At GaP, our mission is better representation that consistently leads to better results. Therefore, our client-to-broker ratio is among the lowest in the industry. In practice, that means every engagement gets the “A-team,” or we won’t take it. This discipline ensures we deliver on our promises to clients. What else sets us apart? There are several unique and proprietary factors.
As you begin to choose your M&A advisor, think about these things: Are you being pushed to sign up before the advisor has a solid grasp on YOUR individual business and all that makes it unique? What is their fee structure? Will they take a closing risk alongside you, or do they get paid handsomely throughout the engagement whether you reach your goals or not? Do they actively market your business to financial and strategic buyers, or is their process more passive where your business is "listed" using the Internet with the hope that interested parties will stumble upon you and call them?
The size of your transaction shouldn't mean you are forced to settle for inferior representation. No one else fields a “team” to work with clients in the lower middle and middle markets. Every M&A engagement at GaP is staffed with a core team consisting of a CFO/CPA, a Strategist/Analyst, and a "former business owner" Partner. Our financial staff has more experience and expertise than any other. And our strategists and analysts possess credentials that can only be rivaled by huge investment banks doing massive deals.
When required, we incorporate specialty disciplines which ensure our clients are guided and advised by subject-matter professionals at this critical time when there are no chances for a do-over. Additionally, when a buyer enters the due diligence phase of an acquisition, our team matches their team CPA-to-CPA, Analyst-to-Analyst, etc. This assures a seller is never outgunned in the critical phases of negotiation and ownership transfer.
As founders and exiters of multiple businesses each, we have extensive experience selling an asset that made up most of our net worth. Each time we went through this process, we felt that existing approaches to selling a privately-held business were skewed to benefit the broker, regardless of whether they accomplished our objectives or not. Large engagement deposits (used to fund sales commissions) and hourly billing practices ensured the broker was well compensated long before we, as the shareholders, had a sense that our goals would be met.
GaP was founded because of this frustration with the status quo and available options, so we reinvented the process, personnel involved, and fee structure to ensure we always: (a) agree with a selling owner up front regarding financial arrangements, timing, and expectations; and (b) work where our financial success is contingent upon our ability to meet or exceed the owner's stated goals.
By taking a closing risk alongside our clients, we are engaged more like a partner. Our “skin in the game” ensures we are always incentivized to act in the best interests of reaching clients' goals.
By structuring engagements the way we do, our own resources are put at risk to accomplish the mission. This approach forces discipline upon GaP to: (a) understand fully and exactly what your intentions are; (b) determine if your business is properly priced, has obstacles to closing, and is worthy of offers from multiple suitors; and (c) assess our ability to assist you in achieving your goals BEFORE we agree to work together.
Why would you trust the last big sale of your life to a firm that takes short cuts or flat out doesn’t believe that clearly understanding these factors as a condition to their ability to deliver results is important?
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