Engaging a Broker

Once we have ascertained that you have a business that is saleable and one that we have the experience and skills to sell, we will arrange a meeting where we can learn more about your business and you can learn about us as business brokers.

The next step is for us to conduct an Appraisal of your business to determine its value to an interested Buyer. To do this we will need quite a bit of information. As well as the general information about your business customers, staffing, products/services, competitive edge in the marketplace … we will also need specific information including your business’s most recent financial statements. Please note the confidentiality of this information is assured.

Once the Appraisal has been completed we will then meet again, where we will present the results of this work together with a Proposal on how we would go about selling your business, should you choose to go ahead. This Proposal will also outline the Fees involved for our service.

NOTE – we provide the services above at no cost. Costs only apply after 1) you confirm your decision to sell, AND 2) you engage us to assist you with the process.

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Preparation

Our approach, once we have been engaged for a sale, is comprehensive. Our objective is to prepare information to both attract Buyers and to satisfy their questions around the business. We believe it is best to get this information BEFORE going to market, as it is more efficient for the Buyers and ultimately less impact on you, the Vendor.

Business Profile

This is the document that markets your business. It should provide enough information to explain the business and attract buyers to enquire further. And it needs to include enough financial information to justify and explain the Price being sought, but not be excessive and risk distracting Enquirers and unnecessarily exposing sensitive information.

Due Diligence

This is a package of all the boring stuff, that a genuine Buyer will want to see to confirm the information provided in the Business Profile. This will include accountant produced Financial Statements, BAS records, Fixed Asset registers, Lease agreements and contracts with Suppliers and/or Customers.

Advertisement

We will prepare an advertisement that will present your business to the market identified as suitable. This will be placed on the main Business Sale websites, but may also be used for direct mailing our database of active Buyers, and/or potential buyers identified by your knowledge and our research.

All of the above documents will be approved by you before being released publicly.

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Marketing

There are a number of options for us to market your business to identify and attract a Buyer. We do not simply rely on advertising.

Advertising

Advertising on Business sale websites is generally the most cost effective, efficient and successful method of attracting a Buyer. The key advantage of receiving enquiries via an advertisement is that the enquirers are qualified ie they are at least considering if not committed to buying a business. For them, the question is which one best suits them.

We advertise on multiple websites concurrently (including SEEK, CommercialRealEstate, Businessesforsale.com, BSale, Businessforsale.com.au, and Businesses View) and refresh them regularly, to maximise your exposure.

DataBase

Finn Business Sales is part of the Finn Group one of Australia’s largest Business Broker networks. With over 50 brokers nationally, and around 1,000 businesses for sale at any one time, we receive enquiries from Buyers constantly. All Buyer enquiries are recorded on our system and contribute to a database which we can access to proactively market your business.

This database includes both owner/operator and investor group enquirers.

Direct Contact

For specialist and larger businesses, it may be appropriate to undertake industry research to identify companies who may be suitable to acquire your business. Once identified we can then approach the owners of these businesses directly to ascertain their interest in buying your business.

This is very time consuming and delicate as it requires us to provide enough information to the target to get their interest, whilst protecting the confidentiality of your business from competitor prying.

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Assessing Enquiries

We have proven processes to efficiently assess the suitability of enquiries AND to ensure your business information remains confidential.

We are aware that confidentiality is the number one concern of business owners and often a barrier to them committing to sell at all. Their concerns might be with alerting competitors, the government, customers, suppliers or staff, to information that might put them somehow at a disadvantage and damage the business.

However, you cannot sell a Secret, so the provision of some information is essential to attract and motivate Buyers to act. We recognise this concern, and aim to restrict disclosing information as much and as late as possible.

Our processes include the following:

Confidentiality Agreement

Every Enquirer MUST sign a Confidentiality Agreement before we release the Business profile to them. This document alerts them to the legal requirement to maintain the information in confidence from anyone other than their advisers.

Site Visits

If a Buyer is interested after reviewing the Business Profile, we will then provide them with the Due Diligence package and also arrange a Site Visit and meeting with the Vendor. We will arrange this at a time that suits you, generally after hours to avoid questions from staff.

Initial Enquirers Questionnaire (IEQ)

Every Enquirer is requested to also fill out a questionnaire providing us with information about their experience, assets, and intentions as well as address and contact details. Whilst not all of these fields are mandatory, our objective in asking the questions is to ascertain the enquirers capacity (have they the funds to afford this purchase) and Capability (do they have the skills to run this business). If they do not fill in this information, we will call them to assess the information directly. We will not release the Business Profile unless we believe the Enquirer is genuine and meets the above Capacity and Capability standards.
Note – we have found the IEQ is an excellent tool to weed out “tyre kickers” who are not genuinely interested in buying a business.

When a Buyer is serious, we will manage the negotiation process.

The first step is to require the Buyer to make an Offer in writing, which we call an Expression of Interest (EOI). This EOI will also set out any conditions that might be required to be met by the Buyer before sale (such as receiving approval for finance or assignment of a lease).  Whilst the EOI is not legally enforceable it is important to indicate the Buyer has a genuine interest and intent – most people are far more cautious about something they are willing to put in writing and sign, as against what they say. The EOI also forms the basis of the Contract of Sale which will be prepared by the Vendors solicitor.

This EOI may well be updated a number of times before both Vendor and Buyer agree to a price with which they are both happy.

Throughout the Sale process, we will keep you up to date with activity (Enquiries, Offers etc) via our communication software which we call the Finn Selling System. These are automated emails which are sent to you as Enquirers move through the process from initial enquiry, receiving a Business Profile, site visits to withdrawal or Offer. We understand that you want to know what is happening and our system allows this to occur in a structured systemised manner.

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Sale to Settlement

Please be aware that the work is NOT complete upon agreement of a price. That only occurs when the money is in your bank account, and unfortunately many, many transactions fall over between Agreement and Settlement, sometimes for reason outside your control eg financing. But there are many variables which a Vendor can either control (agreeing a value for Stock) or influence (transition of staff) which can and need to be managed. We will identify these risk items and assist you in managing them.

We will stay with you right through this final stage of the sale process, coordinating between the partys’ solicitors and accountants to keep the process moving and mediating disagreements along the way.

Note that many Brokers do not do this, either because they lack the skills or the interest, despite their payment being reliant on the sale actually completing.