Valuing a Business in the Time of COVID-19
May 19, 2020 / in Business Strategy, Business Valuation / by Joe Orlando
Business owners and investors alike are asking themselves the same questions in the current COVID-19 environment. Are there opportunities in downturns? If so, when do you know when buy and sell? What are my illiquid assets worth? A former boss and one of the best bond traders I’ve ever met frequently used a popular trader’s phrase that predicting when a market will bottom and turn is “like trying to catch a falling knife.” A recent article revisited …
M&A Advisor Tip: Planning for Death or Disability
May 18, 2020 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning / by Exit Strategies
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about CEOs accelerating succession plans and backup management strategies in the wake of COVID-19. It’s a question every owner should be asking (now and always): What happens if you are unable to manage your company? No one likes to think about all the what-if scenarios in life. Most business owners have no plan for exiting their business at all, much less exiting in the face of conflict …
M&A in Pandemic, Not Panic
May 18, 2020 / in News, Sell a Business / by Exit Strategies
Business advisors are digging in right now, trying to figure out how COVID-19 will affect their clients. We’ve been talking with business owners, active buyers, and other advisors around the country. Right now, we know that some M&A deals are getting delayed over routine process points. Certain bank approvals that used to happen in regular in-person review meetings are being held up as discussions take place via email chain instead. Some businesses with real estate …
Market Pulse Survey: Deal Cancellations due to COVID-19
May 18, 2020 / in Acquire a Business, News, Sell a Business / by Exit Strategies
M&A advisors saw many of their business sale/acquisition deals delayed, put on hold or cancelled in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Who was cancelling these deals? The following chart shows the results of this survey question from the latest Market Pulse Survey. Presented by IBBA, M&A Source & in partnership with Pepperdine University “Deal activity is always expected to constrict during times of uncertainty. Both sellers and buyers are being conservative …
Controlled Private Short Sale using UCC Article 9: a Winning Alternative to Bankruptcy
May 11, 2020 / in Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Louis Cionci
As a business sale advisor with Exit Strategies Group, I help business owners obtain the best price and terms available in the market during a sale process. We sometimes encounter situations where the owner would like to sell the business, but the business is in a distressed position with the following characteristics: the fair market value of a business is less than the outstanding debt on the business, the business cash flow does not support …
Exit Strategies Group Advises Health Concerns on Sale to Life Seasons
May 5, 2020 / in News, Sell a Business / by Louis Cionci
Transaction advisory firm Exit Strategies Group served as exclusive M&A advisor to ADG Concerns, Inc. DBA Health Concerns on its successful sale to Life Seasons, Inc. Health Concerns is at the leading edge of research in herbal medicine and is known for bringing the centuries of knowledge amassed in the Chinese herbal tradition to the West. Health Concerns was the first company to manufacture Chinese herbal products in the United States for practitioners. Today Health …
Can you sell a distressed business?
April 22, 2020 / in Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Adam Wiskind
We’ve been getting this question from more business owners over the last few weeks. As with many important questions, the answer is, “it depends”. Financial distress occurs when a firm can’t generate enough profit to meet its immediate or long-term financial obligations. If your business is consistently accumulating debt, has unseasonable and sustained increase to accounts payable, or is falling behind on payroll taxes, it is likely distressed. Buyer’s Perspective The potential to sell a …
M&A Advisor Tip: You are Not Stuck with Your Business
April 20, 2020 / in Exit Planning, Sell a Business / by Exit Strategies
Worried about a recession? Burned out? No energy to do this all again? You are not stuck. Businesses sell in all market conditions, including in uncertain times like these. Yes, we’re coming off a period of peak demand in M&A. Buyers were lined up for quality opportunities. And they stretched their target parameters in order to find something that would fit. But many of those buyers are still active. There are buyers out there who …
Begin with the Knowns and Unknowns
April 20, 2020 / in Business Strategy, News / by Exit Strategies
The world feels like it’s turned on its head right now. People are anxious, with good right to be. There’s so much we can’t predict about the weeks and months ahead. When planning your response, begin with what you know and what you don’t know. What we know: We’re in a pandemic, and social distancing can flatten the curve, meaning slow the rate by which the illness spreads. And, at this point, we can probably …
COVID-19 Exit Planning Insight: Keep a Journal
April 13, 2020 / in Business Strategy, Exit Planning, News / by Al Statz
There’s no shortage of information out there right now on how company owners and CEO’s are responding to COVID-19. [By now, leaders have taken steps to survive and fight another day. Most now understand what business will look like for them until restrictions are lifted, and they’re formulating plans to thrive again post-pandemic.] With few companies going to market during this crisis, our insights will focus on exit planning, acquisition opportunities and non-elective sales for …
