Have you been looking for a green business for sale? How about a sustainable business for sale that is also easy to operate? What if there was a recycling business for sale that is not only green and easy to operate, but also had the advantages of being internet marketed? Here is a business for sale that may fit the bill:
This business recycles books. After acquiring used books by the truckload, the books are processed using sophisticated work-flow management software that allows high volume throughput. Good quality books are listed on Amazon, eBay, Half.com, ABE, and Alibris. The remaining books are sold to recyclers. There is less than 1% waste created by this green business.
This sustainable business is also an E-Commerce business. An internet business doesn’t require a high-price location, doesn’t have to be open on evenings and weekends, and has an international instead of a local market.
A high degree of systematization make this business easy to learn & operate. The strong systems allow the business to hire low skilled easy to replace employees.
This is a sustainable business: books are a huge store of greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is released if books are burned or decompose in landfills. This business recycles over 100 tons of books each month, offsetting carbon dioxide emitted by burning 50,000 gallons of gas.
One of the biggest opportunities for growing this business is simply to operate it as a full-time business. The current owner puts in only 10-15 hours a week of time operating this business. Full-time entrepreneurial management efforts may lead to significant revenue and profit improvements. There are a variety of other opportunities for entrepreneurial growth such as selling higher margin used CDs and DVDs and replacing portions of the current expensive licensed software with a custom developed software to reduce expenses.
One of the nice things about an e-commerce business is that there is a virtually unlimited marketplace: the business does not rely on a limited group of local customers. This business doesn’t really compete with mega e-tailers like Amazon.com, eBay, or Alibris, rather they collaborate by offering their products for sale through the on-line marketplaces established by the e-commerce giants.
The business is operated out of a well-laid-out warehouse consisting of 10,008 usable feet with a monthly lease rate of $3,283 per month NNN. All of the furniture and fixtures are in good repair and are worth approximately $90,000. There is a well-thought-out work flow to the operation that cause it to be efficient, with a systematized, easy-to-follow, work-flow process.
The business is priced at $560,000. The price does not include current assets (inventory is approximately $70k), but the seller will pay off all current and long-term liabilities at closing. Because of some of the recent changes to the business that promise strong future profitability, a performance-based earn-out for a limited time frame is expected as additional seller compensation. The seller is willing to carry a $200k note at an 8.5% interest rate, with a 6-year amortization, and a 3-year term for qualified buyers who agree to the Seller being in first lien position and offering personal guarantees.
Sales (12 months ending Aug. 2008): $1,379,475
Recast Earnings (12 months ending Aug. 2008): $104,494
Projected 2009 Sales: $2,084,750
Projected 2009 Earnings: $205,762
Price: $560,000 plus inventory and earn-out
For more information you may view this PDF document: Initial Information Package Listing 1000005521 or call or email Eric at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com.
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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One of the benefits of using a broker that some prospective business sellers don’t realize is the ability to have the business broker be more aggressive in negotiations while the seller preserves a positive relationship with the buyer - which is essential to get the deal done.
In one recent transaction I was involved with the buyer was being very unreasonable on a few items being negotiated in the purchase agreement. I was able to insist on changes and appear to be driving those efforts. The buyer was very upset with me despite the fact that I believe his positions were irrational. Had the seller been the only person negotiating the terms and had been as forceful as I was, I believe it would have had the potential of jeopardizing the deal. Instead, we were able to get to a point of agreement, and the seller was able to patch up any hard feelings by saying to the buyer, “that darn broker of mine. I know he is looking out for my interests and I feel like I need to follow his advice, but I can give a little on a few of the issues.” Without my third party involvement I believe my client wouldn’t have succeeded in finalizing the deal.
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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One of the most painful mistakes I see business sellers make is to select the wrong attorney to handle the business sale transaction. Sometimes a business seller will insist on using a friend who is a business litigator or an attorney who has helped them with other business or real estate issues but who has limited experience with business sale transactions.
Here are a few things to consider when selecting an attorney to help with the process:
1. An attorney will usually get paid whether the deal closes or not. Since they typically bill at an hourly rate, their financial motivation may be to bring up as many issues that need to get resolved as possible. Of course, good attorneys realize that if enough transactions fall through, then it could impact their firm’s business development activities. Nevertheless, I have been involved in transactions where attorneys create mountains out of molehills and create enough issues that the deal has almost died unnecessarily, while racking up massive billable hours and creating significant angst for both the buyer and the seller. When selecting an attorney you will want one who not only is experienced at representing business sellers and buyers, but also who has a strong track record of getting the transactions closed.
