With uncertainty in the market, every business owner will undoubtedly be contacted by various sources regarding selling—whether it's Venture Capital or Private Equity, Strategic Buyers with their dedicated research and acquisition teams, or Business Brokers populating their pipelines for listing purposes. The latter will most likely present you to their current buyer list and integrate you, the seller, into the available possibilities. In many cases, this approach may yield a positive outcome, but expectations might not always be met.

For the first type of buyers, the outcome significantly depends on the deal structure and your desire to continue with the company. If you decide to call it a day, be prepared to take some chips off the table, as the risk value will be substantial.

What if you choose to work with an independent broker, not tied to any franchise or obligation to buyers, but a representative familiar with all the fields mentioned above? This positions your company to attract multiple buyers, creating a situation that allows you to control time and outcomes, with the distinct possibility that you may determine the best deal. All of this is done in confidence, allowing you to run and optimize your business. If this sounds interesting, we look forward to having a conversation with you.

If you're unsure about what goes into the valuation of your company using SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings), here's a guide to calculate it. For assistance with determining a market multiple, please send us an email. Our job is to assist in real market valuations, and if the value is not to your liking, we can guide you through the options in a GAP analysis. For an active Excel sheet, please email us.

Selling your company is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive its true value. Relying on an unsolicited offer or a one-off buyer has the drawback that much energy is spent on last-minute red flags or valuation adjustments—tactics often employed by such buyers. Test the real buyer early, with the correct legal moves; time is not on the seller's side in a drawn-out process.

Are your people in the loop and informed? While working with a small but successful minority-owned business, two factors hindered their growth: organizational challenges and prioritization issues. The owner, omnipresent yet facing potential burnout, realized the need for change. Employees were transformed from mere taskers to individuals with responsibility and accountability, facilitated by a clear organizational structure and a weekly routine.

After one-on-one sessions with the owner, a simple to-do list and organizational framework were established, encouraging employee investment in education to better manage their roles. A weekly routine meeting was introduced, fostering participation, coordination, and support for weekly activities.

Structuring the meetings took some time, but in general, they all revolved around key topics:

1. Why are we gathering?
2. Who needs to be here?
3. What conversation needs to happen?
4. How might we create the conditions for that conversation?

While gaining everyone's buy-in and establishing meeting etiquette took effort, the outcome was a smoothly operating business that avoided duplications, reallocated resources efficiently, and allowed the owner more time for market development and strategy.

General market conditions: Here are the complete value statistics for Q4 2023 for your review if you are considering selling. Inflation is likely to persist at the current level or may increase by a few percentage points. The real growth factor may be reflected in capital equipment spending, which has stalled for the EV/Battery Industry (except for government-driven initiatives). The primary growth sector in the industry is, indeed, the defense sector, while all others are expected to remain flat.

Market uncertainty in the election year is likely influenced by the polling stations and may be artificially adjusted for voter purposes. Therefore, it's crucial to scrutinize the details and maintain a tight budget. Onshoring is still in progress, with Mexico expected to benefit more, especially in areas other than chip manufacturing and EV/solar, which are subsidized. As a result, government and healthcare sectors will continue to be the main sources of employment opportunities, offering high-paying positions and substantial social benefits. This makes it challenging to compete in the service and blue-collar manufacturing sectors.

The pace of growth in capital spending will improve during the year. Real equipment and software investment growth of 2.2% is expected this year. While slightly slower than the growth rate experienced in 2023, stronger investment activity is expected in the latter half of the year.