Myth #1: My Current Advisors Will Help Me

A good Business Broker like GMO will spend hours educating business owners about what to expect at every phase of the selling process; a difficult job made harder by the fact that misinformation about selling a business comes from every direction — from preconceived notions held by business owners themselves, to suspect advice from well-meaning peers and advisors.

Following is a stubborn myth about selling your business:

 

Myth #1: My current advisors will help me.

 

First let me say that your current advisors (primarily your accountant and lawyer) are great at what they do. A good advisor has probably saved you on more than one occasion over the years. You may well credit them for some of your success as a business owner.

The issue isn’t whether or not your advisors are good at what they do. The question is whether “what they do” is business sales transactions. Lots and lots of biz sales transactions.

Chances are your lawyer and accountant are very competent, but they don’t do much in the way of sales. If your advisor doesn’t list sales and acquisitions as a specialty area, then they probably only dabble in it from time to time as the need arises. To add a wrinkle to the problem, you probably have a great relationship with your current advisors – you may even be friends outside of business! The last thing you want to do is hurt their feelings, or infer that you don’t trust them or their abilities.

However, the reality is that selling your business is a once only opportunity. A transaction of this magnitude and complexity requires specialists. Good advisors will admit that they are not the man/woman for the job and refer you to a specialist Business Broker in a similar way a family doctor might send you to a heart specialist for cardiac care. Whether it’s your life or your life’s work, don’t ask a generalist to do the work of a trained specialist: The result could be from at risk if you do not use a good Business Broker. Talk to GMO – we have 4,000 sales in our success portfolio.

 

Reality: Selling a business requires specialized expertise in every area of the M&A process – Hire an expert Business Broker.

 

Graham O’Hehir
GMO Managing Director

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  • The disclosers are willing to disclose such information to the recipient subject to their acceptance of the following conditions:
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