Florida Business Brokers

Fort Myers-Cape Coral in the Top 5 Turn-around Towns

julie.owen — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:02:49 +0000

According to Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors, some of the cities whose housing markets bore the brunt of the foreclosures are now leading the way toward recovery. Click on the link below to read the full article.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-top-turnaround-towns.html

Businesses For Sale in Southwest Florida

julie.owen — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:47:18 +0000

Lawn Businesses For Sale in Southwest Florida

Beauty Businesses For Sale in Southwest Florida

Medical Businesses For Sale in Southwest Florida

Contact CORPORATE INVESTMENT BUSINESS BROKERS, We are YOUR SOURCE for BUYING or SELLING Your Southwest Florida Business.

239-936-1718 | cibb@cibb.net

Selling Your Business?

julie.owen — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:36:16 +0000

CORPORATE INVESTMENT BUSINESS BROKERS HAS SOLD MORE BUSINESSES IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA THAT ANYONE!

Selling your family-owned business?

julie.owen — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:15:30 +0000

There once was a family-owned business that has sales in the millions. They bakery sold bread to restaurants, supermarkets, and some retail outlets. The founder gave each of his five children 20 percent ownership of the business. The founder’s children really didn’t want to work in the business, so they turned the operation and management over to two members of the third generation.

Eventually the founder’s children decided that they wanted to sell the business since they were close to retirement age. For some years the business has been operating on a break-even basis and sales were not increasing. A professional business broker was retained to sell the business. He contacted as many of the larger bakeries as possible hoping to find a suitable acquirer. There was very little interest. The business broker continued his search to find a good buyer for the business. after a lot of work, he finally found a successful businessman who offered a price equal to 50 percent of sales – a generous offer. The business broker presented the offer to the five children – all equal partners. Little did he know that he had walked into the proverbial “hornet’s nest”. A huge family argument ensued, and finally the business broker was asked to leave the room so the five siblings could decide what to do.

The offer was turned down flat. There was no counter-proposal or even any negotiation on price, terms, or conditions. The offer was dead. The business broker had worked on trying to find the right buyer, figured he had, all to no avail – six months wasted.

It turns out that the major obstacle was concern that the operators of the business might lose their jobs even though the prospective buyer assured the sellers that he would keep the current operators on. Remember, the operators were third generation, related in one way or another to the five owners.

Flash forward some 20 years. The bakery is still in business with very little growth and still operating on a break-even basis. the five owners are now in their 70′s; they have never received anything for their equity and have very little hope that they ever will.

The above is a true story. It shows how a family can own a business and become completely dysfunctional when it comes time to sell the family-owned business. Although the bakery is still in business (barely), its story also shows that the proposed deal could have satisfied all of the owners’ goals and made that their retirement years a lot more comfortable.

Family-owned businesses make up a lot of the non-public companies in this country and according to published reports, many of them will be up for sale in the near future.

It is important, if the family-owned business is owned by more than one person, that a meeting is held with all of the family owners prior to electing to sell it, unless a strong buy-sell agreement has already been agreed to. This agreement should establish specific guidelines about what happens if one family member wants out of the business.

The company attorney and accountant should be in attendance along with a business broker. The reason for the broker is that brokers know what the pitfalls are, what buyer concerns will be and what should be done prior to going to market.

One of the major problems when there is more that one owner is communication. What about when the one owner who is active in the business decides that he needs a new expensive car and that the company should pay for it? Strict guidelines should also be in writing concerning salaries, benefits, etc. When one family member is ready to cash out or another spends a lot of money furnishing his/her office – it is too late to have an agreement drawn up to cover the issues. The time is now!

When Selling Your Business, Don’t Make Major Last Minute Changes

julie.owen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:42:13 +0000

Prospective buyers are looking for revenue, consistency and growth when looking at businesses to buy. Last minute changes, especially major changes, can impact the value of the business or make the buyer nervous about the unknown consequences. The buyer could also leap to an unfounded conclusion about why the owner is selling.

