No Pain, No Gain

We recently helped a buyer and seller close a transaction. This is an example of a deal that worked because the buyer and seller overcame obstacles to get it done. The following happened over the course of two months.

From the seller’s perspective
When the deal got to the lender, the seller had to provide a lot of paperwork, which is normal. The seller supplied the information and the bank lost the paperwork. (Believe it or not, this happens.) The seller submitted the packet again. The bank asked for additional information, piecemeal versus all at once. Finally, the seller had filed his tax return, but it was going to take six weeks before the bank could verify the information. The seller had to go directly to the IRS to get documentation for the bank. This can obviously be a frustrating process, but you have to hang in there. These deals happen all the time, but there are often challenges like this to get the deal done.

From the buyer’s perspective
From the moment a business goes on the market, to the time the business is sold, every day activities continue. Business needs to keep going. It is important for a potential buyer to keep this in mind.The negotiations were done. In the time between the signing of the offer to purchase and the closing of the deal, one of the current customers called and asked to be released from a portion of their contract. The buyer understood this to be part of the normal course of business and did not overreact. Also during this process, the biggest customer contract came up for renewal. The buyer and seller worked together to make sure the contract was renewed with that customer. These are the times that a buyer might throw in the towel because they forget that this is normal business activity.

Be Patient and work through it
We are dealing with attorneys, accountants, bankers, friends of friends and more. Everybody is asking for documents and the process takes time. The parties and their advisors have different agendas and points of view. When you work with Apex, we filter these requests. We collect as much information as possible. This allows us to aggregate and facilitate the sharing of information with everyone involved.

Make sure you involve your Apex Advisor through the entire process. We will help bring everything together and save you time.