For many business owners, a sale to a third party is their assumed exit path. Some business owners even start their businesses with the goal of finding a larger buyer with deep pockets, selling the business and retiring early. The potential to sell the business for cash draws business owners away from first-party sales and toward third-party sales. If you are considering a third-party sale, do you know the full scale of the planning you’ll need to do to get ready? Those who make plans improve their chances for a successful sale.
While it’s true that many business owners initially intend to pursue a third-party sale as their exit path, it’s also true that many of those same owners choose a first-party sale in the end. There are four challenges that you could face as a third-party seller that could cause you to change your mind, and some of them are unexpected.
Challenge 1: Threats to Financial Security
Third-party sales are a two-sided coin. While they may attract the highest sale price, they also can require you to give up control. If you do not receive the entire purchase price in cash at closing, you risk relying on the company’s new owners to perform well enough to support the earn-out or pay off a promissory note. If the company struggles after the sale, and you are reliant on the continued performance of the business you no longer own for post-exit security, you might find that you have to go back to work.
Challenge 2: Seller’s Remorse
Seller’s remorse occurs when business owners sell their businesses and find that they don’t have anything that they like to do outside of running the business. You might assume that you will figure out what to do after you exit, only to panic as the sale date approaches. Pulling out of a sale can have a ripple effect, since qualified buyers might shy away from businesses that go on the market then come off the market without selling. Additionally, owners who don’t know what to do with their lives without the business can have an unfulfilling post-exit life if they sell the business without a plan.
Challenge 3: Tax Consequences
Will you be one of the unfortunate owners who finds yourself owing a significant percentage of your sale price to the government in taxes? Without a pre-sale analysis and inventory of the business and personal tax consequences of a sale, you might go too far down the path with an attractive buyer before you realize you can’t afford to sell the business for the price they offer.
Challenge 4: Culture Shock
Buyers commonly want to make changes to their acquisition post-closing. After all, buyers rarely buy businesses unless they think they can make changes to improve them. You might regret selling to a buyer who radically changes your company, which can dampen your post-exit satisfaction. Perhaps more harmful are owners who decide that they cannot stomach a radical change to their business’s culture and take them off the market, thereby causing the value of their small business to drop dramatically (i.e., tainting the marketplace) and potentially scaring off customers.
There are many assumptions for business owners to make if they decide to pursue a third-party sale. Those assumptions can negatively impact owners, vendors and their businesses if not properly addressed. Contact a Carson Wealth advisor today to discuss the plausibility and challenges of a third-party sale for your business.
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The information contained in this article is general in nature and is not legal, tax or financial advice. For information regarding your particular situation, contact an attorney or a tax or financial advisor. The information in this newsletter is provided with the understanding that it does not render legal, accounting, tax or financial advice. In specific cases, clients should consult their legal, accounting, tax or financial advisor. This article is not intended to give advice or to represent our firm as being qualified to give advice in all areas of professional services. Exit Planning is a discipline that typically requires the collaboration of multiple professional advisors. To the extent that our firm does not have the expertise required on a particular matter, we will always work closely with you to help you gain access to the resources and professional advice that you need.
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Any examples provided are hypothetical and for illustrative purposes only. Examples include fictitious names and do not represent any particular person or entity.
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