Here is an example:
A man talking about selling his business purchases a $700,000 piece of publishing equipment. He believes that revenues will rise and more clients will come on board because of the new capabilities. The problem is nothing can be proven yet. All we have to go on are the actual numbers from the past three years. These numbers do not support the increase in price that the seller is considering, and our recommendation is to wait to sell his business until he has proven the new publishing equipment is going to have a significant impact on the bottom line. If he decides to move forward, he will probably end up taking a loss on the capital expense if he wants to sell now.

A better way to have handled this would have been to recommend the machine and potential results to a prospective buyer. There are many ways that the prospective buyer could have funded the purchase of the equipment instead of taking on the debt. The seller was debt free when this decision was made.

Before you make a major decision, be sure to talk to your broker about the impact on business value and sale strategy as well as timing.

Corporate Investment Business Brokers has SOLD More Businesses in Southwest Florida Than ANYONE! Contact Us Today @ 239-936-1718 | cibb@cibb.net

What a Buyer May Ask a Seller

fbbadmin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:35:22 +0000

A business owner who is serious about selling his or her business should be ready to answer the following questions:

How do you grow the company?
Does the company have monthly financial statements? Are the annual financial statements prepared on a timely basis?
What is the company’s competitive advantage?
If there are any employees working in the business, do they take pride in what they do and in the business itself?
What is the inventory turnover? Does the company have to many suppliers?
Is the business introducing new products or services?

Buyers, as part of due diligence, usually employ accountants to check the numbers and attorneys to look at legal issues and draft or review documents. Buyers may also bring in other professionals to look at the business’ operations. the prudent buyer is also looking behind the scenes to make sure there aren’t any “skeletons in the closet.” It makes sense for a seller to be just as prudent. Knowing what the buyer may be checking can be a big help. A business intermediary professional is a good person to help a seller look at these issues. They are very familiar with that buyers are looking for when considering a company to purchase.

When business owners consider selling, it will pay big dividends for them to consider the areas listed above and make whatever changes are appropriate to deal with them. It makes good business sense to not only review them, but also to resolve as many of the issues outlined above as possible.

Contact Corporate Investment Business Brokers if you are interested in BUYING or SELLING your business.
www.floridabusinessbrokers.com
cibb@cibb.net
239-936-1718

Thinking of Buying a Small Business?

fbbadmin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:21:19 +0000

For many people, owning a business is a dream fulfilled. But making that dream a reality takes some research as well as common sense. As a leading business broker, we are often asked what it takes to become a business owner. Here are some factors that a prospective owner should consider before making that jump.

1.) Does your spouse work? A business owner, especially starting out, should not be surprised by inconsistent levels of income from week to week, or month to month. Having a spouse working a “regular job” bringing in consistent income can be a huge factor in lowering your stress during lean times. Furthermore, if your spouse is getting health insurance through his/her company, that’s one less cost and headache that you have to worry about.

2.) Do you like wearing multiple hats and flying without a net? Unlike big corporations, there is usually no instruction manual or IT department you can call when your computer goes down. Small business ownership is about learning, thinking on your feet, using common sense. Some advice:

a.) Do what you’re good at and hire good people to do what you’re not good at – as well as the tasks that are not worth your time.
b.) Establish policies, procedures and internal control.
c.) Focus on outstanding customer service.
d.) Learn how to find and keep strong employees.

Remember, you are in charge of marketing, IT, HR, finance, operations, everything – and you will learn to almost enjoy unguided challenges and be comfortable with risk taking. You will make practically every decision for the company without external approvals or confirmations.

You will make wrong decisions and/or mistakes, but you have to be comfortable with that fact. It’s just all part of being in charge.

3.) Are you comfortable with debt? If you are buying a business, there’s a good change you will need to borrow money to acquire it. This is often the biggest deterrent to people buying their own business.

Let’s face it: Taking on debt is scary. But the reality is, if you are buying an existing business – an existing revenue stream – you have to pay for it.

A typical acquisition price for a small business (without real estate) is three times (3x) annual cash flow. So if a business is generating $150,000 in yearly revenue, you can expect to pay about $450,000 for it.

