Do you know how to find the best buyer for your business?
It’s a simple question, but the answer eludes most business owners.
The statistics say it all. Up to 90% of liquidity events fail. The root cause is business owners who aren’t successful.
Of the “successful” liquidity events, anywhere from 50% to 90% of the deal value in the buyer’s pocket.
Your liquidity event is the most important business decision of your life. You have one chance to get it right. So you better make it count.
Who am I, and how do I know?
I started my eLearning business right out of my MBA program with no money, experience, or team.
My new best friend was failure which happened every day. My grit and determination were the saving grace to welcome success.
When my business was successful, I received a 7-figure offer from an experienced buyer.
To everyone’s dismay, I said “no” to the 7-figure offer. Instead, I said “yes” to mastering the art and science of a liquidity event. Then, two years later, I said “yes” to a 9-figure offer.
Today, I pay it forward. I help business owners through the Deep Wealth Experience. At the heart of the Deep Wealth Experience is the 9-step roadmap.
When it comes to your liquidity event, you don’t want any buyer. You want the best buyer for your business.
How do you find the best buyer for your business?
Keep reading.
When It Comes To The Best Buyer For Your Business, Do You Know The Right Time For Your Liquidity Event?
In both business and life, timing is everything – Jeffrey Feldberg
When it comes to finding the best buyer for your business, know that you can’t time the market.
If someone tells you that you can time the market, run. Run as fast as you can in the opposite direction.
Nobody can time the market.
Read “Selling Your Business? The 5 Best Strategies You Really Need To Know.”
While you can’t time the market, you can time when you enter the market.
In a strong market, you’re told that you have a lifetime opportunity. While there is truth to the above statement, it’s not the entire story.
A counterbalance is your level of preparation or lack of it. When you’re unprepared, you sacrifice your health, money, time, and enterprise value.
When you start your liquidity event, congratulations, you have a second full-time job!
You’re now running your business while having a liquidity event. The health of you and your time suffers as you welcome early mornings and late evenings. Seven days a week.
You’ve now given up your time.
You realize that you don’t have enough time to complete all the reports. To compensate, your hire expensive outside consultants to get the job done. You have now sacrificed your money.
Had you prepared in advance, you and your team could have completed the reports.
Your future buyer is counting on you making mistakes. Every mistake you make lowers your enterprise value.
Rushing to market penalizes your enterprise value regardless of market conditions.
In the process, you may lose the opportunity to attract the best buyer for your business.
What can you do?
Keep reading.
Why Preparation Ensures You Attract The Best Buyer For Your Business
When opportunity comes it is too late to prepare – John Wooden
Preparation ensures that you attract the best buyer for your business.
Make it an easy decision for your buyer to move forward with the deal by showing up prepared.
Nothing impresses a buyer more when a business owner does three things:
- Due diligence materials prepared and ready at the start
- Assembles a talented advisory team
- Develops a winning mindset
Read “How To Crush It And Win With These 5 Proven Due Diligence Strategies.”
How do you ensure you’re prepared?
The 9-step roadmap of preparation is a powerful system that has you do two things.
First, you create a blueprint to optimize the value of your business. Second, you have certainty that you’ll capture the maximum value.
Part of the 9-step roadmap focuses on an internal audit and developing a winning mindset.
Your enterprise value isn’t created at the deal table. Instead, your enterprise value is a result of your depth and quality of preparation.
When you perform an internal due diligence audit, you save your health, money, and time. Be preparing before your liquidity event you and your team are doing two things.
First, finding and removing the skeletons in your closet. Second, finding the hidden Rembrandts and putting them out for public display.
To help the process, you’ve hired both a Chief Exit Advisor (CEA) and an M&A lawyer in advance of your liquidity event.
Your CEA and M&A lawyer increase deal certainty and enterprise value. You also remove deal killers and excuses for buyers to lower your value.
Once you’re done the internal audit, do you know how to find the investment banker who will get you the best deal?
Keep reading.
How To Find An Investment Banker Who Gets You The Best Deal And Not Any Deal
The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital – Joe Paterno
To find the best buyer for your business, you must find the right type of investment banker.
All investment bankers are not equal. Investment bankers are either transactional or advocates.
Read “Everything You Need To Know Before You Hire An Investment Banker.”
A transactional investment banker has the following attributes:
- Specializes in your industry
- Works with the same buyers across deals
- Can assemble a group of buyers in a short period of time
An investment banker who is an advocate has the following attributes:
- Is a generalist and does not know your industry
- Casts a wide net when finding buyers
- Requires a longer period of time to assemble a group of buyers
Ready to learn an industry secret?
A transactional investment banker is loyal to the buyer. You are a one-time transaction. A transactional investment banker will walk away from your deal then lose a book of business.
