Category Archives for "Businesses Wanted"
Businesses Wanted
At any given time investors have business brokers and deal sourcing experts on retainers to find them specific businesses. Is YOUR business one of the businesses they are actively looking for?
What Do Buyers Want?
Let’s start with what buyers do NOT want. They do not want businesses that
- Are not making a profit;
- Are too small (say under £1m in turnover);
- That are owner run (ie dependent on the departing owner/s);
- Have won ‘awards’ (they rarely give a damn for ‘awards’);
- Have never borrowed money (for some strange reason, vendors often see this as a positive, it’s not;
- Businesses with a lot of social media following (followers can be bought – $5 for 10,000!) and
- With no established history (ie they don’t want startups / pre-revenues)
What buyers want:
- Larger businesses (very few buyers for shops etc ie. micro businesses);
- Businesses with extensive staff (preferably able to run the business in the owner’s absence;
- Long record of profitability – net profit, not that ‘gross’ stuff;
- GROWTH in both turnover and profit;
- low risk;
- Good accounting and other records;
- Detailed processes and manuals;
- No major recent changes to the business;
- No reliance on one or two major customers (no ‘customer concentration’;
- No excessive reliance on one source of leads (great SEO rankings is a negative, not a positive and
- Have borrowed money and developed a good credit rating.