Most business buyers and sellers are wondering what 2021 and beyond will bring.  BizBuySell and BizQuest President Bob House provided a range of insights stemming from BizBuySell’s 3rd Quarter Insight Report and a survey of over 2,300 business owners.  The simple fact is that the pandemic has most definitely had a major impact on the buying and selling of businesses.  This fact is obvious.  But diving deeper, there are a range of insights that can be gleaned.  First, owners do understand that COVID is a massive force in business right now.  According to the survey, 68% of owners feel that they would have received a better price for their business in 2019 than in 2020.  Only 37% of respondents felt that they would receive a better price this year.  Of owners who felt that they would receive a lower price in 2020 than in 2019, 71% of these owners said that their assessment was directly tied to the pandemic and its accompanying economic impact. A question on the survey asked owners if the … Read More »

For every reason that a pending sale of a business collapses, there is a positive reason why the sale closed successfully.  What does it take for the sale of a business to close successfully?  Certainly there are reasons that a sale might not close that are beyond anyone’s control.  A fire, for example, the death of a principal, or a natural disaster such as a hurricane or tornado.  There might be an environmental problem that the seller was unaware of when he or she decided to sell.  Aside from these unplanned catastrophic events, deals abort because of the people involved.  Here are a few examples of how a sale closes successfully. The Buyer and Seller Are in Agreement From the Beginning In too many cases, the buyer and seller really weren’t in agreement, or didn’t understand the terms of the sale.  If an offer to purchase is too vague, or has too many loose ends, the sale can unravel somewhere along the line.  However, if prior to the offer to purchase the loose ends are taken care … Read More »

When you are buying or selling a business, you might very well end up making a deal with someone from another generation.  Therefore, it only makes sense to take the time to understand that individual’s background and how that might cause behavioral differences.  It is important to understand and reflect upon where many of them are coming from and the collective experiences and trends that shaped their identities and perspectives.  At the same time, you can identify your own biases, strengths and weaknesses that may be caused by your own upbringing. The strategies in this article originated from Chuck Underwood who is considered a leading expert in the diversity of communication styles between generations.  He is the author of a major book on the subject as well as host of the long-running “America’s Generations with Chuck Underwood” on PBS.  Generational Sensitivity  Underwood’s perspective is that people of each generation … Read More »