Sell-Side Mergers & Acquisitions
Selling your business isn’t just a transaction; it’s a monumental milestone in your entrepreneurial journey. This process can be a whirlwind of emotions, from the bittersweet farewell to a venture you’ve nurtured to the thrill of new opportunities on the horizon. To ensure you make the most of this pivotal moment, having the right advisor by your side is absolutely crucial, especially when your business represents a lifetime of dedication.
Who We Are and What We Do
We are dedicated to working with Owners, Founders, and CEOs of privately held middle-market companies to facilitate the sale of their businesses. Leveraging a meticulously designed, technology-enhanced process, we assist our clients in maximizing the value of their businesses, spanning a wide array of industries and verticals. Whether your objective is a sale to a family member, a partner/management buyout, a strategic/financial acquirer, or part of a planned exit strategy, our seasoned advisors will collaborate closely with you to achieve your goals.
The Art of Strategic Planning
When it comes to divesting a business, meticulous planning is essential. We invest a considerable amount of time upfront to thoroughly understand your organization and the motivations behind your decision to sell. By getting involved in the process as early as possible, we empower you to strategize and explore your transaction options. Whether your ideal timeline is 90 days or two years from now, we’re here to provide guidance when the moment is right.
Our Comprehensive Approach
Our sell-side M&A services are designed with your financial objectives in mind. This holistic approach involves a comprehensive, technology-driven process, including:
- Strategizing for Success: We offer expert guidance on maximizing your business’s value and pinpointing the ideal market timing.
- Valuation Matters: Crafting a high-level business valuation for internal discussions is a critical step, helping you understand what your business is truly worth.
- Crafting a Compelling Story: We create executive summaries, pitch decks, and marketing materials tailored to your unique business, ensuring your story resonates with potential buyers.
- Targeted Outreach: Leveraging a customized CRM, we develop a list of prospective buyers and initiate contact discreetly to maintain confidentiality.
- Casting a Wide Net: We orchestrate a broad process to present your business opportunity to interested acquirers, casting a wide net to ensure you find the right match.
- Efficient Management: We meticulously track and report all communications with potential buyers, keeping you informed every step of the way.
- Streamlined Due Diligence: Our team establishes a virtual data room and oversees the due diligence process, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience.
- Negotiating the Best Deal: We negotiate with buyers on the deal’s structure, timing, pricing, and conditional terms to secure a favorable outcome.
- Closing the Deal: We facilitate interactions with third-party advisors and ensure a successful closing of the transaction.
Valuation & Initial Engagement
Understanding your business’s value and its strategic positioning within the market is fundamental to a successful deal closure. We collaborate with you and your accountants to formulate a business valuation based on relevant comparables and industry multiples specific to your niche. We then engage in discussions around target prices based on various M&A scenarios, from the most conservative to the most optimistic. Additionally, we conduct mock due diligence and perform rigorous vetting of the company by the advisor, ensuring your business is meticulously represented.
Crafting the Offering Memo
Once you’ve engaged us for M&A consulting, we work closely with you to create a powerful “Pitchbook” or “Confidential Marketing Memorandum.” This comprehensive document serves as the cornerstone of the deal-making process, offering potential buyers a deep dive into your business. It covers everything from financials and employees to future growth opportunities, making it an indispensable tool for attracting serious investors. Your Confidential Offering Memo is your business exit’s business plan, providing essential operational, marketing, and financial information.
Selecting the Right Buyer and Outreach
Unlike a generic “business for sale” sign, our approach involves two pivotal steps. First, we identify a shortlist of potential strategic acquirers—those most likely to pay a premium in an M&A scenario. This strategic shortlist is combined with a broader list of financial investors. Approval of this list is a collaborative effort between the seller and all shareholders. Once approved, we initiate a confidential outreach campaign to potential strategic and financial buyers, safeguarding your business’s confidentiality throughout the process.
Negotiating for Value Enhancement
Expert negotiation skills are the linchpin of successful M&A. Our process is designed to bring multiple buyers to the table, creating a value-enhancing auction scenario where the buyer aligning best with your criteria emerges victorious. This phase demands experienced negotiators who can add value precisely when it matters most, during the final sale of the company.
Due Diligence & the Closing
Once we’ve identified the winning bidder in our strategic auction, we work swiftly to ensure due diligence and deal closure occur expeditiously, ideally within 30 to 90 days after executing a Letter of Intent. This efficient timeline minimizes disruptions and ensures a seamless transition.
Delivering Enhanced Value Through Strategic Auctions
The journey of selling your business is inherently strategic. It involves collaboration with various stakeholders to prepare the business for sale. This preparation includes engagement with professionals such as investment bankers, insurance representatives, attorneys, and tax and estate planners. Essentially, selling your business is akin to project management, and early preparation is key. Starting early ensures you’re prepared in case a buyer comes knocking early, but it also allows you to time your exit perfectly when market conditions align favorably.
At the core of this process is an understanding that certain aspects of the deal need to be addressed before you even begin. Issues related to buyout-ready life insurance and estate planning should be handled proactively. By starting the process early and engaging with all relevant parties, including your investment banker, you set the stage for a successful business sale that maximizes value.
Ready to embark on this transformative journey? Contact us today, and let’s work together to unlock the full potential of your business’s value.
M&A Support
Our team is fully engaged with our clients, from initial engagement to final liquid divestment. Our extensive experience supporting sellside clients has helped us to develop unique yet proven methods to increase the value of a business. This includes relying on our team of experts within the worlds of finance, accounting, sales, marketing, and operations to conduct a thorough analysis of your business. We then actively source multiple buyers, whom we engage in a competitive process aimed at increasing your return. We’ll work closely with you to negotiate a successful transaction, all while ensuring your confidentiality is never compromised. Our goal is to ensure a successful sale while simultaneously helping our clients enjoy the highest possible value for their company. The stipulations associated with a business sale very from individual to individual. Regardless of whether your primary goal is to sell to a buyer who’ll continue the ideals you’ve established, or to achieve the best possible results to benefit shareholders, Harwood Capital will use our vast resources to target the perfect candidate for your transition, and will work closely with you to close the deal. Not sure if it’s the right time to sell? We also offer support and guidance – built on factual data and analysis – to help you determine the best time for you to exit your company.
Get in touch When it comes time to divest your company interests, giving you the freedom to move to other areas, there are countless details inherent in the process that require the help of knowledgeable professionals. Starting the process can be time consuming and drawn-out, especially if you are looking to receive the highest return possible. Many privately-held companies are attached to the owners and founders by a special bond. Those who have helped to make them what they are today sometimes don’t initially realize the emotional aspects of completing the deal. While the process of handing over the business to the succeeding generation can be a difficult and often emotional challenge, we work with you to ensure you are able to make the transition as smooth as possible. In addition, there are often aspects to selling your business which could make the deal a bit more complicated. For instance, sometimes the deal could involve real estate or another type of account. We are an investment banking firm focused on providing strategic advice and transaction services to owners of middle-market companies. Whether you are looking for outstanding results in a succession planning exit, or finding strategic buyers for healthy, rapidly growing companies seeking a partner to provide scale, we find that right buyer. We craft the presentation materials that capture the value of the asset you have grown. We uncover and communicate the value creation potential for the strategic buyers we target. Then we get back to the basics. We target a large number of of strategic and financial buyers. As the process unfolds, we get several buyers to compete. This buyer competition produces the highest and best value the market has to offer.