M&A Deal Killer: Business Deal Breakers

Everyone has heard the phrase “the best defence is a good offence.” It’s a motto that can be applied to a wide range of life events, and it’s helped many people achieve long-term success by taking proactive steps. While selling a business may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the word, it is certainly an acceptable mindset to have. You’ve worked hard for years, if not decades, to create and grow your firm; it only makes sense to repay your investment by receiving a fair sales price and a smooth transaction.

With the hurdles of discretely promoting the business, finding the proper buyer, financing, and due diligence, the best way to avoid an unforeseen stumbling block is to be aware of potential deal killers and try to eliminate them before the day your firm is scheduled to close. Our M&A Deal Killers blog series examines the top five business deal breakers in business sales and how to detect, prevent, and resolve them. We will start with #1: Client Concentrations.

Table of Contents

Deal Killer #1: Client Concentrations

One of the most significant challenges that could dissuade a buyer from investing in your company is unequal client concentrations and revenue streams. Unbalanced customer concentrations can ruin an otherwise great sale, frightening purchasers away owing to probable revenue loss and raising a huge red flag with lenders.

Because of the danger, banks would seldom finance an acquisition loan for a business with one customer accounting for more than 20% of total sales – and most purchasers agree. Uneven customer concentration is one of the most prevalent difficulties we find among entrepreneurs planning to sell, but the good news is that it can be fixed with time. If you believe you have a problem with client concentration, or are unsure how to identify it, we have outlined a comprehensive method below to assist you in addressing the issue and preventing future problems with your customer base.

1. Risks of Unbalanced Client Concentrations

Recognising the potential harm caused by client concentration is the first step in addressing and resolving the issue. Uneven customer concentrations not only derail M&A transactions, but they can also have a long-term negative impact on your firm if not addressed. Here are some of the potential issues that uneven consumer concentration can generate for your business:

If a large client leaves, your revenues and cash flow may suffer, perhaps leading to personnel layoffs, less capacity, and lower cash flow.
Big clients understand how essential they are and will expect more time and resources from you, as well as unique pricing, which might affect your bottom line and morale.
Client revenues can capture business owners, causing them to spend less time wooing new clients or prospecting for better margin business prospects.
Big clients frequently pose time management challenges for employees, resulting in more time spent catering to them and less time spent on new clients.
Unbalanced client concentrations lower business value during the valuation phase and are hurdles to obtaining SBA loan.
Prospective buyers may request that the seller provide a lengthier training and transition period to ensure the transferability of the connection with the significant client.
Proposals for less desirable transaction arrangements, such as earn-outs.

2. How to Identify a Client Concentration Problem

The next stage in resolving a client concentration issue is to determine whether it exists and how serious it is. Unless the customer’s sales are large, business owners may be ignorant of the issue. In general, if any customer accounts for more than 20% of your business, purchasers (and banks) will consider it an issue. To determine the state of your client concentrations, run a sales by customer report in your accounting programme. Depending on the programme you use, the report could be labelled “Revenue Volumes by Client” or “Sales by Customer.”

Once you’ve identified the relevant report, run it for the previous month, three months, year, and three years. After you’ve ran the reports, take the time to review them. Do not be concerned if you discover that your revenues increased for a month or two as a result of a major client project. An occasional rise in revenue from one client is perfectly acceptable; it is the constant imbalance that must be addressed.

3. How to Resolve a Customer Concentration Issue

While uneven client concentrations and disproportionate revenue streams are cause for concern, they are completely repairable. The worst-case scenario is that the problem is discovered after the sale is nearly complete, or that a business owner discovers the issue when they are already burned out and want to sell their company right now.

