Prospective buyers don’t want to hear about “what the business really makes” – they want to see the books and records that show what is down in black and white. Here  is the old story about proper accounting procedures, or lack of: A Greek restaurant owner had his own bookkeeping system.  He kept his accounts […]

Naturally, sellers want the highest price they can get for their business. In come cases, however, it might not be the best deal. For this reason, every offer should be scrutinized carefully. When an offer is presented, the first thing a seller looks for is the price. If it is lower than anticipated, the seller’s […]

A recent survey revealed the following percentage breakdown of last year’s business sales by business types. The information was furnished by business brokerage firms nationally and compiled by Business Brokerage Press.        Retail businesses 17% Food & Drink related business 14% Auto related businesses 9% Distribution type businesses 11% Manufacturing businesses 16% Service type businesses 25% […]

The most recent editions of BizComps, the leading resource for comparable sales data (www.bizcomps.com ) has some interesting information on small business pricing based on the three major regions of the country – Eastern states, the Central states and the Western states.  They cover thousands of actual business sales over a ten year period.  Here […]

For many owners, selling their business is a new experience, and there is always the fear of the unknown. Selling a business is a not only a major economic decision, but it can also be an emotional one. After all, many business owners have spent many years, and a lot of hard work building the […]

A contingency in the sale of a business is a condition in the contract of sale or offer that must be resolved, satisfied or rectified by either a buyer or seller. If they are not satisfied then the sale will generally not go forward. Most offers on a business contain one or more contingencies. The […]

The following is provided as a simple explanation of common leasing arrangements within a small business transaction. It is not intended to provide legal advice. The New Lease A new lease is created generally when the prior lease has expired or is about to and when there are going to be substantial changes to the […]

The cliché is that the key to business success is: location – location – location. If you own a business in which the location is an important reason for the success of the business, and you are considering selling, then the lease is a very critical issue in the sale. The time to deal with […]

This is a story based on a true incident – only some of the details have been changed. The buyer and seller were ready to close on a business when the buyer asked to look at the list of fixtures and equipment that were to be included in the sale. After a few minutes reviewing […]

Depends on whom you are asking. If you’re the seller, you might say that the asking price is too low. The buyer would say, obviously, that the asking price is too high. How can they both be right? Who decides? Most sellers have an idea of what they want for their business. It can be […]