2. The attorney’s specialty can have a dramatic impact on the outcome. An attorney who primarily does litigation may have a strong, competitive, abrasive, win-lose orientation that is antithetical to the cooperative, pragmatic, positive, win-win approach that most successful small business transactions require. Likewise a general business attorney who isn’t experienced at business sale transactions may not be knowledgeable about, or skilled at, dealing with some of the common issues that arise in a small business sale.
3. Many attorneys think that they should be actively involved with negotiating the major business and deal terms. While some may be very effective at doing so, generally speaking that’s probably not the best role for them. If you are using a skilled business broker or investment banker, they should be the ones primarily negotiating the major deal terms. Your business broker or investment banker has likely thoroughly analyzed and more intimately understands the business as well as the market and the acquirer. This knowledge will help the broker or investment banker to better understand how hard to push for certain terms, at what point the buyer will likely walk away, and whether if the deal falls apart there are likely going to be acceptable alternate buyers. Usually the role of the attorney should be to provide input, bring up issues to consider, and make sure that the legal documents used in the transaction accurately reflect the business terms that have been negotiated and provide necessary protections.
4. Some attorneys do not have as strong of an understanding of business and financial issues as people may believe. Consequently, if they are negotiating the deal they may not have the business and financial knowledge necessary to effectively negotiate. For example, on one transaction I was working on the buyer’s attorney was negotiating heavily on terms of a seller note. Later, as he shared with me his monthly payment and balloon calculations, it became very apparent that the attorney didn’t have a clue about how to calculate an amortized loan with a term that was shorter than the amortization - in fact, he didn’t even know how to calculate a fully-amortized loan! Using bizarre methodology, he calculated monthly principal and interest payments that were 24% higher than they should have been, and the balloon payment he came up with was 20% less than it was supposed to be. Without understanding the financial implications of the transaction, he was not the appropriate person to be negotiating the basic terms of the deal. Whether you are relying on an attorney for help with negotiating the deal or not, it is good to use an attorney who has a strong understanding of business and financial issues. It may be worth locating an attorney who also has an accounting background, an MBA, or who has owned a business.
5. Attorneys tend to be very risk adverse. This will sometimes cause them to push for deal terms that are unrealistic, or may cause them to encourage you to move forward in ways that may be dramatically different than the way most business owners, who are more risk tolerant, would proceed. For this reason it is important to make sure that you are listening to and considering your attorney’s advice, but that you are still making the final decisions. If you perceive that an attorney will be resistive to, and fight you on, making the final decisions based on your risk tolerance level, then keep looking for someone else.
6. An experienced business broker or investment banker can likely make excellent referrals of attorneys they have interacted with who have demonstrated success in getting small business transactions successfully closed.
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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If you talk to bankers that do small business acquisition lending, many will suggest that a seller who isn’t willing to carry at least some financing is not confident of the ongoing success of their business because if they were then they would leave some “skin in the game”. I think that’s ridiculous. A business owner who extends financing to a buyer will usually be required to subordinate the seller note to the bank loan. So what happens if the seller has a great operation, and then they sell it and the buyer makes a bunch of dumb changes and runs the business into the ground? Being in second position will likely mean that the seller will be left holding the bag through no fault of their own. The bank is obviously in a stronger position by having the seller carried note in place - so I understand why they push for it. However, when I negotiate deals and a banker tries to insist that a seller must carry financing I push back HARD, and usually either the bank gives up on that requirement or I assist the buyer in locating a lender who will do a deal without requiring the seller to carry financing.
Likewise some business brokers will insist that the only way a business seller will likely succeed is if the seller is willing to carry significant financing. However, if a business is well run, has strong opportunities for growth, and has low risk factors it should appeal to some strong buyers who either have the capital necessary to do the deal, or they will be able to succeed in getting it financed. Sure, without seller carried financing the business may not be as attractive to as wide of a group of buyers, but you don’t need a large group to buy the business - instead you need just one good buyer.
