Preparation

The Teaser Profile is the abstracted version of the Business Summary. The Teaser Profile does not reveal the name or identity of your business and is used in initial negotiations with prospective buyers.

• Executive Summary
• Investment Highlights
• Financials & Assets
• Operations & Facilities
• History of the Business
• Industry Overview
• Company Overview
• Franchise Overview
• Product / Service Description
• Customers & Market Area
• Location & Facilities
• Sales & Marketing
• Staff
• Operations & Assets
• Financial Overview
• Legal

The Information Memorandum is a larger document that is delivered to interested and pre-screened potential buyers. This document covers all major aspects of your business, including key documents, equipment list, seller’s disclosure statement and buyer forms, all in one package.

Having a full and robust set of investment marketing materials will substantially impact the success of the M&A process in three primary areas:

The speed of the process – The more questions you answer in your marketing material, the fewer questions you must answer piecemeal in order to familiarize buyers with the business.

The efficiency of the process – The more information you provide to buyers, the more quickly they can “self-select” to determine their true level of interest in the opportunity.

Overall buyer perception (which contributes to their valuation considerations) – Invest in presenting your business as professionally and as attractively as possible. The ROI is substantial for well-prepared materials.

The Information Memorandum is one of the most important documents prepared in the sales process because it provides a prospective buyer with the information necessary to generate an initial offer. Typically, the document will not include a purchase price for the business, but will provide the prospective buyer with sufficient information to appropriately value the acquisition. It is extremely important for the Information Memorandum to clearly articulate all of the company’s attributes in order to fetch a premium valuation.

One of the most important and valuable actions you can take as a business owner looking to sell is to have your business reviewed and pre-qualified by an experienced, qualified SBA lending professional. Smart, savvy buyers will be more attracted to your business because they know they won’t be wasting their time looking at a business that they can’t get financed. A professionally prepared pre-qualification helps solidify your selling price, as your prospective buyers will have strong evidence that the numbers work at your offering price. It also brings a much higher level of confidence to any potential buyer when they understand that an outside, third party, has independently reviewed this business in detail and is on board. This process includes us submitting your company for pre-approval to an SBA lending professional. If pre-approved, this information can be used to market your business and attract more interest from buyers.

The number one deal-killer when selling a business is inaccurate or incomplete financial records. With inaccurate financial records, you run the risk of losing a buyer because, by the time the buyer discovers the defects during due diligence, the sale must now be delayed to address the problems. After spending many months finding a buyer, losing them over something that could have been corrected from the outset is a huge disappointment, and a waste of valuable time, money and resources. We examine your profit and loss statements, balance sheets and federal income tax returns, scrutinizing key ratios, trends and other data, and provide you with a report of our findings. This helps spot potential issues that a buyer may find with your financial records and allows you to address them before you ever get an offer. Having your financial records in order before selling your business also potentially speeds up the due diligence process once you have a buyer, resulting in a higher chance of closing the deal. This is because a buyer who has issues with your financial records will most certainly conduct due diligence very thoroughly, looking for problems in other areas as well. Finally, accurate financial records may maximize the sale price of your business by attracting buyers who are confident in your business. Plainly, the more organized your business’s financial records appear, the more likely you will sell your business quickly and for top dollar.