Fixing a concentration problem takes time, but it is doable. Here’s how you can accomplish it:

Once you’ve identified at-risk clients, make a list of the percentage of revenue each is accountable for. Start with the largest client.
Set goals for minimising percentages. Reducing high concentrations could entail limiting the services provided to one specific client or increasing lesser client percentages.
Invest more time in prospecting new clients. One effective strategy to lessen excessive client concentration is to replace them with fresh clients. Alternate between spending time with current clients and prospecting for new ones.
Upsell to smaller customers. Reduce the large percentages by raising the smaller ones. To increase revenue, have your sales/service staff focus on upselling to smaller clients.
Hire more employees to devote their time to servicing new customers.
When all else fails, develop a great backup plan. Reducing concentration takes time, and it may only assist to have a backup plan in place in case the huge client decides to leave.

4. How to Prevent Future Customer Concentration Issues

If you’ve reached the preventative stage, you’ve either fixed your concentration problems or don’t have any – which is something to be proud of. Fixing imbalanced customer concentrations is time-consuming, and the simplest solution is to avoid the problem in the first place.

Remember that customer concentration is more than just money; it can also refer to how much time your team spends servicing the client, which can have the same negative consequences as financial imbalances.

Consider having 20-30 modest to medium-sized customers rather than a few giant ones.
Run and analyse concentration reports on a regular basis to maintain track of rising revenue streams.
Prioritise sales. No customer can grow too large if you are constantly onboarding new clients.
Plan a long-term marketing plan. Marketing takes time, so developing a strategy now will assist keep high concentrations low and ensure new clients in the future.

If you’ve realised that your customer concentrations have become unequal, don’t worry; you’re not alone. We’ve worked with hundreds of business owners that had the same issue and were able to solve it on their own. Addressing the client concentration issue on the front end enables the company to maximise the sales price when it is ready to sell.

As a business owner, it’s vital to stay one step ahead of the competition. Knowing which possible deal killers jeopardise the sale of your company will be a useful beginning point.

The greatest strategy to assure a successful business sale is to identify and handle potential deal breakers or deal killers before the deal is closed.

Deal Killer #2: Unresolved Issues

This is every buyer’s worst nightmare. They believe they’ve found the ideal business; funding has been approved; they’re weeks into due diligence; then “Surprise!” an outstanding issue is revealed. Discovering problems during due diligence breeds distrust and can swiftly derail a transaction.

Discovering unsolved difficulties so late in the game can make it difficult for the buyer to pull out of the deal, resulting in future litigation issues; or it may compel you to restart the M&A process entirely. For buyers, discovering a serious issue while looking for a firm can be a deal-breaker. And it is quite irritating for business owners to work hard to develop a great business only to have a deal wrecked by a common problem that has yet to be fully fixed.

As a business owner, I understand how tempting it is to put off fixing bothersome issues, but as you get closer to selling your firm, the time to solve these issues is before listing, not after.

What Kind of Issues Might Scare Away Buyers?

First, let’s define what constitutes a “major issue” that may deter customers. We have seen the following concerns in the past:

Litigation: Tax difficulties and liens.
Unresolved worker’s compensation claims.
Outstanding consumer warranty claims.
Regulatory OSHA actions.
County notice of noncompliance
Past-due AP
Unresolved AP collection claims or vendor liens
AR collection difficulties.

While completing any of these activities may seem intimidating, rest assured that you are not alone. Most businesses have ongoing challenges like these at any given time, but with the correct plan and support team, you should be able to overcome them before listing your firm. After years of hard effort in your business, you deserve a smooth and lucrative sale. It would be awful to miss out on that opportunity because of something that was simply fixable.

If you suspect a problem in your business or are unsure how to address it, review the plan below to help fix difficulties and avoid future problems from occurring.

1. Risks of Not Handling Unresolved Issues Before Trying to Sell

The first step in resolving a serious issue is determining how it may affect your business. Waiting until late in the M&A process to address an issue is not only unethical and bad business practice, but it may also undermine the transaction and dissuade other purchasers from coming further. The difficulties described above could significantly damage your business in the following ways:

If the purchase goes ahead despite the unsolved issue, you may face substantial lawsuit later if the buyer learns the issue after closing.
If you delay in resolving a regulatory issue, your company may face further penalties, exacerbating the situation.
AP issues could jeopardise vendor relationships or lead to collections.
AR collection troubles increase client frustration, and they seldom collect the whole amount.

