Business Sales Highlights from the BizBuySell Quarter 1, 2015 Insight Reports
BizBuySell recently released their Insight Reports for the 1st Quarter of 2015 with some very positive news. Overall “business sales” were up 6% vs. 1st quarter 2014. This level of performance is continuing a 2-year trend in business sales. Below are a few additional summary items from BizBuySell’s reports.
- Median Cash Flow for sold businesses reached a record high since 2007 of $104,000.
- Why the increase- baby boomers continue make the step to retirement, and buyers are seeing more options and access to capital from lending institutions
- Median revenue was $442,000 up from $400,000 representing a 10.5% increase.
- The average asking price was $225,000 up from $199,000, a 13% jump.
- Average sale price was $200,000 up from $175,000, up 14.3%.
- Service businesses sold lead the charge up 18% over the 1st quarter of 2014.
- Retail revenue was $537,500 vs. $437,783, up 22.7%.
- Cash flow for the retail sector averaged $99,355 up from $89,907, a 10.5% increase.
- Cash flow multiples for all businesses averaged 2.27 up from 2.21
To help show a picture of what happened in the 1st quarter of 2015 for California below is a chart showing the number of business’s listed and the average cash flow multiple. We also added a column using $200,000 cash flow as an example to show a California market comparison.
California Highlights | # listed | Cash Flow Multiple | Hypothetical 200kCash Flow x Multiple = Listing Price |
Contra Costa-Alameda-Solano, CA | 203 | 2.69 | $538,000 |
Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA | 275 | 2.52 | $504,000 |
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA | 356 | 2.57 | $514,000 |
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 316 | 3.02 | $604,003 |
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 157 | 3.12 | $624,006 |
Sentiment in the market place is stated as positive for the rest of 2015. Let’s hope that’s the case. To read the full report click on BizBuySell Quarter 1 2015 Insight Reports.
Want to learn about selling your business and what your own personal Sellability Score is? Click here.
If you’re interested in learning about your selling options, getting a professional business valuation, or getting help creating an exit strategy, please feel free to CALL Evolution Advisors at 916.993.5433 or visit our website: www.EvoBizSales.com
Read MoreSelling your business… when it’s TOO LATE
Recently I had a conversation with an owner of a Machine Shop who was clearly “exhausted, done, and going to retire.” He stated as soon as his new boat arrives in 2 months “My wife and I are out-a here.” The problem… there was no exit strategy other than the possibility of passing down the commercial building he owns to his two daughters.
After a short discussion here’s the story: revenues had been on a slide the last couple years, employees had not been replaced when happily retiring from the business, and as calls came in from repeat customers the words “no we can’t commit to your project” became common place. All this combined with only a couple months to find a buyer I had to share with the owner it was too late and there really wasn’t much to sell other than the real estate. He admitted “Yep, I should have planned a year or so ago for retirement and I would have had a better outcome.”
Having a well thought out Exit Strategy Plan including truly understanding the value of your business well in advance pays dividends when you are ready to sell your business and move on to the next chapter in your life.
Simply put the BEST time to sell your business is by Capitalizing on the Business Life Cycle while your business is at its peak or close to it with many business performance graphs with lines moving “up and to the right.”
Want to learn about selling your business and what your own personal Sellability Score is? Click here.
If you’re interested in learning about your selling options, getting a professional business valuation, or getting help creating an exit strategy, please feel free to CALL Evolution Advisors at 916.993.5433 or visit our website: www.EvoBizSales.com
Read MoreTwo Similar Companies… Big difference in Value- Why?
Consider two different companies in virtually the same industry. Both companies have an EBITDA of $6 million – but, they have very different valuations. One is valued at five times EBITDA, pricing it at $30 million. The other is valued at seven times EBITDA, making it $42 million. What’s the difference?
One can look at the usual checklist for the answer, such as:
- The Market
- Management/Employees
- Uniqueness/Proprietary
- Systems/Controls
- Revenue Size
- Profitability
- Regional/Global Distribution
- Capital Equipment Requirements
- Intangibles (brand/patents/etc.)
- Growth Rate
There is the key, at the very end of the checklist – the growth rate. This value driver is a major consideration when buyers are considering value. For example, the seven times EBITDA company has a growth rate of 50 percent, while the five times EBITDA company has a growth rate of only 12 percent. In order to arrive at the real growth story, some important questions need to be answered. For example:
- Are the company’s projections believable?
- Where is the growth coming from?
- What services/products are creating the growth?
- Where are the customers coming from to support the projected growth – and why?
- Are there long-term contracts in place?
- How reliable are the contracts/orders?
The difference in value usually lies somewhere in the company’s growth rate!
© Copyright 2015 Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
Want to learn about selling your business and what your own personal Sellability Score is? Click here.
