Rating Today’s Business Buyers: The Foreign Buyer

Matt Coletta — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:02:41 +0000

The decision to sell has been made. A business owner should be aware of the number of possible business buyers. Here is another of today’s most active categories of business buyers:

The Foreign Buyer

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Foreign buyers tend to arrive in the United States with plenty of funds and a huge desire to share in the American Dream. In addition, many have difficulty obtaining jobs in their previous professions because of language barriers, licensing, and specific experience. As business owners, at least some of these problems can be short-circuited.

These buyers work hard and long and usually are very successful small business owners. However, their business acumen does not necessarily coincide with that of the seller (as would be the case with any inexperienced owner). Again, a business broker professional knows best how to approach these potential problems.

Important to note is that many small business owners think that foreign companies and independent buyers are willing to pay top dollar for the business. In fact, foreign companies are usually interested only in businesses or companies with sales in the millions. •

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Rating Today’s Business Buyers: Family Members

Matt Coletta — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:49:51 +0000

Once the decision to sell has been made, a business owner should be aware of the number of possible business buyers. Just as small business itself has become more sophisticated, the people interested in buying them have also become more complex and divergent. Here is one of today’s most active categories of business buyers:

Family Members

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Members of the seller’s own family form a traditional category of business buyer: tried but not always “true.” The notion of a family member taking over is amenable to many of the parties involved because they envision continuity, seeing that as a prime advantage. And it can be, given that the family member treats the role as something akin to a hierarchical responsibility. This can mean years of planning and diligent preparation, involving all or many members of the family in deciding who will be the “heir to the throne.” If this has been done, the family member may be the best type of buyer.

Too often, however, the difficulty with the family buyer category lies in the conflicts that may develop. For example, does the family member have sufficient cash to purchase the business? Can the selling family member really leave the business? In too many cases, these and other conflicts result in serious disruption to the business or to the sales transaction. The result, too often, is an “I-told-you-so” situation, where there are too many opinions, but no one is really ever the wiser. An outside buyer eliminates these often insoluble problems.

The key to deciding on a family member as a buyer is threefold: ability, family agreement, and financial worthiness. •