Outstanding liens or judgements on assets and property may cause you to lose the assets or property while you continue to control the firm; similarly, personal assets and property you wish to keep after the sale, including transaction revenues, may suffer the same fate.

2. How to Identify a Problem Within Your Business

Now that you understand the possible impact of an unsolved issue on your organisation and the M&A transaction process, you can start looking for cracks in your business and finding remedies. To start identifying potential problems, we recommend the following steps:

Analyse any outstanding concerns that you are already aware of, such as vendor, customer, and employee issues.
Meet with the leadership teams in each department to address any prospective scenarios or notices that have been received.
Search state records for liens filed against your company as well as UCC filings. Repeat this process every quarter to resolve any findings that are inaccurate or unresolved, and request that they be deleted from the state database.

3. How to Resolve Issues Within Your Business

First, notify the vendor, customer, or agency managing the claim that you have received their correspondence and are working to resolve the situation. It is worth noting that the agency will most likely be more understanding if you can provide some action steps and a timetable for resolving the issue.

Once you’ve contacted the necessary parties, here are some possible next steps:

Create an advisory team to assist you in addressing the issue. Legal counsel, CPAs, and insurance providers are reliable sources for recommending next measures and prevention strategies.
Address any identified issues as part of your monthly financial and operational assessment. Get ahead of the problem by identifying the source of the issue. Many business owners believe that education, training, and communication can handle the majority of issues if addressed as soon as they arise.
Litigation results from a failure to communicate with and address the disgruntled party. If the side understands that you are striving to correct the injustice, the litigation can usually be stopped.
Regulatory concerns are typically the result of a lack of understanding about what each agency is monitoring and holding the business accountable for. Organise a weekly report for your management team that specifies what an agency may potentially be monitoring, as well as any agency’s findings and recommendations for improvement.
Make sure you communicate progress on unsolved issues to any agency, vendor, or client on a regular basis.
A buyer will value an organised system within the business that is aware of these difficulties and works to keep ahead of potential future problems.

4. How to Prevent Future Issues

Great news: if you’ve reached this point, it means you either don’t have any severe difficulties to deal with or you’ve already devised a strategy to deal with the ones you do have. That’s great! Keep in mind that many businesses have flaws; it’s just important to address them before selling to prevent scaring off financiers and buyers during due diligence.

Once you have handled existing concerns, it is advisable to build a preventative plan for the future using the following tips:

Hold a monthly meeting with the heads of each of your company’s departments to ensure that any possible concerns are identified and addressed early on.
Communicate with your staff on industry and company procedures to limit the frequency of serious issues, as well as how to handle those that do happen.
Create and deploy a handbook or guide that explains how to address issues depending on the potential hazards for each department.
When dealing with major issues in your organisation, you will discover that the majority of them are caused by a lack of information about communication, regulatory agencies, and financial management, rather than a lack of industry knowledge or general education among your workforce.

As business owners, we frequently find that informing our staff on the company’s financial goals and strategy is inadequate. To resolve challenges, you must have reliable information about the primary issues. Introduce such sources to your management team and allow them to become acquainted on a regular basis. The team then learns what to look for and when to include certain team members and ownership. This technique will result in a dependable management team capable of resolving current challenges and reducing future risk.

It is common knowledge in the business transaction sector that a buyer would pay more for a business if the owner has educated their team on the types of potential difficulties to look for and how to handle them before they become pricey. In most cases, when a buyer discovers an issue at closing, it is the fear of further secrets that causes the agreement to fall apart. Discovering issues during due diligence breeds distrust, and when the buyer does not believe that the seller or employees understand the major underlying risks of the business, they begin to question the investment and the management team’s ability to maintain the business’s profitability and value once the seller exits.

Deal Killer #3: Human Capital Concentration

Diversifying your staff is an important step in getting a business ready for sale. So, what is a human capital concentration problem? Human capital concentration occurs when important personnel control business revenue, vendors, sales, or operations yet lack cross-training. This is problematic for business owners since, because these personnel are the only ones with the necessary knowledge to accomplish particular jobs, their absence disrupts operations.

