Our Proven Seven Step Process

We have developed a proven seven step process that helps guide you from where your business is today, through improvements that help increase the value of your business, all the way to the closing of the deal. These are the steps that we have taken time and time again to successfully exit the business we have sold valued at more than US$ 50 million. 

Our process creates structure from what can otherwise often be a chaotic situation of trial and error. We take you through our process and each step feeds into the next allowing you as the business owner to better understand how much time and resources will be needed for each of the steps. 

The process includes the following seven steps: 

Step 1: Understanding your motivation for selling and clarifying the ultimate outcome you wish to achieve

In order to best support you, we need to know what is the real motivation for you to sell your business and what you ultimately hope to achieve both personally and professionally. For many, going through a review session that clearly documents both your personal and business goals and what is important to you is an important exercise. We find these sessions often enable you to think about what you want in new and different ways and create powerful insights. This is where we discuss your plans with you, and get clarity of how best to proceed. We will discuss the reasons behind your exit, when you want to exit, and we will look into the different options that are relevant for you in your situation. We also look at what your personal goals are, to find alignment between your professional and personal goals.  Other areas we explore include your expected sale price, your continued involvement or otherwise in the business post sale, timelines, the types of exit that may be beneficial to you and finally your musts vs hopes and your ultimate goals. 

Step 2: Conducting a Business Diagnostic Assessment

The business diagnostic is a powerful tool that allows you to obtain a complete understanding of the current state of your business and its level of readiness to sell. Based on the conduct of this assessment, we help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business, obtain a preliminary assessment of how much your business may be worth and what needs to be done to increase your valuation. This allows you to understand where your business is at today and where it needs to be when it comes time to sell.

Step 3: Designing your Roadmap to the Sale

Once we conduct the diagnostic we need to work together to close the gap between where your business is now and where it needs to be. There is much to do when planning the sale of your business. It is easy to lose focus if you do not have a map to guide you. We work with you to prepare a roadmap that you and your team can use to guide you from beginning to the close of the sale of your business. The roadmap includes the selling strategy, the profile of the investor you will target, how you will communicate with them and what documentation will be required. This roadmap is a “living document” that is regularly updated and benefits any size company at any stage of the sale process. We will use this roadmap in our coaching sessions and you and your team will use it in between.

Step 4: Supporting the implementation of your roadmap:

The sale of a business comes with many challenges, both from the buyer and a seller’s perspective. We coach you through the process of implementing your roadmap in a structured and efficient way. We help you determine what your business is worth in the market and support you as you implement the steps needed to make your business ready for sale. We will also identify areas of the business where we can make improvements to increase the valuation. Our support also includes guiding you in the preparation of what documentation is required and how to present it as well as identifying potential buyer profiles, how to make it known your business is for sale and communication strategies to effectively drive the process.

Step 5: Assisting you to identify the right buyer:

Even when everything is in place, you still need to find a buyer. This is something we are able to assist you with. We have a large network of potential buyers and know how to find and communicate with different buyer profiles should they be outside of our network.

Step 6: Supporting the formal sale process including the conduct of due diligence

The formal sale process is often seen as the last sprint towards the closing of a sale. At this stage much needs to happen over a short period of time. Any delay increases the risk of a deal falling through. This is also the stage when lots of technical documents need to be shared and explained. Errors or inconsistencies in the documentation provided could easily cost you the deal at this point. Similarly, documents that have been formatted in ways that are unfamiliar to the readers bear the risk of putting a buyer off. We have significant experience in the preparation and review of these types of documents. We know how investors and buyers prefer their documents to be prepared, making it easy to perform due diligence. This helps increase the likelihood of a successful deal, as well as shortening the time needed to complete due diligence. We support you through from the beginning to the completion of the due diligence process. 

Step 7: Helping you negotiate and closing the best deal possible

Seeing the deal from the buyer’s perspective and what drives their decision-making and value perspectives is key to getting the best price possible for your business. Our people have cumulatively hundreds of years of experience from both the buy and sell-side of hundreds of transactions. We understand what the buyer is thinking, and we see through their tactics for driving down prices. We know how to counter these tactics. After all, we know what it is like to be sitting in their seat as we have sat there so many times before.  

If you believe you would benefit from our support, and are willing to invest the time, money and resources necessary to get there, click below to complete a few questions that we need answered before we are willing to proceed with an introductory call.