Selling a business is challenging. There will be meeting, requests to disclose information that you would prefer be kept private, searching for documents that only a lawyer could love, and more. As unpleasant as the process may be, listing your business for sale is a lot worse than the process of actually selling it. By selling your company without listing it for sale you can avoid:

• Tire kickers: once a business is listed for sale, as good of a job as a broker does in screening, several tire kickers will get through and learn stuff about your company that you would rather not be shared.
• Wasting your time: Tire kickers aside, serious buyers will demand meetings. Beyond the meetings, you will be expected to spend time assembling lots of information. While some will be common to all prospects, every buyer will want something that isn’t on the boiler plate list.
• Risk of employees and customers finding out: One of the biggest fears of prospective business sellers is that of employees and customers learning that the company is for sale. While good brokers will strive to protect confidentiality, and demand that prospective buyers sign an NDA, once a business is listed for sale, there is a very real risk of word eventually getting out to the wrong people.
• It can take a long time to find the right buyer: Of all the questions brokers are asked by sellers, the one they hate to honestly answer is How long will it take? In most cases, the true answer is “It can easily take 6 months to a year or more”.
• Broker fees: Brokers charges fees commissions or both. They have every right to do so: selling a business is hard work.

In short, if you are approached by us, or anyone else, who has a serious buyer looking for a company like yours, you can short circuit the process and avoid wasted time, leaks of proprietary information, and lots of commissions and related transaction costs. Most of our buyers are strategic buyers. That is, they are looking to buy companies in an industry where they already operate.

Strategic acquisitions tend to close quicker, because these buyers know the industry and know how to get a deal financed (if they need outside financing at all). Most important: strategic buyers tend to pay higher prices because they can make 2 + 2 = 5.

If you absolutely don’t want to sell, none of the above matters to you now. But if you are even considering the possibility for now or in the not-too-distant future, you owe it to yourself to find out if a deal can be worked out with a serious and capable buyer who approaches you.