Now is the Time

You hear it every time you turn on the TV or read the newspaper – economic uncertainty is all around us and the end of the bull market is near. Even though economic indicators are pointing towards a slower economy, no one is exactly sure when a decade’s worth of economic growth will disappear before the next recession hits. This should be a red-flag for business owners, because after a recession hits many businesses will be worth considerably less than their market value today that can take years to reestablish.

Fortunately there is still time to sell your company and enjoy historically high valuations before the downturn. In order to execute a good strategy to ensure future financial security for you and your family, it is essential to create and implement an effective transition plan. Business owners should begin to consider many factors that lead to financial planning in order to establish their personal transaction goals. Piedmont M&A possesses a deep industry knowledge, relentless determination and a problem-solving approach that will help you:

    • Understand your personal and financial goals before tailoring a plan to sell, purchase or finance a company 
    • Focus on the big picture, while helping to extract the highest value from a transaction
    • Go above and beyond in hopes to find potential purchasers who are most suitable based on your needs
    • Gain meaningful insight to maximize overall returns that match clients’ life work
    • Elevate clients’ business goals despite the current state in the global economy 

 

Providing a Lasting Legacy for Your Family

A common phrase that financial advisors share with their client is to let “your money make more money.”  While this expression seems to be fairly simple, there is an underlying complexity behind it. The phrase suggests that you should enjoy earning higher returns by investing carefully, rather than working every day. Keep in mind that you need enough money to become financially secure and comfortably live on the gains from an investment. Not everyone has the capital to invest, which stems from a number of reasons. One reason may be that a baby boomer like yourself wants to improve their golf game, but instead is working hard to run a company on a daily basis. It requires detailed planning and oversight in order to truly build a future legacy that will protect your family’s wealth, while fulfilling your goals.

This concept applies to many fronts in financial planning. First and foremost are today’s financial implications and how they affect your life. Right now company valuations are at historic highs, yet with a recession your company will not be worth as much as it is today.  That means one of two things – either you will be selling your company at a discount, or you will be working for the next decade for your company to return to today’s value.

Further, it is essential to think about the implications that a sale will have on your family.  Working towards having the best of both worlds may be difficult. You want to be able to spend more time with your grandchildren, but also want to be able to provide for them. Many of our readers will have Millennials for grandchildren, who are identified as the age group known to recover the slowest from the last recession.  In addition to the mountains of student debt, increasing housing and healthcare costs, Millennials face the most economic uncertainty of any age demographic and are the most vulnerable to the next recession.

On a different note, studies done have shown that 30% of family businesses survive in the second generation, 12% in the third generation, and 3% operate in the fourth or subsequent generations.  In essence, you can either help your children and grandchildren capitalize on your hard work now with the highest values possible, or take a gamble that your children and grandchildren are going to want to continue running your business, and doing so successfully through a downturn for years before they decide to sell it.

Finally, you’ve worked for ages for this moment. Take the guesswork out of your family’s financial stability by taking the initiative to provide a substantial and sustainable legacy. Enjoy your liquidity moment and getting out of the business you have grown from the ground up. You now have the time and peace of mind to go make a meaningful dent in that golf handicap, supplement your grandchildren’s cost of education, and even endow some of your favorite organizations.

 

Taking the First Steps

Piedmont M&A Advisors is here to be your trusted advisor that will help you make some of the most difficult financial and emotional decisions of your life. We specialize in working with entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses to help them sell their companies by focusing on obtaining the right “fit” for your business and employees. We espouse a holistic approach to selling your business, by first considering you and your family’s goals for the transaction. We then begin working alongside your accountant and lawyer to get a deeper understanding of the business.  Alternatively, we have a network of professionals we can recommend to you in hopes to become a part of the transaction team. Once engaged, we follow a well-defined process where we will walk you through every step of the way to provide for as frictionless of a transaction as possible. Throughout the overall process, we will make it a priority to keep you as updated and involved as possible. Our goal is to allow you to concentrate on leading your business, while we focus our efforts on the process of selling your business.

A primary Piedmont M&A difference is the ability to empathize with you as the business owner. With our years of experience on both the operations side as well as financial advisory side, we are able to understand the complicated decisions you have to make for the business, employees and families. Our goal is to focus our efforts to examine every aspect of your business, while maintaining integrity throughout the process. We strive to make the process of optimizing, scaling and achieving a high return on investment as easy as possible for you and your family.