We recently facilitated the sale of a well-established and high performing family business in the construction and building sector, and I received some very nice feedback from one of the party’s solicitors.
I want to share the solicitor’s feedback with you for two reasons:
- To blow our own trumpet, which is a nice thing to do occasionally; and
- To remind you of what to look for when choosing a business broker.
First, here’s the feedback:
Over the years, we have been involved in many similar transactions, often involving business brokers. Our experience is that brokers, in general, make little contribution to the process, apart from introducing the parties and trying to convince them to proceed. When problems arise, they often just urge the parties to settle.
By contrast, the JPAbusiness team actively addressed and worked to solve the numerous problems that come up in complicated transactions.
It is refreshing and rewarding (though somewhat demanding) working with you and your team, who made a huge effort to facilitate the transactions. I hope your clients appreciate that you went far beyond merely introducing the parties.
Tim Somerville, Founding Partner, Somerville Legal
Now for the reminder. When choosing a business broker or advisor to help sell your business, there are 3 key elements to look for:
- Experience in your industry and in selling businesses of your size and ‘shape’
- Project management expertise
- Communication skills.
In order to determine whether your potential broker has these attributes, I suggest asking for evidence. Ask them for:
- examples of businesses like yours they have sold;
- the shapes of the deals they’ve done with these businesses;
- an indication of the process they intend to implement to sell your business;
- details about their approach to communication between the parties and how they go about facilitating a deal;
- details about the level of reporting – verbal, written, formal and informal – that will be provided as part of the sale process to keep you abreast of progress;
- referees you can speak to i.e. business owners they have worked with to sell their businesses.
If you would like support or advice about any aspect of selling a business, contact the team at JPAbusiness on 02 6360 0360 or 02 9893 1803 for a confidential, obligation-free discussion. We would love to help.