An investment banker who is an advocate will likely not have worked with your future buyer. An advocate has the motivation to get you the best deal and not any deal. The loyalty is to you and not the buyer.
The 9-step roadmap provides the questions to ask and a scorecard. The result is selecting an investment banker who has the best cultural fit.
Remember how you impress buyers when your due diligence materials are ready? Great news! You impress your future investment banker when you show up prepared.
There’s no second chance to make a great first impression.
Do you know the next step to help you attract the best buyer for your business?
Keep reading.
Why Your Narrative Is Everything When Finding The Best Buyer For Your Business
Great marketing is all about telling your story in such a way that it compels people to buy what you are selling – Gary Vaynerchuk
Your narrative is everything when finding the best buyer for your business.
Read “Want To Increase Your Enterprise Value? Have Your Business Run Without You.”
Your future buyers knows what your business did yesterday and today. What your business does tomorrow that’s of interest to your buyer.
On the art side of a liquidity event is crafting a narrative that provides hope for a bright future. Your narrative also puts you into a category of your own so you can leave comparables for everyone else.
To craft a compelling narrative tune into the world’s favorite radio station: WII.FM.
WII.FM is the What’s In It For Me radio station from the perspective of a buyer.
Most business owners make the fatal mistake of hiding failures. Instead, have your narrative talk about your failure and why you failed.
You failed because you didn’t have enough capital. The best buyer for your business has the capital and can take the initiative across the finish line.
You may have ailed because you didn’t have the team or experience. The best buyer for your business has both the team and the experience.
In being vulnerable through your narrative, you create trust with the buyer. You also create excitement with the buyer on the opportunities ahead.
Through a compelling narrative, your past failures create excitement about a prosperous future.
To attract the best buyer for your business, create a compelling narrative.
Do you know how the power of an auction helps you find the best buyer for your business?
Keep reading.
Why You’ll Find The Best Buyer For Your Business Through An Auction
With competition everyone has to try harder – Harold H. Greene
A proven strategy to find the best buyer for your business is an auction.
Read “Stop Losing And Start Winning When You Sell Your Business Through An Auction.”
An auction brings out the competitive spirit with buyers who know that you now have choices.
When you follow the 9-step roadmap of preparation, you capture the maximum value.
You’ve found and removed your skeletons. While you were at it, you found your hidden Rembrandts in the attic and put them out for public display.
When you’re both prepared and have an auction, you enjoy the following benefits:
- A shorter due diligence period
- Buyers more likely to agree to your deal points and no-fly zones
- Deal certainty increases
- Enterprise value increases
- Less time in the market
Preparation and an auction are the perfect storm for your liquidity event. As a seller, know that speed always wins.
The less time you are in the market, the better.
A quick story.
My 9-figure liquidity event closed two weeks before the start of the Great Recession. My buyer used financing for the deal. The increase in rates would have prevented the deal from closing.
Speed matters.
Always.
An auction keeps buyers on their best behavior. Buyers know all too well that if they aren’t cooperative, you’ll move on.
Buyers are putting their best foot forward to stand out from the crowd.
When it comes to buyers, one is never a choice. Two is a dilemma. Three or more buyers is when you have choices.
Leverage an auction to help you find the best buyer for your business.
Conclusion
The strategies to attract the best buyer for your business do one crucial thing.
The best buyer for your business increases your enterprise value.
But there’s a catch to finding the best buyer for your business.
What’s the catch?
You must prepare well in advance of your liquidity event.
At the heart of increasing enterprise value are preparation and the 9-step roadmap.
When you prepare today, you ensure you prosper tomorrow.
How do I know?
I said “no” to a 7-figure offer and mastered the art and science of a liquidity event. Two years later, I said “yes” to a 9-figure offer. My journey had me create a 9-step road map of preparation. The proper preparation helps you create a blueprint to optimize business value.
Today, my mission is to help business owners tilt the playing field to their advantage. The 90-day Deep Wealth Experience, grounded in the 9-step road map, is the proven solution.
When you’re prepared, you have the certainty that you’ll capture the maximum value. When you know, instead of believing, you do the right thing at the right time.
Let my in-the-trenches experience and heavy lifting work for your advantage. Take the time to review the five strategies to help you find the best buyer for your business.
The best time to prepare was years ago. The next best time is today. Whether your liquidity event is in one year or ten years, the time to prepare is today.
Here’s to you and your success.
Your Raving Fan,
Jeffrey Feldberg
Today, Feldberg's passion is helping you extract your deep wealth. The 90-day Deep Wealth Mastery program helps create a solid foundation for three areas: increasing profits to enterprise value and optimizing post-exit life. Deep Wealth Mastery offers strategies and insights drawn from Feldberg's rich experience. The strategies from the trenches get results. Jeffrey's vision is to increase the social fabric of society one entrepreneur at a time.
Learn more through https://iapdw.com/prosper