Yes, it would be like another house payment, but the business is supposed to generate cash flow to pay it off (which you can’t say about your residence). This “cash flow multiple” is subjective and depends on the quality of the earnings and how critical the previous owner was to the business. In simple terms, the more one can count on the continued performance of the business, the higher the multiple.

Consider other factors. If, for example, the business does most of its work for one customer, there is a huge risk that customer might leave. You would substantially lower the price you’d pay for that business.

If, on the other hand, the business pretty much runs itself, like a coin-op laundry, you would probably expect to pay a higher multiple for that business.

4.) Accounting skills are a huge bonus. After all, it is the language of business. So much of the administration of the business is all about money and finances. Whether it’s payroll, bookkeeping, or doing your state/local taxes, knowing accounting is invaluable. Of course, you can farm out all of this, but doing your books will help you understand your business and succeed.

If you are READY to BUY a BUSINESS, Contact Corporate Investment Business Brokers.

O: 239-936-1718

E: cibb@cibb.net

W: floridabusinessbrokers.com

Southwest Florida Printing Business For Sale

fbbadmin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:26:26 +0000

This is a state of the art 11-year old PRINTING & GRAPHIC DESIGN COMPANY. 50% of their business comes from major corporations in the medical, educational, governmental, and finance areas. The other business segments are your smaller businesses and retail customers. Their capabilities are extensive-Artistic Renderings, Digital Transfers, Extra Large Banners, Large Format 4-Color, Large Format Scanning, Digital Envelope Printing, and Full Bindery.

Pre-qualified for financing by SBA Lender.

ASKING: $245,000 w/ $39,000 DOWN.

Contact CIBB (Ref. #6196) @ 239-936-1718.
www.floridabusinessbrokers.com

Buying a Business May Be Better Than Starting From Scratch

fbbadmin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:25:41 +0000

Are you thinking about owning a business? In most cases, I believe that buying an existing business—with real customers, a revenue stream, employees, name recognition and policies and procedures already in place—is a much better proposition than starting one from scratch.

Here’s why:

Start-up risk: Experts say that 80 percent of all new businesses fail. While a good portion of these might be multilevel marketing businesses that people just give up on after a few months, the reality is that a start-up usually has little to no immediate cash flow and is often immediately crunched for working capital right off the bat. You might be a marketing and advertising genius, and somehow get business in the door right away, but if you’re not—watch out.
Financing and setup effort: Buying or leasing land and a building, outfitting that building, purchasing production and office equipment and creating signage can be monumental tasks. Furthermore, obtaining financing for business assets on a business with no track record is much harder than doing so on a business with a history.
Creation problem: In my experience, it’s always easier to tweak something than start from scratch. Granted, some policies and procedures that come with a business may not be to your liking, but as the new owner, you can change whatever you want. And as someone coming in from the outside with fresh eyes, you’ll be able to quickly figure out what policies are outdated or inefficient and just change what you need to. Sure, sometimes you may want to overhaul an entire process, but in the end, you will gain from seeing what didn’t work. Finally, you almost certainly will inherit an employee or two who really isn’t carrying his or her weight. Again, it’s easier to hire for one or two spots than several—and an existing business is often more attractive to employees due its perceived stability.
Cost: In a way, buying an existing small business is like buying a used car. You’re buying a depreciated asset, but its performance doesn’t depreciate—the performance can appreciate if you know what you’re doing! Typically, the purchase price (not including land deals) is about three times annual cash flow, although this multiple often ranges from two to five, depending on various other factors. A cash-flow multiple of three says that if the business is generating $150,000 in cash to the owner each year, the business is worth about $450,000. By the way, this equates to a 33 percent annual return! But you’re essentially getting all the production equipment, the name, the signage and other assets like the website at a discount. There are many businesses where the start-up costs are almost as much as buying an existing business. While it can be nice to have everything new, the risk factors of a start-up often far outweigh the small premium you may have to pay for an existing business.

Corporate Investment Business Brokers can help you search for the RIGHT business.

Call 239-936-1718 or Email us cibb@cibb.net