GaP Update - February 2019

Gilbert & Pardue Business Advisors (GaP) is fortunate to be in the position of needing additional staff. If you know anyone who may be interested in the following roles, we’d appreciate your making an introduction:

Exit Planner – We welcome professionals currently holding this certification and those with solid business experience who might be interested in pivoting into this career.

Medical Practice Transition Specialist – If you know an experienced individual looking for change, we’d love to speak with him/her. However, someone with deep insider knowledge of the world of medical practices (like a billing expert or a practice leader/manager) could be trained to turn that knowledge into a lucrative career helping medical professionals improve, market, and sell their practices.

Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) Implementer – We often get involved with businesses who need to improve in order to reach a defined target value. We’ve seen EOS deliver great results time and again, and so we’re sold on its ability to help a committed team transform a good business into a great one. To complement our Mergers & Acquisitions, Fractional CFO, Advisory, and CEO/President Mentoring, we would like to add an EOS expert to our team.

‍What sets GaP apart? There are a Number of Unique Things:

Our Team

No one else fields a “team” to work with clients of this size. At GaP, every sell-side representation engagement is staffed with a core team consisting of a CFO/CPA, a strategist/analyst, and a “former business owner” partner. From there, we incorporate specialty disciplines on an as-needed basis to ensure that our clients are being guided and advised by the very best professionals at a time where there are no chances for a do-over. Additionally, when a buyer enters the due diligence phase of an acquisition, our team is able to match their team CPA-to-CPA, analyst-to-analyst, etc. This assures the seller is never outgunned in the critical phases of negotiation and ownership transfer.

Our Process

From our experiences as business founders/owners selling our “babies,” we feel like most approaches to selling a privately-held business in this space are structured to benefit the broker, whether they accomplish the seller’s objectives or not.  Large engagement deposits (used to fund sales commissions) and hourly billing practices ensure a broker is well-compensated long before the seller has a sense that his/her goals will be met. In these situations, there is often no guarantee that an acceptable offer will surface or that the transaction will close without the price and terms being traded down.

At GaP, we reinvented the process and fee structure to ensure that our sell-side representation engagements always have the following parameters:

• Financial diligence and "price defense" reviews are thoroughly conducted PRIOR to "listing" to ensure the best possible exit is achievable with the right buyer
• All parties fully understand the financial commitment, timing, and expectations to avoid "surprises" when it's time to close the transaction
• Our success is contingent upon our ability to understand our client's goals and then to create a strategy to meet or exceed them

By taking a financial risk alongside our clients, we are engaged more like a partner. Our “skin in the game” ensures we are motivated and incentivized to act in the best interests of our clients.

Our Results

By structuring engagements the way we do, GaP has no room to commit resources outside of our wheelhouse. This disciplined approach ensures that:

• All parties understand exactly what goals our client is trying to achieve and what GaP's corresponding abilities are to ensure success
• We perform our own due diligence to determine if a business has obstacles to closing, is properly priced, and is worthy of offers from multiple suitors - prior to agreeing to "list"

Our goal is better representation, which consistently leads to better results.This is why our client-to-broker ratio is likely among the lowest in the nation. We won’t take engagements where we can’t be successful. And we align our interests with those of the sellers we represent to ensure each seller achieves his/her best possible exit.

Matt and Emma attended The Value Builder Summit 2019 in Dallas late last month. Here they are pictured with John Warrillow, Founder of the Value Builder System. The Value Builder System is the powerhouse behind our Sellability Score Assessment.

Many of our clients come from referrals!

We need your help! If you are aware of a business owner you believe would benefit from consultation with us, please pass along our information. One great way to start a beneficial conversation is to have the business owner invest 13 minutes to take our Sellability Score Assessment. Even if not in the market to sell today, this assessment highlights the business’s strengths and weaknesses in 8 areas important to acquirers. Just knowing how they score against peers and what business areas require additional attention often helps business owners understand where the greatest value returns exist in their companies.

Click Here to Get Your Sellability Score ‍