Entries by Apex Business Advisors

Value Drivers: Business Operational System

Most people looking for a business to buy need a reason to pull the trigger. If the transition is easy – that’s one of the biggest reasons to pull the trigger, quit the job, grab the 401k, and jump into the deal. If you have set your business up to be easily managed, have operational […]

Congratulations to Jay Lehenbauer

Congratulations to Jay Lehenbauer for seven years as a successful Apex Business Advisor! Jay joined Apex in 2005, has completed some of our largest transactions, and has been one of our top brokers for several years. He is dedicated to his clients and always strives to be the best intermediary possible. As proof of his […]

Value Drivers

Hopefully you’ve read the recent posts regarding the value of businesses and the impact the owner’s actions have on business value. If not, you can review the posts here on the Apex Blog. If you have clients and/or friends who are business owners, please pass along to them. I recently read a great article with […]

Value Drivers: Revenue Trends

Buy Low – Sell High: This practice makes sense with investments and it makes sense when thinking of your business value. If you started the business from scratch, hopefully it has been built up to a profitable venture and you have plenty of equity. If you bought a business and have increased it revenue and […]

Negotiation as a Seller

Some of the sellers we have worked with have the approach that “it’s all or nothing. You WANT my business, you SHOULD want my business and I don’t NEED to negotiate.” Yikes! Business peers, friends and family might be saying that their business is worth $2 million when the financial statements and other variables show […]

Value Drivers: Clean and Accurate Financials (Part II)

Current Financial position and historical records are the major factors in putting a value on a business. Last week the focus came down to trust issues around the financials. This week we’ll focus on the numbers. Definition of Cash Flow: owner salary, net profit, depreciation, interest expense, and discretionary expenses not necessary for continuing operations […]

Value Drivers: Clean and Accurate Financial Information

One of the biggest struggles we have with our entrepreneur clients is that they have lousy financial statements. Many times it’s from lack of caring and know-how, but sometimes it’s done intentionally. How does a professional advisor, such as a banker, lawyer, accountant, or business broker advise their client when the business financials consist of […]

Value Drivers: Business Owner Who Works in the Business

Over the next several weeks you will read about keys to business value.  These are some basic drivers that will make your business or the business you are pursuing, more (or less) valuable. We are talking about the attractiveness to a potential buyer in an open market.  Disclaimer: There are lots of different things that […]

Interest Rates are Low and Banks Are More Aggressive

We spent the better part of 2009 and 2010 trying to chase bankers who were not returning phone calls. There were many banks changing hands and were not able to pursue loans for business acquisitions. Over the last year, we have witnessed banks being more “aggressive” in seeking business clients. They have money that they […]

Fitting the Pieces Together – A Recent Success Story

We enjoy sharing success stories about the buyers and sellers that we work with. We had a business owner with a technology based company that wanted to sell. They were asking $950K for the business based on the current revenue stream. (This was all happening in the middle of 2011.) Potential investors were concerned that […]