A business broking agency is an excellent resource for buyers interested in acquiring a privately owned financial planning or accounting business. Some of the most commonly offered services by experienced business broking agencies include:
Assistance in Searching Promising Opportunities
A business broking agency is an excellent resource for locating promising financial planning or accounting businesses that are up for sale. That’s because business brokers not only have a wide array of specialized databases and resources at their disposal, but also have access to large networks of businesses for sale, prospective sellers, and other business broking agencies from all across the country.
The best way for buyers to benefit from the services of a business broking agency is to register with an agency in the area where they are interested in buying a business. That’s because formally listing a business for sale can take a considerable amount of time and therefore buyers may not be able to find all opportunities that a business broking agency is handling officially listed on the agency's website. But if one is registered as a buyer with the agency, one can expect to be apprised of an appropriate opportunity by the agency as soon as the opportunity arises.
Although business broking agencies traditionally represent the seller of the business and are in a fiduciary relationship with him as he is the one paying for their services, but recent years has seen a substantial increase in the popularity of buyer representation where a business broking agency will provide a selection of exclusive buyer related services for either a fee or commission. Registering with a business broking agency and maintaining a continued relationship with them in order to fully benefit from their buyer related services is a great idea. But before engaging the services of a business broking agency, buyers should not only have a resume and financial net worth statement, but should also clearly understand their investment criteria. In other words, they should be fully aware of their requirements, such as the industry in which their new business will operate, the desired location of their new business, its size, their price range, and, of course, expected earnings.
Assistance in Securing Funding
Locating a promising business is the easier part of the buying process. The tougher part is securing enough capital to buy the business. Even most financial planners and accountants will find acquiring enough capital for buying a business a rather intimidating and frustrating process. Several factors determine the type of capital a buyer should consider for buying a particular business. These include the size of the prospective business, the type of assets that will be acquired along with the business and their number or quantity, the amount of funding that is required, the buyer’s personal credit scores, the cash flow history of the business, etc.
A business broking agency, by virtue of their well-established networks of funding sources, can be of inestimable help to buyers in assessing the various funding options available to them and finding the solution that is best suited to their requirements. In fact, it is advisable that before buyers invest a substantial amount of time exploring any particular business opportunity, they have a thorough discussion with their broker in order to determine whether they are, based upon the price, terms and conditions of sale, in a financial position to support the acquisition of that business.
Assistance in Referrals to Attorneys, Valuators, Accountants and Financiers
A business broking firm is an excellent source for referrals to professionals in the legal, accounting, valuation, and financial sectors. That’s because business brokers not only regularly work with attorneys, accountants, valuators and financiers, but also maintain strong business relationships with such professionals. In fact, it is in the interest of a business broker that highly experienced and utterly professional advisors be involved in a transaction as their presence ensures that the transaction meets professional standards and concludes smoothly and that the deal does not fall apart or subsequently fail.
As the sale and purchase of privately owned businesses, especially financial planning and accounting businesses, is a highly specialized field, finding legal, accounting, valuation and financial advisors who have expertise and experience in such transactions can be a little difficult on your own. Business brokers, on the other hand, can easily refer buyers to such professionals and their inherent interest in professional and experienced advisor being hired makes them a credible source.
Facilitation of the Due Diligence Process
Perhaps the most important role a business broking agency plays is the facilitation of the due diligence process. The area where the importance of a broker’s role reaches its apex is the packaging, presentation, and evaluation of the documents that buyers need for analyzing the business in order to determine if they are interested in acquiring it.
These documents include important legal, financial and operation documents. A business broker not only reviews the financial statements with the buyers, but also advises them on the methodology that has been employed for valuing and pricing the business.
Engaging the services of a business broking agency saves buyers a substantial amount of time during the discovery phase. That’s because reputed and professional business broking agencies are very particular about the businesses they represent and regularly turn down a large number of the listing opportunities based upon pre-listing due diligence, thus rooting out overpriced and unprofitable businesses as well as those with questionable or illegal business practices.