When selling a business, buyers want to know that no matter what happens to one employee, there are multiple people on the team who can do any job. After years of hard work in your firm, you deserve a smooth and successful sale, and it would be upsetting to miss out on that opportunity due to an undiversified staff. If you believe you have a human capital concentration problem in your company and need assistance addressing it, explore the following factors.

1. Risks of a Human Capital Concentration Problem

If your workforce is not cross-trained, the lack of one skilled individual in each industry poses a risk. If an employee quits or takes a leave of absence, who will fill the void if no other employee understands their job? It may fall on the owner or be inadequately completed by another staff, resulting in strained client relationships or decreased revenue.

Transitioning a new owner into an undiversified staff will have an impact on the firm. The new owner will lack the necessary skills to replace the prior owner as the “go-to” person, and the business may suffer if another employee is unable to effortlessly take over for the absent employee. This raises the possibility of lower production, overwhelming the new owner, damaging customer relations, and affecting earnings.
The danger of an undiversified team could put the seller at a disadvantage during the sales process, necessitating an earnout or seller financing.
Once the prior owner has completed the training period, the new owner will have no one to learn from in the absence of a professional employee. As a result, jobs or projects that should have been completed quickly may be delayed, resulting in poor service quality and lower productivity. The team’s morale may decline as a result of the increased strain.

2. How to Identify a Human Capital Concentration Issue

Identifying a human capital concentration issue in your organisation is straightforward because it typically manifests in two ways. One, your team lacks diversity in terms of skills and training, which means that one person is only capable of performing one specific job. The other possibility occurs when one individual knows much too much and holds all of the knowledge and power of their position. Both options pose risk to the firm. These are the two basic methods for identifying a problem in your organisation.

If a team member is absent from the office, the department suffers, and work is left undone. No other employee has the necessary knowledge to perform the function during the absence, causing the organisation to fall behind.
One individual has an uneven quantity of information about their role or a certain client, and no other employee has the opportunity to participate. When one employee hoards all information on a client or project, it is time to take action. No single person should have the ability to create or break your firm.

3. How to Resolve a Human Capital Concentration Issue

If you’ve uncovered an imbalance in your company’s human capital or income distribution, there is a solution: develop a cross-training programme. Cross-training equips staff with vital knowledge while also cultivating a team-building culture that buyers value. This approach is relatively straightforward and will benefit your organisation in a number of ways, including enhancing team value, lowering risk, and increasing buyer appeal. Here are three methods to include cross-training into your employees’ regular routines.

Training Manuals

The first step in putting together an effective cross-training programme is to document all of the training material in a manual. We propose producing guides for each position so that if one individual leaves, other staff may pick up where they left off. Good documentation of processes and procedures ensures that no employee is overly powerful or the sole person capable of doing a specific activity.

Peer Training

Pair up your staff and let them teach each other the essentials of their employment. Typically, it is ideal to begin this among personnel from the same department so that the department does not suffer. Depending on the scale of your organisation, you need eventually train personnel in different areas to ensure continuous coverage.

Group Projects

When it is appropriate, organise these situations into collaborative projects to avoid any single person from accumulating all information relating to a specific task or client. For example, assign two salesmen to each large client, or have other employees peer-review projects to ensure that more than one team member has knowledge and experience in that field.

4. How to Prevent Future Issues with Human Capital Concentrations

After spending time resolving existing issues, it is vital that you prevent the same problem from recurring. To ensure that your company never experiences a human capital concentration again, seek to take the following preventative steps.

First Day Training

The first day on the job, which is frequently the start of the training process, is a critical opportunity for you as an employer to implement cross-training. This procedure should entail job shadowing many different people with various vocations and performing various duties within the organisation to provide the new employee an understanding of multiple jobs and departments.

