VR Business Brokers Blogs April 2009

April, 2009

How Much a Buyer Should Put Down When the Seller Offers Financing

Peter King VR CEO Generally, most potential buyers in today’s market determine how much capital to put down on a business through offering a down payment between one third and half of the purchase price. For many businesses, this means approximately one year's worth of adjusted cash flow. However, please keep in mind tha Read More>>

Buying and Selling Business in the Middle Market

Peter King VR CEO VR defines the middle market as a realm of businesses that have grown beyond single management entities to significant regional or national stature with revenues between $10 million and $200 million. However, the majority of the middle market is made up of businesses that are built around a single produ Read More>>

Enhancing Direct Mail Response Will Bring More Revenue

JoAnn Lombardi VR President The simplest and most immediate measure of a direct marketing campaign for your business is the response level that it achieves. Many different factors can affect these rates, so it is important to test all the variables before committing all your resources to this particular approach. Also keep in m Read More>>

The Importance of Going with a VR Business Broker Over One That Specializes in Real Estate

Peter King VR CEO Business brokerage is a highly-specialized field that's comprised of well-trained and experienced professionals. Most people don't know that there are numerous differences between selling real property and an ongoing business. Here at VR, we understand how to perform cash flow analysis that will best benefit o Read More>>

How to Finance Buying a Business

Peter King VR CEO In this day and age, more people that have found themselves out of work are going into entrepreneurship, specifically buying an already existing business. What you may not know is that obtaining the necessary funds is easier than you think; you just need to be aware of the options that you have available. Read More>>

Keeping Good Business Records

JoAnn Lombardi VR President At least once a year, you should be doing an analysis of your business to make sure that your books and records are in working order. It’s not only good to see the progression of your company but to verify that both your accounts payables and receivables are in the black if you do decide later Read More>>

When to Disclose Financial Records

Peter King VR CEO Just as you would not want your personal financial documents made available to the public, business owners only want serious buyers to have access to information such as their accounting books and records. Disclosure of such information does not occur until much further into the selling process, depending upon t Read More>>

Showing Due Diligence with Intellectual Property

JoAnn Lombardi VR President With ever increasing frequency, intellectual property has become a bigger part of M&A transactions. Intangible assets such as patents and proprietary industrial designs have grown quite significant. In some cases, they’ve become more important than physical assets when determining a value o Read More>>

Protecting the Business from being disclosed by the Public when on the Market

Peter King VR CEO Here at VR, we work with the problem of protecting a business that’s for sale from being disclosed to the public daily. We require that every prospective buyer sign a non-disclosure agreement stating that he or she will not make available any proprietary information learned about that business to others. I Read More>>

Offer Seller Financing when Putting a Business on the Market

JoAnn Lombardi VR President If you’re deciding to sell a business, there are a number of questions that you need to consider. Seller financing is the most important one that you should be answering “yes” to after reviewing all the advantages. Greater Chance of Selling Your Business When you agree to terms, a Read More>>

Calculating the Maximum Price and Necessary Terms for Your Business

Peter King VR CEO We here at VR Business Brokers are well schooled in calculating the maximum price and correct terms that are necessary to successfully market your business. There are many methods that are employedincluding cash flow, industry averages, current area trends and asset values.Because a VR business broker lives and br Read More>>

Obtaining a Fair Market Price when Selling Your Business

JoAnn Lombardi VR President Business owners face a myriad of challenges on a daily basis. One challenge that no owner wants to grapple with is financial distress. If you’ve struggled with such problems as declining profits, rising costs, fierce competition with no sign that the situation will improve, selling may be the b Read More>>

Industry Rules of Thumb Tell Only Part of the Story with Business Valuations

Peter King VR CEO Rules of thumb can serve as useful sanity checks for controlling interests that are generally valued using more technically sound methods. However, they should not be used as the sole method of business valuation for a few reasons: Based on Unreliable Word of Mouth Rules of thumb have always been largel Read More>>

Better to Sell Your Business to a Strategic instead of a Financial Buyer

JoAnn Lombardi VR President During a period of economic uncertainty, many entrepreneurs love to hear reports of businesses being sold to strategic buyers for apparently large sums. The truth is the investors that are strategically-inclined will recognize higher valuations with potential investments than those that are financially-ori Read More>>

Awareness and Accolades Highlight VR's 2009 Regional Meeting in California

Peter King VR CEO VR took over the Shoreline Yacht Club in Long Beach, California for their Regional Meeting. Action, awareness and awards were the three keywords for this event that saw a tremendous amount of excitement, interest and invigorating motivation in increasing more business transactions. I partook in the proce Read More>>

Setting the Record Straight on Business Valuation

Peter King VR CEO Many people can become incredibly confused about understanding what business valuation means. Many misnomers exist regarding the subject, which canbe a complex financial discipline that consists of unintelligiblejargon, reason and underlying mathematics to any outsider who maybe looking to buy or sell. Therefore Read More>>

Preparing Your Business for a Buyer's Visit

Peter King VR CEO Believe it or not, some business owners will take a qualified buyer’s visit too lightly to the point where they only see it as a quick meet-and-greet before pushing him or her out the door that he or she came in. This cannot be stressed that a buyer visit has to be taken very seriously for a number of reason Read More>>

The Importance of Due Diligence When Buying or Selling a Business

JoAnn Lombardi VR President There is no such thing as a short cut when approaching due diligence. As time consuming and cumbersome as the process may be, it is not to be taken lightly. The examination has to be comprehensive and thorough for both the buyer and the seller. Particularly for the buyer, a less than thorough r Read More>>

A Business Plan for Growth in Sluggish Times

JoAnn Lombardi VR President “I don’t want to put any money into my business until the economy improves.” How many times have you heard a small business owner say something like that? It kind of gives me a chill every time I hear it. Imagine deciding not to spend any more money on transportation until traffic imp Read More>>

Why Drafting a "Letter of Intent" is Recommended When Selling Your Business

Peter King VR CEO Except in rare cases, the use of a letter of intent is recommended. First, the letter contains certain binding provisions that can give both parties a clearer understanding about the basic terms of the deal. For example, experienced buyers do not want to spin their wheels while the seller shops an offer for th Read More>>

2008 VR Annual Awards Winners

JoAnn Lombardi VR President We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Annual Awards for their great success in business sales. We take great pride and consideration in choosing these select business intermediaries that have moved ahead of the pack, and continue to have our company be the leader in business sales and mergers Read More>>

Finding the Cutting-Edge Strategy

Peter King VR CEO Every company has to have a strategy. Specifically, you need one that is effective and will create a buzz in the marketplace without the complexities and the numerous graphs. A successful strategy should create significant value and lead to sustained growth and returns, investor enthusiasm as well as customer fanati Read More>>

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