Advisers Buy Businesses, Too

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Many of our team here at Apex came from business owner backgrounds. It’s part of what draws us to this work. We can stay, in a way, involved with the challenges and struggles of entrepreneurs without having the onus and accountability for running the businesses day-to-day.

But that doesn’t mean we aren’t occasionally tempted (or sometimes actively looking for businesses). How does it work when an adviser attempts to buy a business?

No Special Treatment

We don’t get any special deals. Our main advantage is that we get eyes on the business before anyone else does. But that means other advisors are potential “competitors” for such deals and most likely want to put their own buyers on the deal. But we are still invested in the best deal for our clients. So even if we were to love a company and put an offer in on it before it’s even listed on the market, it would be unprofessional and unethical for us to then pressure a seller to take our offer. A business adviser’s offer has to stand on its own beside all the other ones a seller is considering.

Here at Apex if an advisor does want to put in an offer on a business he has to get the President’s signoff first, for various reasons, and certain disclosures would need to be made to the seller that the person making the offer is an Apex Advisor.

Reminder: offers aren’t only about offering full-price, there are also the questions of down payment, earnouts, and seller financing.

Operating Partner Needed

Unless they’re planning to exit the business adviser space (and sometimes that happens), an adviser who buys a business is going to need to install an operating partner of some kind immediately. There are cases in which an adviser forms an investment group of sorts in which various individuals add value or contribute financially. Still, as attractive as any business would be, it’s rare that an established adviser leaves the field of business advising to become a full-time business owner again.

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