A seller takes on considerable risk when carrying financing. After selling the business, the seller will no longer have control of how the business is operated and the buyer may make changes that inhibit the business’ ability to repay the note. The seller also doesn’t have the diversification advantage that a bank has - the seller is holding one note as opposed to the large number of business loans that the bank has in its portfolio. As previously mentioned, the fact that the seller note will be required to be in second position behind the bank means that if a buyer does get into financial difficulty and the business is liquidated the seller will only recover some of its losses if the bank loan is paid off entirely first.
So who should carry financing and who shouldn’t?
If you have a top notch business and you don’t mind the potential of a longer marketing time frame I would suggest NOT carrying financing, or at least not a large contract. In contrast, if there are some significant issues with your business then it may be advantageous to offer seller carried financing. Furthermore, regardless of whether the business is top notch or not, if a more rapid sale is desired carrying a seller note may help you more easily achieve your exit timing goals.
Here’s some general advice I give to my clients on seller carried financing:
1. Make sure you get enough cash at closing that if the buyer defaults on the note you will still feel like you did OK financially on the sale.
2. You should get an interest rate on the note that is at least equivalent to what a bank would charge since a seller carried note carries more risk.
3. If one of your motivations for extending financing is to defer capital gains taxes you may want to ask yourself whether you believe capital gains tax rates are likely to be significantly higher or lower in the future.
The majority of Codiligent’s business sale clients end up closing their transactions with little or no seller carried financing. Contact Codiligent if you are a prospective business seller who would like to explore whether achieving an all-cash, or nearly all-cash, sale for your business is realistic.
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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OK - so first let me say that this post isn’t directly related to business brokerage or the business sale process. However, the business sale process, even when it goes well, is fraught with stress and uncertainty - often up until the moment a deal closes (and this goes for a broker as well as a principal!). Whether you have stress because of a business sale, from building an entrepreneurial venture, or from other business or life circumstances you know that over time it takes a toll on your body. Not only does chronic stress pose serious long-term health risks but it can also leave you having trouble de-stressing even when stressors aren’t present.
I certainly had those feelings up until a few months ago when I started seeing ads and articles for a device called StressEraser. I bought my Stress Eraser about two months ago and I am actually very surprised by the results. You are instructed to use it before you go to sleep at night to get the maximum benefit. Before I started using it I frequently had insomnia. After using it for a few weeks not only did my insomnia disappear, but I also slept more soundly and deeply and began having more vivid dreams. I have felt far more noticeably relaxed since I started using the device. If during the day I start to feel stressed out, I silence my phone for 15 minutes, and use the Stress Eraser and when I’m done I feel like I’ve taken an hour nap.
This cell-phone size bio-feedback device really works!
If you are suffering from chronic stress this device works surprisingly well. I would encourage you to consider ordering one and give it a try - if it doesn’t work for you it can be returned for a full refund. Here’s a link to where you can learn more about it and buy one:
StressEraser.
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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Tagged: Business Broker, Business Broker Oregon, Business Broker Portland, Business Brokerage, Business Brokers Oregon, Business Brokers Portland, Business Sale, Business Sales, coping with stress, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Insomnia, Meditation, Oregon Business Broker, Oregon Business Brokers, Portland Business Broker, Portland Business Brokers, Small Business, Stress, stress management, Stress Reduction
No business is perfect. All are in a state of imperfection, with constant improvement possible. Yet, some business owners who decide to sell their businesses believe that their business needs to be perceived as being perfect in order to attract someone who will buy the business for a good price. Interestingly, this attitude can actually impair the marketability of the business. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Many business buyers want to acquire a company that they can improve by using their talents, skills, and ideas. If the business is positioned as being perfect then it may be difficult to determine how to improve the business and thus it could be a less attractive acquisition.
2. It is extremely important to establish trust with a buyer to get a business sale closed. If a buyer asks about problems or business weaknesses and you respond that there are no problems, it will not be believable and will cause the buyer to question your integrity and to be skeptical about all representation made.
3. If a buyer believes that there truly aren’t any problems and, therefore, no improvements that can be made to the business it may result in a lower price since there is less up-side potential.
If a business buyer has seriously looked at other businesses and understands the realities of business ownership they won’t expect perfection. Consequently, instead of marketing the business as one that is perfect, a better approach would be to share weaknesses of the business but position them as fixable problems that once fixed will add value to the business.
