summarizes all key aspects of your business that a buyer would need to know in order to start getting serious about making an offer. It is only made available to qualified prospective buyers who have been pre-screened by your Sunbelt representative. They must also have signed a strict and detailed, legally enforceable, non-disclosure agreement prior to viewing the Confidential Business Profile. We now begin to pro-actively market your business and bring solid, qualified offers to the table. Our goal is to sell your business quickly, under terms and conditions that achieve your goals. Marketing Campaign: We use a multitude of approaches to market your business. These include radio, newspaper, internet, internal buyer lists, Sunbelt network contacts, targeted searches and solicitations, as well as web advertising on the Sunbelt Network and other top business marketing websites. Buyer Screening: All responses and requests for information are filtered, screened and qualified in order to select only legitimate buyer prospects. Once we are confident of the viability of a potential buyer, we will meet personally with that buyer to do further due diligence. This may include verifying financial statements, confirming credit worthiness, net worth and liquid assets, often with 3 rd party references. We also undertake personal, lifestyle and business capabilities interviewing to confirm that the prospective buyer is suited to and capable of running your business with a reasonable likelihood of success. Stage Four – Negotiation & Due Diligence Managing Buyer Expectations: This is the stage where the process becomes exciting and often challenging. Managing the expectations of a prospective buyer, as well as the negotiation process, may be the most difficult and critical part of what we do. It’s also very important that all negotiations are handled exclusively by your Sunbelt agent in order to ensure the greatest likelihood of success. Negotiation: In most cases, because of seller financing and seller training, there is a requirement for an ongoing relationship between a buyer and a seller. It is therefore essential to maintain a positive relationship and create a win-win outcome between the buyer and seller. Your Sunbelt intermediary is trained to objectively manage this often challenging and often emotional process in order to create the best possible outcome. Proceeds of Sale: Once an offer is received, we prepare a financial analysis of the terms and conditions as presented and use this as the basis for preparing and evaluating counter-offers. Small changes in terms, rates and other considerations can often make a significant difference in the net outcome and viability of an offer. Due Diligence: Another critical role of your Sunbelt agent is to manage the due diligence process with the lawyers, accountants, financial and business advisors of the prospective buyer. This monitoring and coaching that we undertake on your behalf is pivotal to a successful outcome. It is at this very late stage that the very best of potential deals can go wrong, if not handled with proven processes and seasoned expertise. More Negotiation: Typically the will be additional rounds of negotiation and additional rounds of due diligence once the negotiating process has begun. Your Sunbelt representative will use their expertise to continue to expedite the process and create the outcome that you are looking for. This is the final stage of the process. Your Sunbelt representative will again manage all details to expedite this potentially delay-prone process. We’ll keep the lawyers and accountants synchronized on both sides to ensure a timely and successful conclusion. Once the sale has closed the new owner is invited to participate in a Sunbelt affiliated program called the Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is a peer group of 10-12 business owners who own and operate growing companies with revenues between $500,000 and $50M. Members of the Inner Circle meet once a month for three hours in a unique forum that allows group members provide one another objective, high quality professional counsel as well as direct, no-holds-barred insights. Members are committed to supporting each other's unique visions while holding each other accountable to their stated goals. We believe that this is an excellent way to help ensure the success of new business owners. 4 - Conclusion and Getting Started
Please contact our office at your convenience to speak with one of our representatives who will be glad to answer any additional questions you may have, and further help you determine if now is the right time for you to sell your business. In this private and confidential interview we can provide further insights that will help you determine if your business is ready to sell and if your sales expectations are realistic.
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