If you’re interested in learning about your selling options, getting a professional business valuation, or getting help creating an exit strategy, please feel free to give Evolution Advisors a call at 916.993.5433 or visit our website: www.EvoBizSales.com
Read MoreWhat a Study of 14,000 Businesses Reveals About How You Should “Not” Be Spending Your Time
In an analysis of more than 14,000 businesses, a new study finds the most valuable companies take a contrarian approach to the boss doing the selling.
Who does the selling in your business? Many business owners are personally involved in doing the selling. Is your business is a whole lot more profitable when you do the selling vs. the months when you leave the selling to others?
If so… that makes sense because you’re likely the most passionate advocate for your business. You have the most industry knowledge and the widest network of industry connections.
If your goal is to maximize your company’s profit at all costs, you may have come to the conclusion that you should spend most of your time out of the office selling, and leave the dirty work of operating your businesses to your underlings.
However, if your goal is to build a valuable company—one you can sell down the road—you can’t be your company’s number one salesperson. In fact, the less you know your customers personally, the more valuable your business.
The Proof: A Study of 14,000 Businesses
We’ve just finished analyzed our pool of Sellability Score users for the quarter ending December 31. 14,000 business owners were asked if they had received an offer to buy their business in the last 12 months, and if so, what multiple of their pre-tax profit the offer represented. We then compared the offer made to the following question:
Which of the following best describes your personal relationship with your company’s customers?
- I know each of my customers by first name and they expect that I personally get involved when they buy from my company.
- I know most of my customers by first name and they usually want to deal with me rather than one of my employees.
- I know some of my customers by first name and a few of them prefer to deal with me rather than one of my employees.
- I don’t know my customers personally and rarely get involved in serving an individual customer.
2.93 vs. 4.49 Times
The average offer received among all of the businesses we analyzed was 3.7 times pre-tax profit. However, when we isolated just those businesses where the owner does “not” know his/her customers personally and rarely gets involved in serving an individual customer, the offer multiple went up to 4.49.
Companies where the founder knows each of his/her customers by first name get discounted, earning offers of just 2.93 times pre-tax profit.
Example with $500,000 annual pre-tax profit:
Multiple Offer
Owner knows each of his/her customers by name 2.93 $1,465,000
Survey average 3.70 $1,850,000
Owner does “not” know his/her customers by name 4.49 $2,245,000
When Value Is the Enemy of Profit
Who you get to do the selling in your company is just one of many examples where the actions you take to build a valuable company are different than what you do to maximize your profit. If all you wanted was a fat bottom line, you likely wouldn’t invest in upgrading your website or spend much time thinking about the squishy business of company culture.
How much money you make each year is important, but how you earn that profit will have a greater impact on the value of your company in the long run.
Want to learn about selling your business and what your own personal Sellability Score is? Click here.
If you’re interested in learning about your selling options, getting a professional business valuation, or getting help creating an exit strategy, please feel free to give Evolution Advisors a call at 916.993.5433 or visit our website: www.EvoBizSales.com
Read More9 Warning Signs You’re a “Hub-and-Spoke” Owner and how to create a more valuable business
If you were to draw a picture that visually represents your role in your business, what would it look like? Are you at the top of a traditional Pyramid-like organizational chart, or are you stuck in the middle of your business, like a hub in a bicycle wheel?
As anyone who has tried to fly United when Chicago has been hit by a snowstorm knows, a hub-and-spoke model is only as strong as the hub. The moment the hub is overwhelmed, the entire system fails. Acquirers generally avoid hub-and-spoke managed businesses because they understand the dangers of buying a company too dependent on the owner. Here’s a list of nine warning signs you’re a hub-and-spoke owner and some suggestions for pulling yourself out of the middle of your business:
1. You sign all of the checks
Most business owners sign the checks, but what happens if you’re away for a couple of days and an important supplier needs to be paid? Consider giving an employee signing authority for checks up to an amount you’re comfortable with, and then change the mailing address on your bank statements so they are mailed to your home (not the office). That way, you can review all signed checks and make sure the privilege isn’t being abused.
2. Your mobile phone bill is over $200 a month
If your employees are out of their depth a lot, it will show up in your mobile phone bill because staff will be calling you to coach them through problems. Ask yourself if you’re hiring too many junior employees. Sometimes people with a couple of years of industry experience will be a lot more self-sufficient and only slightly more expensive than the greenhorns. Also consider getting a virtual assistant (VA), who can act as a first line of defense in protecting your time.
3. Your revenue is flat when compared to last year’s
Flat revenue from one year to the next can be a sign you are a hub in a hub-and-spoke model. Like forcing water through a hose, you have only so much capacity. No matter how efficient you are, every business dependent on its owner reaches capacity at some point. Consider narrowing your product and service line by eliminating technically complex offers that require your personal involvement, and instead focus on selling fewer things to more people.