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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Tagged: Business Broker, Business Broker Oregon, Business Broker Portland, Business Brokerage, Business Brokers Oregon, Business Brokers Portland, Business Sale, Business Sales, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Imperfect Business, Imperfection, Oregon Business Broker, Oregon Business Brokers, Perfect Business, Perfection, Portland Business Broker, Portland Business Brokers, Small Business
For some small closely held businesses (particularly those where there are a lot of cash transactions) there is the temptation to under-report income and over-report expenses on tax returns. Besides the obvious legal and ethical issues, there is a very practical reason not to do this: it will likely prevent your business broker from getting an optimal sales price for your business. Many buyers believe that tax returns tell the most conservative but realistic story about your business’ financial performance. So how does under-reporting income affect your total financial situation when you are getting ready to sell a business? Consider a business that under-reports $20,000 per year for two years and then sells. If the income tax rate is 30%, the business would save $6,000 per year (if they don’t get caught by the IRS!), for a total tax savings of $12,000 for the two year period. Not bad, but it is only a fraction of the financial benefit that the business owner would likely receive through a higher sales price resulting from a value derived from fully reported income. Consider the same business using the assumption that the company has a constant growth rate of 6% and its weighted average cost of capital is 18%. Using a capitalized earnings approach to value, the likely difference in value of reporting vs. not reporting the $20,000 of income would be $166,667 (calculated by dividing the under-reported amount of $20,000 by a capitalization rate of .12, which is the difference between the weighted average cost of capital of .18 and the constant growth rate of .06). Of course, there would likely be capital gains tax on the $166,667, but at a 15% rate a business seller would still likely keep $141,667 in additional after-tax sales proceeds.
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A few books on related topics:
How to Save on Your Taxes Without Cheating
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: A Moral Theory of White-Collar Crime (Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice)
Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, Second Edition
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Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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Tagged: Business Broker, Business Broker Oregon, Business Broker Portland, Business Brokerage, Business Brokers Oregon, Business Brokers Portland, Business Price, Business Sale, Business Sales, Business Taxation, Business Valuation, Cheating on Taxes, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Oregon Business Broker, Oregon Business Brokers, Portland Business Broker, Portland Business Brokers, Small Business, Small business Taxes, Taxes
If you would like to pocket up to 18% more money from the sale of your business you may want to consider starting the sale process within the next 4-8 months. How might starting the process now save you money? By taking advantage of current low capital gains tax rates that have a good chance of increasing dramatically.
First, let me say that I’m not a fan of either Presidential candidate. I mean really - can’t we get better candidates to run for the nation’s top office? One of my biggest complaints with both candidates is their populist economic rhetoric and a seeming lack of understanding of basic finance and economic principles.
Having said that - one candidate has been consistently leading in the polls and has a tax plan that, if enacted, will likely leave you with far less money from the sale of your business. The current capital gains tax rate is 15%. Barack Obama has promised to increase capital gains tax rates to between 20% and 28% if he is elected. While he has mentioned that he may exempt start-up businesses from capital gains, no detailed information has been provided about what criteria will be used to determine whether a business will be considered a “start-up”. Does “start up” mean a business less than 2 years old? One that has less than $200k in revenue? Even if you consider your business to be a start-up, I wouldn’t count on it meeting the definition of a start-up necessary to avoid capital gains under Obama’s plan.
So what does this mean? If a business had a basis of $1 million and it was sold for $5 million today, and $4 million was recognized as a capital gain you would pay $600,000 in capital gains tax.
Using the same scenario if Barack Obama is elected and passes his capital gains tax plan you would pay between $800,000 and $1,120,000 in capital gains tax.
Of course, if Obama is elected it is unlikely that he will get the capital gains tax rate changed immediately - so there is still probably time to act, but considering that the average marketing time for a small business is 6-8 months if you’ve been thinking of selling, it may be a good time to contact a business broker and start the process.
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Here’s a PDF document that gives a preliminary analysis of both candidates tax plans:
A Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans
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A few books to consider about the impacts of taxation:
The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let It Happen
Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality
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Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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Tagged: Barack, Barack Obama, Business Broker, Business Broker Oregon, Business Broker Portland, Business Brokers Portland, Business Sale, Capital Gains, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Obama, Oregon Business Brokers, Portland Business Broker, Small Business, Small Business Capital Gains
One of the first comments I hear from people when I tell them I am the business broker representing a CD & DVD sales and rental retail store is “Wow - I bet that’s a tough sell given that ITunes and downloaded music are dominating that industry.” The problem with this statement is IT IS NOT TRUE.
