A Thorough and Systematic Approach to Representation

CapitalValue M&A, LLC provides a level of representation, expertise and advice that is far above and beyond what is typically available in the market today.  Whether you are an owner of privately held business contemplating a sale of your company, or an acquiror looking to purchase a business, we pride ourselves on being different from the standard business broker or investment bank.  We take on only a few engagements every year through referrals from professionals and other business owners.  Combined with the fact that we don’t aggressively market or cold call, we have the time, ability and resources to provide you with service that will exceed your every expectation.

Selling Your Business

The Decision to Sell.  You have spent years building and operating your business successfully.  Selling your business is typically an emotionally-charged, once-in-a-lifetime event.  Having competent advice and representation from the time you decide to sell your business until the transaction closes will help you make good choices and increase your chances of a successful transition.  At CapitalValue M&A, we believe the sale of your business is just one part of a much larger and more complex set of processes.  Our goal is for you to have a successful transition – one in which you not only receive financial proceeds sufficient to fund your future needs, but also one that protects your legacy with your employees, customers and community. 

Understanding You and Your Business.  Our approach to representation starts with listening.  We want to understand your needs – both financial and non-financial.  We then seek to understand your business – what makes it unique and what value you might expect to receive for it.  We begin our evaluation of your business with our unique OwnerAnalytics™, a set of tools we have developed to (i) identify, understand and quantify your needs, (ii) determine the market value of your business, and (iii) evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your business that drive differences in value.  With OwnerAnalytics™, you will receive a thorough review of your needs and how the sale of your business might or might not fulfill those needs.  After reviewing the results of OwnerAnalytics™ with you, we can determine together whether a sale will meet your needs. 

Addressing Challenges.  If a sale is not likely to meet your financial objectives, we have no interest in simply listing your business, earning a listing fee and letting your business languish on the market – this benefits no one, and is likely to harm the future value of your business.  Our goal is to close a successful transaction for you, and utilizing our proprietary ValueDrivers™ tool, we can help you identify the weaknesses in your current business that we need to address in order to increase the value of your business over time.  By addressing these weaknesses in a systematic fashion over time, the value of your business will increase.  Only once the value of your business has the potential to meet your financial needs will we advise you to list your business for sale.

Finding Buyers.  If a sale will likely meet your financial needs, we will then use our exclusive MarketProfiler™ to determine the ideal type of buyer for your business.  Many investment bankers and business brokers claim to have a large “network” of potential buyers – don’t be misled.  With the internet, every business broker and investment banker has access to thousands of active buyers through widely available merger and acquisition on-line databases.  Finding buyers is generally not the most challenging part of the sale process – identifying the right buyer requires much more: careful planning, solicitation and screening of potential buyers.  Our MarketProfiler™ analyzes your business, your suppliers, your competitors, your customers and your market to determine which strategic and financial buyers would be most interested in your business and would offer the best terms and make the best acquisition.  The MarketProfiler™ was developed out of the graduate work of our founder, and has proven to be the most significant tool for buyer identification available to date.  This process allows us to target specific, strategic buyers and avoid wasting a lot of your time with buyers that would not otherwise be a good fit.

Closing the Deal.  Once we have completed the MarketProfiler™, we then use our ValueMaximizer™, process to position your business in the manner most likely to generate a solid transaction with a qualified, appropriate buyer.  ValueMaximizer™ includes preparing the traditional “book” used to describe your business to potential buyers, but also utilizes the results of our MarketProfiler™ to target and solicit bids from the most qualified buyers.  Contrary to most of our competitors, CapitalValue M&A focuses on one of the most key aspects of selling your business: creating an effective and professional presentation of your company.  We understand that your company is one of your greatest assets.  More importantly, we also understand that a first impression leaves a lasting impression.  We focus on providing an appropriate positioning document that accurately yet positively reflects your business.  CapitalValue M&A understands how buyers view business opportunities and business risks.  With proper positioning, we impress upon the buyer that your business has significant value.

As part of our ValueMaximizer™ process, we also help you prepare your due diligence materials – most buyers of small businesses are typically disappointed in the amount and quality of due diligence materials available, and as a result, their due diligence takes longer and deals are less likely to close.  Having done due diligence on dozens of transactions, we can help you prepare these materials in a clear, concise and compelling way that buyers will appreciate and acknowledge with higher valuations.  By properly organizing and preparing your diligence materials, we will shorten the period from letter of intent to closing thereby minimizing your transaction costs while maximizing value.  Once we have identified one or more suitable buyers, we will coordinate the due diligence to be completed on your business, and will help you negotiate the transaction along with your outside accounting, tax and legal advisors.  It is at this phase of the transaction that deals typically close successfully or fall apart – because of our experience closing transactions, we can help you creatively address roadblocks or issues that might arise, expediting the closing process.

Buying a Business

Buying a business can be a very difficult and daunting task, often wasting valuable time and resources only to wind up with no prospects and no deals.  Without proper planning, this process becomes more inefficient.  We facilitate the process and make it more efficient and cost effective for our clients by first identifying the client’s objectives.  Next we create a list of targets using our proprietary process called the CapitalValue MarketProfiler™ and carefully review this list with you.  Finally, we act as the intermediary in the market, shielding you from unnecessary attention and saving time for you.

Once we’ve found a suitable target and they’ve expressed interest in selling, we help you negotiate (and structure) the deal, prepare your letter of intent, manage the due diligence process, help you with financing options, address any critical issues prior to closing, and close the transaction.