4. Your vacations are not really vacations
If you spend your vacations dispatching orders from your mobile, it’s time to cut the tether. Start by taking one day off and seeing how your company does without you. Build systems for failure points. Work up to a point where you can take a few weeks off without affecting your business.
5. You spend more time negotiating than a union boss
If you find yourself constantly having to get involved in approving discount requests from your customers, you are a hub. Consider giving front-line, customer-facing employees a band within which they have your approval to negotiate. You may also want to tie salespeople’s performance bonuses to gross margin for sales they generate so you’re rewarding their contribution to profit, not just chasing skinny margin deals.
6. You close up every night
If you’re the only one who knows the close-up routine in your business (count the cash, lock the doors, set the alarm), then you are very much a hub. Write an employee manual of basic procedures (close-up routine, e-mail footer to use, voice mail protocol) for your business and give it to new employees on their first day on the job. This is a great way to start “systemizing” your business.
7. You know all of your customers by first name
It’s good to have the pulse of your market, but knowing every single customer by first name can be a sign that you’re relying too heavily on your personal relationships being the glue that holds your business together. Consider replacing yourself as a rainmaker by hiring a sales team or 2iC (2nd in Command), and as inefficient as it seems, have a trusted employee shadow you when you meet customers so over time your customers get used to dealing with someone else.
8. You get the tickets
Suppliers’ wooing you by sending you free tickets to sports events can be a sign that they see you as the key decision maker in your business for their offering. If you are the key contact for any of your suppliers, you will find yourself in the hub of your business when it comes time to negotiate terms. Consider appointing one of your trusted employees as the key contact for a major supplier and give that employee spending authority up to a limit you’re comfortable with.
9. You get cc’d on more than five e-mails a day
Employees, customers and suppliers constantly cc’ing you on e-mails can be a sign that they are looking for your tacit approval or that you have not made clear when you want to be involved in their work. Start by asking your employees to stop using the cc line in an e-mail; ask them to add you to the “to” line if you really must be made aware of something – and only if they need a specific action from you.
The “Hub-and-Spoke” philosophy is one of the 8 key attributes in The Sellability Score. Take our 15 minute survey to learn more about how your business’s Sellability Score and how to create more a valuable business. Click here.
If you’re interested in learning about your selling options, getting a professional business valuation, or getting help creating an exit strategy, please feel free to give Evolution Advisors a call at 916.993.5433 or visit our website: www.EvoBizSales.com
Read MoreOne Hidden Thing That Drives Your Company’s Value
You already know that your company’s revenue and profits play a big role in how much your business is worth.
Do you also know the role cash flow plays in your valuation?
Cash vs. Profits
Cash flow is different than profits in that it measures the cash coming in and out of your business rather than an accounting interpretation of your profit and loss. For example, if you charge $10,000 upfront for a service that takes you three months to deliver, you recognize $3,333 of revenue per month on your profit and loss statement for each of the three months it takes you to deliver the work.
But since you charged upfront, you get all $10,000 of cash on the day your customer decides to buy. This positive cash flow cycle improves your company’s valuation because when it comes time to sell your business, the buyer will have to write two checks: one to you, the owner, and a second to your company to fund its working capital – the cash your company needs to fund its immediate obligations like payroll, rent, etc.
The trick is that both checks are drawn from the same bank account. Therefore, the less the acquirer has to inject into your business to fund its working capital, the more money it has to pay you for your company.
The inverse is also true.
If your company is a cash suck, an acquirer is going to calculate that she needs to inject a lot of working capital into your business on closing day, which will deplete her resources and lessen the check she writes to you.
How To Improve Your Cash Flow
There are many ways to improve your cash flow – and therefore, the value of your business. One often overlooked tactic is to spend less on the machines your company needs to operate.
In the restaurant business, for example, there is an often repeated truism that it takes three bankruptcies at a single location before any restaurant can make money. The first owner of the restaurant walks in and – with all of the typical optimism of a new entrepreneur – pays cash for a brand new commercial kitchen complete with fancy stove, commercial grade walk-in coolers, etc., as well as all new dish ware, pots and pans, thus depleting his cash reserves before opening night. Within a year, the restaurant owner runs out of cash and declares bankruptcy.
Then along comes a second entrepreneur who decides to set up her restaurant at the same location and buys all of the shiny new equipment from owner number one’s creditors for 70 cents on the dollar, figuring she has made a wonderful deal. But the outlay of cash is still too great and she too is out of business within a year.
It’s not until the third owner comes along that the location actually survives. He saves his cash by buying all of the equipment off the second owner for 10 cents on the dollar.
The moral of the story is: find a way to reduce the cash you spend on equipment, however you can. Can you buy your gear used on sites like eBay? Can you share a very expensive piece of machinery with another non-competitive business? Can you rent instead of buying?
