Slaying the Fear of Risk When

Buying a Business

In my twelve years of selling businesses, I have never seen such heavy buyer activity as we currently are experiencing. This is true with every type of buyer from financial to strategic to the individual buyer. The statistics show that 90% of buyers that set out to buy a business never follow through. What do the 10% of buyers, that actually buy, have in common?

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MBBI Minnesota Event

SCORE Webinar

The Art of Buying and Selling a Business

Join Sam Thompson, CBI, M&AMI, president and founder of Transitions In Business, and John Thwing, SBA banker with Live Oak Bank the #1 SBA 7a lender in the country in dollar volume since 2018, as they present critical factors you need to know prior to buying or selling a business.

Tuesday, April 2nd

9:00am to 10:30am

Webinar Hosted by SCORE Twin Cities

2029 Rotary International Convention

To Be Held in Minneapolis

Minneapolis has been selected host city for the 2029 Rotary International Convention. Two members of the Transitions In Business team, Sam Thompson (7th from left) and Tom Gump (far left) are active Rotarians. Both Sam and Tom were on the Rotary District Bid Team that worked diligently to secure Minneapolis as the 2029 host city. The Convention is estimated to bring 17,000 Rotarians from around the globe to Minnesota, and generate over $30 million to the Minneapolis economy.

The mission of Rotary is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.

M&A Statistics

Business Environment

LENDING CONDITIONS: HOW HAS SENIOR LENDING CHANGED?

The Market Pulse survey for Q4 2023 revealed a transitional year for deal-making, with mixed outcomes. Advisors closed a similar number of deals as last year, despite fielding an uptick in buyer interest via nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and letters of intent (LOIs).

Cautious optimism exists for 2024, with advisors expecting a slight increase in M&A activity if interest rates and inflation drop. But after a year of tight lending conditions—which 75% of advisors described as “more restrictive”—access to capital is still an ongoing concern.

While we didn’t see a big shift in Main Street valuations, market confidence remained low in this sector. Sellers received less cash at close, meaning they had to rely on additional seller financing or alternative deal structures.

And while sellers in the lower middle market benefited from a relative rebound in valuations, there too we saw an increase in earnouts and retained equity as tools to bridge the valuation gap.

Data taken from the Q4 2023 Market Pulse Report published by the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source.