Team Building

Make detailed notes on the various requirements/knowledge of each position or department inside the company so that you can hold training sessions to further educate your personnel. Include all employees, regardless of tenure or experience level, so they can learn from those who have helped the company grow over time.

Large projects

Special initiatives provide an excellent opportunity for staff to develop new skills. A excellent strategy to take advantage of this circumstance is to first do an evaluation to determine what talents are required for the project and which skills you already have. Then, group your staff based on their contrasting skills and weaknesses so that they can learn from one another. Employees will not only learn new skills from their cohorts, but they will also have the opportunity to bond and create relationships with coworkers with whom they would not regularly interact. Later, meet with all of the pairs and allow employees to ask questions, express concerns, and share how they handled certain scenarios so that everyone can learn from one another.

If you’ve realised you have a problem with your human capital concentration, don’t worry – it’s one of the simplest M&A deal killers to fix and prove you’ve fixed. Over the years, we’ve worked with hundreds of business owners who have struggled with human capital concentration. By collaborating with CasinosBroker and developing a strategy, we assisted many of them in resolving the issue and increasing the value of their business. Because these business owners addressed the issue early on, they were able to raise the value of their company, get more cash at closure, and have a smoother transition period.

Making the decision to sell your business can be difficult, but also very exciting! After years of establishing and expanding your business, it’s time to start planning an exit strategy that will benefit you, your company, and your future lifestyle. While considering various departure strategies may feel frightening, know that you are not alone, and this is a natural stage in the business ownership life cycle. The best way to prepare a successful departure is to perform your research ahead of time, assess the risks, and identify any weaknesses in your organisation. We also strongly advise assembling an advising team that includes a CPA, an attorney, and a competent business broker to ensure that your best interests are always at the forefront of the transaction.

During the research stage, you should look at how to ensure a successful transaction and the best potential price for your firm. Meanwhile, it is vital that you investigate the potential deal killers. Having a deal fall through at the last minute is every business owner’s nightmare. However, if you take the effort to investigate what could go wrong right away, you will have more time to mitigate risk.

Deal Killer #4: Overvaluing Assets & Inventory

Even the best M&A deal could suffer from a number of issues if assets are overvalued. Overvaluing your inventory can cause a variety of complications throughout the due diligence process, including repricing the firm, cancelled offers, and much more.

1. Risks of Inflation in Inventory Value

Calculating value correctly during a business sale is crucial, especially when selling to a third party buyer. Business value is determined by a variety of criteria, and when inventory is overpriced, it provides an opportunity for the buyer to renegotiate the agreement. To accurately assess inventory and assets, only include items used in routine, recurring business processes (but don’t leave anything out). If a buyer discovers that your goods or assets are overvalued, the following are the potential risks:

The buyer may try to renegotiate the arrangement or even withdraw their offer, causing the seller to repeat the entire transaction.
If the buyer finds out after the transaction is completed, they may seek legal action against the seller.
Offers on the firm may be lower than the true value as the buyer (and their lender) attempt to account for the difference.
Banks may only authorise cash for the buyer in an amount less than the business’s actual price.

2. How to Determine if Your Assets are Priced Higher Than They are Worth

The first step in recognising an issue is to understand how to appropriately calculate the value of inventories and assets. As previously said, it is critical that you only include assets in the valuation that are employed in daily operations; this is because businesses are evaluated based on cash flow, and your assets are considered as tools for generating revenue and profits. Buyers see these crucial goods as a way to return their loans, as does the lender, who has a vested interest in seeing the loan paid off.

If you’ve identified goods on your inventory list that aren’t being used on a regular basis, consider re-evaluating their value. It’s also vital to consider the price amount placed on each item; is it the original or replacement cost? If you discover that your equipment has been erroneously valued, seek a second assessment to ensure that the deal remains solid in the future.

3. How to Resolve Improperly Valued Inventory

Don’t be concerned if you uncover an error in the valuation of your inventory. There is still time to address this issue and secure a successful M&A deal for your company. The first step is to consider why and how your equipment was evaluated; depending on the circumstances, some of the numbers may be incorrect. We’ve included a few examples below of situations that could influence how your equipment was evaluated and why there might be an error.