Profits are an important factor in your company’s value but so too is the cash your company generates. We call this phenomenon The Valuation Teeter Totter and it is one of the eight key drivers of the value of your company. Curious to see how you’re performing on all eight drivers? Get your Sellability Score here.
If you’re interested in learning about your selling options, getting a professional business valuation, or getting help creating an exit strategy, please feel free to give Evolution Advisors a call at 916.993.5433 or visit our website: www.EvoBizSales.com
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Attract Buyers and Increase Value with the Story of Your Business
Every business has a Story. Much like a person, a business has a life of its own, separate from the story of the owner. It has a “birthday,” important people and events in its history, tales of successes and challenges, periods of growth and decline. Healthy, well-cared-for businesses can live for generations, while others quickly fade.
Essentially, the Story of a business is its heart and soul, the “life” that exists outside its financial bones.
Why the “Story” of a Business is so Important
So why is it so important for sellers to share the Story of their business with potential buyers?
Randy Hendershot, Co-Founder and Principal of Evolution Advisors, a leading Business Broker based in California, explains. He says, “Sellers put a lot of emphasis on the P&Ls, inventory, sales, and other numbers, but they often overlook the intangible aspects of a business. Because of that, they’re not capitalizing on all the business has to offer; they’re not presenting its complete value.”
To get a better idea of the importance of the Story, imagine a buyer, Bob, is looking to purchase a business. He’s narrowed it down to two possibilities, a manufacturing company in the city or a service business in a nearby town. Both look great on paper; each has strong profits and growth potential, a fair asking price, great location…
Now imagine you are the seller of the service business, and you tell Bob the Story of your business. That it’s known for outstanding customer relations, and the Internet site was recently upgraded to handle online requests. You tell him about how the most profitable division was created in 2002 by the sales manager who noticed customers lacking a complete solution to their problem. You share what it’s been like to run a prospering business with such a great group of loyal employees.
Now, when Bob is deciding which business to buy, he’s thinking about more than just the numbers. He’s imagining himself owning the service business, being an important person in the community. He’s thinking about what he could do to expand the most promising part of the business. He’s picturing working alongside dedicated employees who really care.
By sharing its Story, you’ve brought your business to life, while the manufacturing company Bob was considering remains a mundane business with no personality.
“Sellers can benefit greatly from telling the Story of their business,” says Mr. Hendershot. “It builds excitement. Buyers can see themselves running the business, becoming part of the Story. They’re more invested emotionally.”
Are There Dangers in Telling the Story of a Business?
But can telling the Story backfire? What about the “challenging” parts? Can knowing about the ups and downs, the hard times and challenges, actually hurt a sale?
Mr. Hendershot says it’s unlikely. “By putting all the cards on the table, the seller is actually doing potential buyers a favor. It builds trust and improves buyer confidence, all key elements in making a sale. I recommend anyone selling a business work with a business broker who knows how to tell, and sell, the Story. It’s that important.”
Read MoreBusiness Valuation: Do the Financials Tell the Whole Story?
Many experts say no! These experts believe that only half of the business valuation should be based on the financials (the number-crunching), with the other half of the business valuation based on non-financial information (the subjective factors).
What subjective factors are they referring to? SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – the primary factors that make up the subjective, or non-financial, analysis. Below you will find a more detailed look at the areas that help us evaluate a company’s SWOT.
Industry Status – A company’s value increases when its associated industry is expanding, and its value decreases in any of the following situations: its industry is constantly fighting technical obsolescence; its industry involves a commodity subject to ongoing price wars; its industry is severely impacted by foreign competition; or its industry is negatively impacted by governmental policies, controls, or pricing.
Geographic Location – A company is worth more if it is located in states or countries that have a favorable infrastructure, advantageous tax rates, or higher reimbursement rates. A company with access to an ample educated and competitive work force will also enjoy increased value.
Management – A company with low turnover in management and a solid second-tier management team comprised of different age levels is also worth more.
Facilities – A company operating profitably at 70 percent capacity is worth more than a company currently near capacity. Equipment should be up to date and any leases – either equipment or real estate – renewable at reasonable rates.
Products or Services – A company is worth more if its products or services are proprietary, are diversified with some pricing power, and have, preferably, a recognizable brand name. In addition, new products or services should be introduced on a regular basis.
Customers – A company is worth more if there is not heavy customer concentration, but rather recurring revenue from long-time, loyal customers, as well as from new customers created through a regular and systematic sales process.
Competition – A company not contending head to head with powerful competitors such as Microsoft or Wal-Mart will rate a higher value.
Suppliers – Finally, a company is worth more if it is not dependent on single sourced key items or items available from only a limited number of suppliers.
Copyright 2012 Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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