
Insights
Videos, articles, & advice from Kirk and his network, to help successful founders find better outcomes.
Listen to Your Peers AND the Experts
If you're a founder in the process of selling your successful company and you also have a close peer group of fellow entrepreneurs like Vistage Worldwide, Inc. or YPO, take advantage of the groups' expertise AND be sure to hire the right advisor(s). The combination, in our experience, is a great formula for a terrific outcome. Here's a quick summary..
ESOPS: Why Don't More Businesses Sell to Employees?
Why don't more businesses sell to employees? For founders of some businesses, it might be the best path to answering the WHY in selling all or part of their company to their most valued stakeholders, and there may even be tax advantages. Here's a quick overview of why it doesn't happen more often, and why founders might want to give it more consideration.
What is the Difference Between an Investment Banker, Business Broker and Exit Planner?
This is much more than semantics or terms of art – some are necessary, and others are completely optional or altogether wrong for your plans.
Why Should Founders Use M&A Lawyers to Sell Their Business?
Many founders, whether other transactional advisors are involved or not, rely on their generalist corporate counsel to represent them in the sale of their business. Here's a few reason that familiarity and cost savings in the short run may cost millions of $ in the long run.
(2022) Is This Still a Good Time to Sell your Company?
Many founders, whether other transactional advisors are involved or not, rely on their generalist corporate counsel to represent them in the sale of their business. Here's a few reason that familiarity and cost savings in the short run may cost millions of $ in the long run.
Add Backs for Adjusted EBITDA
If you're a founder contemplating the sale of your business, or you just want to better understand the process, the term "Adjusted EBITDA" will come up. A lot. And while the trip from Net Income to EBITDA is basic accounting arithmetic, get to that "Adjusted" number is a bit more art than science...here's a few tips.
Insights from SXSW 2022
One of our other takeaways from @SXSW is that small, committed groups of people and organizations make all the difference in social change, technology, entertainment, business, and more broadly in the World. If you're a founder and a much larger acquirer is using high-priced and arrogant advisors to steamroll you from LOI through diligence, remember that greatly rarely comes from large organizations - know your value and lean on your team to get full value and protect your legacy.
Selling Your Company for More Money
Buyers of business like yours pay more for specific things, including profit margin, consistency, and growth, but there's more to it than just nailing those points. Here's a few tips that will be worth a lot of $$ when it's time for you to sell your company.
Your Buyer Will Tip Their Hand Pre-LOI
If you're selling your business and your prospective buyer is asking for more information than they need to provide you with an LOI and a sense of valuation, they may be signalling what it's like to work with them longer term.
Does Buyer Quality of Earnings Analysis Always Work Against Sellers?
If you're a founder selling your business, and your buyer wants to have a Quality of Earnings analysis performed on your financials, strap in and prepare yourself for an invasive and potentially frustrating process. To navigate it well and keep your deal on track, here's a few key tips.
Don't Mistake Marketing Outreach for Buyer Interest in Your Business
If you're a founder and you’re receiving an increased number of calls and emails about selling your business, that may not mean that your business is suddenly worth more or that buyers are paying up urgently. It might be something else entirely...
Balancing Your Fears and Key Deal Points
If you're founder in the process of selling your company and balancing the cash and structure of your deal with all of the reps, warranties, indemnities, and other dependencies, you might lose focus. Worse yet, you might let your fears drive things to your buyer's advantage by focusing on the lesser issues. Here's our best advice on the topic.
Who's The Buyer For Your Business?
Who's going to buy your business when it's time to retire or move on? Should you sell to a private equity firm? What's a "strategic buyer"? How about these "family offices" that buy companies? Search funds? SPACS? We break it down for you here.
Great Advisors Act As Guru, Guide, And Gladiator
The best advisors, whether pure management consulting, professional services like legal and tax, and especially in transaction advisory work, the most successful outcomes happen with advisors who play three key roles for founders: guru, guide, and gladiator.
Don't Let M&A FOMO Drive you to Sell too Soon
We're taking an increasing number of weekly calls from founders who's businesses may not yet be at an optimal value point for a sale, but the fear of missing out on this M&A boom has them eager to explore a capital event. We suggest most of them should wait for the next wave and keep building value.
Update On Full Time Predators And Part Time Prey
If you're a founder thinking about selling your business in the near term or even in a few years, you need to see and hear this...might save your transaction or even make or save you $Millions in proceeds and deal costs.
How Long Should Your Deal Take to Close?
If you're a founder contemplating a sale or in process of selling your company, you might wonder how long your deal should take to close...the answer is more complicated than you might think, and speed (or lack of it) can have implications for buyers and sellers.
Transaction Bonuses for Key Employees
If you're a founder contemplating or in the process of selling your business, and you want to be sure to take care of key employees, here's a couple of helpful tips to do it right for everyone involved.
Private Equity Comes in Many Flavors
We take a couple of calls each week from founders exploring their options for liquidity who are certain that they don't want to sell to 'Private Equity'. We get it...that segment could definitely use some good PR! Still, our advice is, don't be too quick to shut off an increasingly varied and important source of capital.
Explore All Tags
- Business Assets 2
- Business Broker 1
- Business Buyer Types 5
- EBITDA 13
- Employees 1
- Exit Strategy 25
- Exit planning 24
- Founder to Employee 4
- Guest Podcast 2
- Guest Post 14
- Independent Sponsor 6
- Investment Banker 16
- LOI 4
- M&A Lawyer 3
- Mergers & Acquisitions 45
- NDA 1
- Negotiation 9
- Predatory Buyers 9
- Private Equity 35
- Recurring Revenue 3
- SPACS 4
- Selling Shares 3
- Selling Your Business 164
- Terms 10
- Timing 3
- Transition Planning 1
- Unsolicited Offer 9
- ebook 7
- esops 3
- market update 4
- post sale 1
- re-trade 1
- saas 1
- structure 3
- sxsw 2
- taxes 2
- valuation 3
- venture capital 5
- webinar 2