The assets may be appraised at replacement cost rather than their original cost, which could be greater. If you’ve already had your equipment assessed for insurance purposes, this could be an excellent place to start if you want to change the value.
If you had your equipment valued for banking purposes, such as applying for a loan, the assets could have been used as collateral. Valuing equipment to obtain a larger loan may have exaggerated the numbers.
You may have also had your assets evaluated for tax purposes, in which case they were appraised at a cost that depreciated over time. This strategy would deplete the value of your assets while decreasing the total worth of your inventory. Even with a straight-line depreciation schedule, most equipment has no book value after five or seven years.

4. How to Prevent Further Issues in the Business Sale Process

The answer to this query is in two words: presale planning. Selling your business, like every other important milestone in your life, requires a sound plan and implementation. There are several moving parts to the business sale process, and properly valuing your inventory is only one of them. It’s critical to remember that everything about your company is revealed during the due diligence phase, and it would be disastrous to have a deal break apart because of something you could have easily rectified months before listing the business.

To identify these problems, we recommend consulting with a skilled business broker six to twelve months before selling. You may discover any possible issues with the help of a professional, and they should be able to provide guidance on how to handle them. With a solid presale plan, you may maximise your sale earnings while also successfully liquidating assets and inventory. The goal is to maximise the value of your firm so that you may benefit at closing, and with the right strategy, you can have many liquidity events in addition to the business sale.

Having a deal fall through at the last minute is every business owner’s nightmare. However, if you plan ahead of time for probable problems, you will have more time to address and overcome them. If you are unsure what to search for, remember that you are not alone. Most entrepreneurs, like you, are unsure of what financial preparations must be made in order to sell their business. We can promise you that if you are thinking about selling your firm, you must evaluate the condition and accessibility of your books and financial documents.

Deal Killer #5: Inaccurate or Poor Bookkeeping

Successful financial organisation and planning can significantly raise your buying price, the possibility of a cash transaction, and your chances of selling your company at all. Buyers value a company’s accounting practices because they lessen future risk. This results in a greater buying price and cash on hand at closing.

1. How to Identify Poor Bookkeeping

We’ll start this method by explaining what constitutes “poor bookkeeping.”

Incomplete entries and reconciliation.

When it comes to recording daily entries, small business owners face a time constraint. Failure to create a rigorous practice of reconciling bank statements, credit card statements, and other financial accounts can result in inaccuracies in financial statements and other reports. The biggest issue with erroneous financial reports is that you do not have current information to help you make critical company decisions. Without current information, you cannot demonstrate to a buyer the actual profitability of the business in order to maximise your buying price.

Inaccurate financial reports can lead to confusion with work in progress (WIP), resulting in falsified financial data. Most firms benefit from being able to identify cost overruns as they arise. This enables management to alter the business’s operations, address vendor difficulties, and appropriately train employees, allowing for future profit development. Buyers will pay more for a business that has a real-time cost system in place. This form of protection decreases the buyer’s risk by providing a clear awareness of the essential modifications that must be made as the transaction progresses.

Accounts payable issues might also arise as a result of a failure to reconcile on time. For example, if your company regularly outsources labour or purchases things from suppliers, you would most likely receive many invoices every day. If you do not pay these invoices on time, you may lose vendor discounts, late fees, and the potential to negotiate reduced pricing for supplies and materials on future orders. These increased costs will affect your business’s profitability, resulting in a lower buying price when it is sold.

Tracking your receipts will serve as a backup source of data for future reference during due diligence. During bookkeeping, you may make mistakes such as expensing products that have no genuine business expense, diminishing earnings and, eventually, the business’s selling price. To address some of these difficulties and boost the worth of your business, look back at previous expenses with genuine receipts to resolve erroneous recording concerns.

Waiting on your accountant to give feedback on the business summary.