Here are the facts according to the Recording Industry Association of America: while it is correct that downloaded music is growing rapidly it still represents less than 10% of all music sales. Furthermore, during the same time that music downloads have gained their small part of market share it is other non-record stores (like Big Box Retailers) who have lost market share. Record stores, as an industry, have had surprisingly stable revenue over the past 5-6 years.
The store I’m representing sells music CDs and sells and rents movie DVDs. It’s located in the picturesque town of Longview, WA - which is only a 50 minute drive from Portland and about a 2 hour drive from Seattle, providing a low-cost-of-living small town environment close to an abundance of recreational activities that is close enough to two major cities that it is no problem to have easy access to big city entertainment, events, restaurants, and shopping.
The business has a great track record of retaining well-trained staff for long periods of time. It also has excellent trade secrets and proprietary methods of operation. Included in the sale is a strong historical database of client purchases and buying habits that has been accumulated over 14 years. The store has the professional feel of a national retailer and is located in a mall that contains branded companies such as Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Starbucks, Michaels, Rite Aid, Ross, Ace Hardware, Quiznos, Applebee’s, etc. There is minimal direct local competition and the local paper’s readers have named the business “Best Music Store” for every year since the award was started (1994).
This business has $117k in Seller Discretionary Earnings, and is priced at $365k plus inventory.
Following is a link to an initial information package and confidentiality agreement on the business broker’s website. Qualified buyers who complete, sign, and fax the confidentiality agreement to Eric Williams at 503-296-5830 will be provided with a 100+ page confidential package of information on the business.
Initial Information Package for Award-Winning CD & DVD Business
Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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Tagged: Business Broker, Business Broker Oregon, Business Broker Portland, Business Brokerage, Business Brokers Portland, Business Sale, CD Store, CD Store for Sale, Entertainment Industry, Movie Rental Business, Movie Rental Business For Sale, Music Business, Music Businesses For Sale, Music Industry, Music Store For Sale, Oregon Business Brokers, Portland Business Broker, Portland Business Brokers, Record Store, Record Store For Sale, Retail Business Sale
If you are thinking of selling your business at some point in time one area that you may want to consider improving is your business’ policies, procedures, and systems. Having quality, working, well-documented systems can not only mean the difference between succeeding in selling a business or not, but it can also have an impact on how much someone is going to pay for the business.
So what is a business system? There are two general definitions that I like. One comes from BusinessDictionary.com:
Methodical procedure or process, used as a delivery mechanism for providing specific goods or services to customers in a well defined market.
The other is from Michael Gerber’s book “The E-Myth Revisited“:
A system is a set of things, actions, ideas, and information that interact with each other, and in so doing, alter other systems.
Your business broker will have a far easier time getting a buyer to move forward if the buyer sees replicable systems that are set up or documented that the buyer believes they will be able to follow and implement. Without formalized systems a buyer will tend to wonder if they really have the knowledge necessary to operate the business. How will they know what to do to achieve the same results that you have?
A conversation with a good business broker or a small business management consultant that focuses on systems and operations may be worthwhile to figure out if this is an area that you should consider spending more time on. Michael Gerber’s books, and in particular, “E-Myth Mastery“, contain some good ideas on how to develop quality formal systems for a small business.
An extremely easy and intuitive database program that can be easily customized to create automated systems for a small business is Filemaker Pro 9. If you’ve been frustrated by the difficulty of using Microsoft Access, and the difficulty with customizing (without the assistance of a programer) of CRM tools like Goldmine and ACT then you will love Filemaker Pro. It is far more intuitive than these other programs, easier to use, and more customizable (which lends itself to use as a business systems platform). An easy-to-follow book that will help you with customization of Filemaker Pro is Learn FileMaker Pro 9.
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Click here to order “The E-Myth Revisited” audio CD.
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Codiligent Business Brokers - Portland, Oregon based business brokers representing sellers of businesses with $500k - $20 million in annual revenue. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the possible sale of your business you may contact Eric Williams at 503-535-8817 or E@codiligent.com
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Tagged: Business Broker, Business Broker Oregon, Business Broker Portland, Business Brokerage, Business Brokers Portland, Business Sales, Business Systems, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Exit Strategies, Oregon Business Brokers, Portland Business Brokers, Small Business
