Posted on Sun, Nov 22, 2009
Thinking about listing your business for sale in Tucson, Arizona? Or making a Tucson Business Investment?
At Allen & Young, we believe that you will judge your satisfaction with the process of selling your business by the amount of cash that you end up with in your pocket after the sale of your business.
Before you go forward with the process of listing your Tucson business for sale, and eventually selling it, please keep in mind that there is usually a rather large difference between the sales price and the amount of money that actually ends up in your pocket. This difference could be 50%, or even more.
That is why Allen & Young always recommends that anyone considering selling a business in Tucson, Arizona, that they obtain solid advice from a good estate planning attorney and CPA prior to listing the business for sale in Tucson. This is essential. There are many things to be aware of, and some decisions you will need to make.
Some areas where you will want to investigate prior to listing a business for sale in Tucson include:
– the type of entity structure
– early transfer of stock and assets to trusts
– partnership and /or family members need to be considered.
Selling a business is fairly straightforward, and we would love to help you prepare to put your business for sale in Tucson. Just keep in mind that there are a lot of considerations, and make sure that you have access to high quality advice. We maintain a rolodex of skilled and trusted advisors in every relevant field, and are always happy to answer questions.
It all starts with a handshake.
If you'd like more information on this subject, please contact us at 520-327-4454 or visit us at www.allenandyoung.com
Posted on Wed, Nov 04, 2009
Protecting the confidentiality of our sellers is absolutely essential. It is a responsibility that Allen and Young and the Arizona Business Broker Association takes seriously. This is necessary when you consider the potential decrease in value a business could experience if its key employees, vendors, customers or competitors discovered it was for sale.
When you begin to investigate a business that is for sale, a simple rule applies: Keep it to yourself and tell as few people as absolutely necessary. Do this at the very least out of respect for the seller, and it will serve your best interests as well if you end up buying the business. We’re really serious about this. For that reason, Allen & Young requires every prospective buyer to provide the following items before receiving our Confidential Business Profile on a business that we represent:
Confidentiality Agreement:
The confidentiality agreement makes very clear your responsibilities as a prospective business buyer regarding the confidential information that we provide to you.
We may also require a financial disclosure statement from you at this time, to determine the kinds of business opportunities that you are eligible for based upon your financial situation. There is no reason to waste your time, ours or the sellers in pursuing a business that you will not have the wherewithal to eventually purchase. Sellers understandably want to make sure they are dealing with financially qualified buyers, and since they are providing sensitive financial details of their business to you it is entirely reasonable for them to request the same in return from you.
If you are looking for businesses for sale in Tucson or Southern Arizona, and trying to decide if buying a business is the best move for you, give us a call.
If you'd like more information on this subject, please contact us at 520-327-4454 or visit us at www.allenandyoung.com
Posted on Tue, Nov 03, 2009
Do you plan on selling a business in Tucson or Southern Arizona? Think for a moment about what someone who wants to buy a business in Tucson would love to see. Wouldn’t they be simply delighted to find all of your accounting and customer records completely accurate, computerized, and ready to be used without the need for any confusion or translation
If you’re already running Quickbooks or a similar small business accounting package, you can increase the value of your business by taking the next step and organizing your customer records using one of the many affordable small business Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that are available today. These systems will allow you track all manner of customer information, take notes, make appointments, broadcast email campaigns, etc. They build on the customer record in your accounting package, and let you do much more.
CRM systems are available as both “on-premise” solutions (meaning that you buy and install the software on your computers) or as Software As A Service (SaaS), or internet hosted solutions that you pay for monthly on an a per-user basis. The latter have the advantage of continual upgrades to the software itself, and do not require any expenditure on hardware.
By exporting your customer records from your accounting software into a CRM system, you will gain the ability to cost-effectively communicate with your customers and to track their activity in a more detailed fashion than the accounting software generally allows.
Why will this increase the value of your business? Well let this business broker tell you!
In terms of marketing expenditures, it is nearly always more cost effective and profitable to gain additional share of business from current customers than it is to prospect for new customers. Existing customers are also typically less price sensitive and therefore higher margin, whereas you will generally need to offer new customers some form of an incentive to switch to your product or service, which lowers your margin.
Using a CRM systems can also transform the way sales and marketing work within your organization when combined with analysis of past sales, and the visibility they offer for managing the pipeline of future sales. If you fully understand the products, services, channels or customers that make the largest contribution to your bottom line, a CRM system will allow you to redirect your marketing resources and sales efforts in a highly targeted fashion to focus on the areas of your business that matter most.
From the perspective of a prospective buyer of your business, imagine how much more confidence they would have in their investment if you could clearly demonstrate who your customers are, what their sales patterns have been, what orders or repeat business is in the pipeline, and by deduction, what the future value of those customers are.
A buyer will generally not pay for future value, preferring instead to base their evaluation of your business’ value on its historical financial performance. However, if you can show them this level of detail about your business, and give them the greatest possible level of confidence that they could hit the ground running after buying it and expect the same or better results, then they are likely to be willing to pay you a higher price.
Don’t wait until you want or need to sell your business in Tucson to take advantage of the power and insight that your customer records can provide when you use a CRM system to manage them.
If you'd like more information on this subject, please contact us at 520-327-4454 or visit us at www.allenandyoung.com
Posted on Tue, Nov 03, 2009
A good broker will create a marketing or purchasing plan for your business.
If you’re selling, the marketing plan will involve an advertising plan and information relevant to the sale of your business. But developing this plan is not the first or only task of a thorough business broker. A broker must understand you, and your objectives, and most importantly the financial results your business has generated in recent years. Pricing your business correctly, and knowing how you are willing to participate in making a transaction possible are the most important element in a solid marketing plan. Once the message and the facts are well understood, your broker should put together an attractive marketing document or package which should include recast financials and answers to questions it is anticipated that a prospective buyer will ask.
If you’re buying, expect the purchasing plan to include information about comparable listings, recent sales data, and benchmark data about the industry category the business(es) you are considering belongs to.
As the business owner or buyer, it isn’t unreasonable for you to be involved in the development of the plan. But remember: You hired a business broker for a reason. It’s okay to offer input, but you should also be willing to take your business broker’s advice.
If you'd like more information on this subject, please contact us at 520-327-4454 or visit us at www.allenandyoung.com