Relying solely on your accountant for input on your firm is an inaccurate method of bookkeeping. Although they are preparing financial reports for your organisation, your CPA is not reviewing current data. When making choices quickly, relying on your accountant for bookkeeping does not provide you with the financial tools you need to accurately assess your company’s production, profitability, and cash flow.

Buyers are more interested in businesses that allow them to view financial data at any time. This strategy decreases the buyer’s risk and provides them with clarity and understanding of financial and operational requirements when they arise throughout the usual course of operations.

2. Risks Associated with Poor Bookkeeping and Financial Inaccuracies

Buyers assume you’re hiding something.

Inconsistent books can make purchasers hesitant to complete a transaction because they believe the vendor is concealing something. Inaccurate bookkeeping allows the buyer to alter the agreement conditions, maybe lowering the purchase price or introducing a seller note as additional security that the business’s financial state is correct.

Reduced chances of a successful sale.

When a company’s books are messy, it reflects poorly on the owner and employees. The vast majority of purchasers do not want to purchase a business that has been poorly managed financially. This demonstrates not just that the company is out of date, but also that the current owner lacks the knowledge required to run the business efficiently and effectively.

Not Knowing Your Limits

Poor bookkeeping? A small business owner’s life revolves around his or her enterprise. To keep your firm functioning smoothly, make decisions based on as much facts and experience as feasible. How can you make informed decisions about your company’s growth if you don’t know its present financial situation? Similarly, making judgements that are outside of your comfort zone might not only put your firm in financial jeopardy, but it can also cause you to waste time correcting bad business decisions. This takes away from your regular responsibilities as a business owner.

Legal Issues

Inaccurate bookkeeping can result in legal problems down the road. When selling your firm, make sure to disclose all financial details. During the transaction, the buyer and their lender frequently want that you represent and guaranty past current financial records and tax filings. They want the security of accurate financial records, the profitability of what was given during due diligence, confirmation that all expenses and obligations have been accounted for, and correct tax filings that are complete or on their way to completion. Taxes that are delinquent or past due may have resulted in a lien on the business and must be resolved prior to or during the closing. Other concerns, such as failure to pay creditors, may emerge, resulting in buyers facing post-closing vendor situations. When this occurs, you may be held responsible. This could affect your finances and result in legal bills.

3. How to Resolve Issues and Improve Bookkeeping Organization

Hire a competent bookkeeper.

Hiring a professional bookkeeper is a good decision for running a profitable business. Many small business owners believe they can save money by doing their own accounting or hiring a cheap bookkeeper. Bookkeeping might be considered an expenditure. Using a cost-cutting strategy for bookkeeping invites inaccuracy, which can ruin a company’s ability to make judgements. Cash flow can also be twisted if not kept up to date, which can lead to serious problems. Every business owner understands that cash flow is the lifeblood of a company. When the owner is also the bookkeeper, buyers are concerned that they will not be properly taught during the business’s post-closing transition. Buyers want to spend the most of their transition time with customers and employees rather than entering accounting data.

Keep important information at your fingertips.

The primary barrier that purchasers face when purchasing a firm is decision-making. Buyers that want to expand a business should spend time analysing their new acquisition to identify areas of profitability and growth. Most buyers see accounting as a growth tool. Buyers will pay more for a firm if they know they will spend less time entering data to develop accurate, up-to-date financial tools and more time examining good data to generate growth and profit.

When selling your firm, you must maintain accurate bookkeeping records. The first stage and best practice at CasinosBroker is to collect, input, and compare your data to those of other similar firms and successfully closed transactions. We feel that this is the first step towards identifying when it is financially appropriate for you to sell your firm.

The best method to prepare a successful business exit is to complete your research ahead of time, assess the risks, and identify any weaknesses in your organisation. As a business owner, you must always stay ahead of the curve, and knowing which potential deal killers endanger the sale of your company will be a helpful starting point. We also strongly recommend assembling an advising team that includes a CPA, an attorney, and a competent business broker to ensure that your best interests are always at the forefront of the transaction. If you want to talk about selling your business, call CasinosBroker M&A; we’re here to help.