Do you dream of owning your own business?
Boss Group is the best choice to help you locate opportunities that meet your criteria.
Buying a business can be a complicated procedure, from finding the right one to working out all the details required for a smooth transfer of ownership. While there is no such thing as the “perfect” business, a business broker knows the importance of finding one that fits your needs, talents, skills and lifestyle.
A business broker has many different types of businesses for you to consider and the knowledge and experience to walk you through the entire process.
Below you will find helpful information as you consider whether buying a business is the right decision for you. If you have any questions that we have not covered, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Buyer Services
We are here to guide you through the process. While there are many services that we offer you, here are the most common services.
Being a relationship-based firm, our Business Brokers truly want to get to know and understand our clients. After deciding that moving forward with the purchase of a business is the direction you wish to go, it is important that we perform a Buyer Analysis based on your wants and needs. Our team will evaluate your experience, education, and analyze your strengths and weaknesses. We will also help to pre-qualify you based on your financial picture, and help determine the range of business you may qualify to purchase.
Based on the evaluation of the Buyer and his/her wants and needs, our team of Business Brokers will use our resources to search business listed for sale that meet the criteria of the Buyer. You will be presented with currently marketed (and even non-marketed) businesses that are available to both the public and privately. Our Brokers will do an initial screening of the businesses and eliminate any opportunities that pose ‘red flags’ or threats based on our expertise. We will help you sort through the businesses to narrow down the search.
Our Brokers will perform initial screening in business search results based on the criteria provided to us by our clients. Our Brokers are trained to search for ‘red flags’, or specific pieces of information that we do not feel will best serve the purposes of our clients. We will ask questions to the Sellers of our business listings, or if the listing is not ours, we will ask questions to outside Brokers. We will work diligently to provide our clients with all requested information and more to provide the best opportunity for evaluate each prospect business.
Our Brokers will walk you through every piece of language and content that make up the paperwork required to complete the purchase or sale of a Florida business. It is important that all of our clients have an understanding of each document’s purpose, and that a certain level of comfort is obtained through an educational approach to all paperwork involved in the process.
At the end of the day, it is YOUR decision when it comes to the negotiation of the final sales price of a business. However, we make sure to offer our advice regarding these matters based on our professional opinions of a fair offering price, that also offers you the best terms. Acting as transaction brokers, we are required to deal honestly and fairly, and use skill, care, and diligence to ‘work the deal’. This level of integrity helps to create a level of trust between the parties that is typically appreciated by Sellers as well.
Getting to the closing table and executing the paperwork for a transfer is not where our job stops. Our Brokers take pride in being readily available even after ownership transfer to make sure to offer assistance in whatever areas are requested to the best of our abilities. Most of our business is repeat clients, and this would only happen from positive past experiences. Reputation is everything- and our Brokers aren’t just after the commission, they are after building relationships with our clients.
Confidentiality is at the forefront of everything we do, on both sides of the transaction. But most importantly, our experienced Florida Business Brokers will hold your hand and guide you through each and every step of the process to help buy a business and offer our Buyer Services. Click here for a list of steps that our Brokers take to effectively help you Buy a Business.
Steps to Buy a Business
This should not be a decision that happens over night. In fact, you should understand all the potential outcomes and how it will effect you, your family, your lifestyle, and your future. As a buyer you may be tempted to begin searching for businesses for sale without doing any preparation. You should work with a Florida business broker in order to determine how much money you would have available with different types of financing in order to purchase a business. Our business brokers can also help you create a buyer’s packet that can be given to sellers, financial institutions and landlords when appropriate in the buying process. You will most likely be asked to fill out a Personal Financial Statement that will help demonstrate your ability to acquire a business. Note that while you will be qualifying a business to make sure it fits what you are looking for, the Seller, the Seller’s Landlord, a Visa Attorney, or Franchisor will also be doing the same diligence on you to make sure YOU are qualified.
Next, we can begin identifying business opportunities available that are best suited for you based on your skills, experience and interests. Together, we can search through consumer business for sale databases and professional databases, as well as seek businesses that are not presently officially available for sale. After signing confidentiality agreements and gathering preliminary information on the businesses that best meet your criteria, we can start analyzing which businesses are best to pursue. This process involves signing of confidentiality agreements for each prospect business. Confidentiality is the most important part of any deal, and understand that before ANY information is provided, you will be required to fill out a NDA/CA, and you are liable for any damages that occur to a business based on your negligence in breaking the rules of confidentiality.
To decide if it meets your needs and financial capacity. A more in depth due diligence period will exist, but it is important that you do as much up-front research as you can to vet the business you inquire about.
If there is no integrity between a Buyer and Seller, the deal will never get to the closing table. Ensuring an amicable relationship with both parties will create trust, and a sense of cooperation that allows the deal to progress. Compatibility is usually determined only after a Buyer and Seller are able to meet face to face. To better understand the businesses that we have now targeted, you will have the opportunity to meet with the sellers of those businesses. The meeting will usually begin with a tour of the business. This includes both the areas opened to the public as well as the areas that are reserved for employees only. The buyer and seller will both have the opportunity to ask questions of each other to ensure that the business and the sale is a good match. This is not the appropriate time to negotiate price and terms of the business, as this can be a very sensitive topic that should only be handled between the broker or brokers involved. To successfully transfer ownership of a business between parties, the two parties need to feel comfortable with one another. Negotiations at a buyer/seller meeting can cause ill will with one or both parties and should only be handled in the offer stage.
When you decide which business is right for you, we can assist you in putting forth an offer on the business in the form of a purchase contract. This process could involve a tense negotiation period. There is more to negotiating a contract than just the purchase price. You will want to make sure that you not only have a favorable asking price, but that negotiations should be focused on the terms of the sale as well. It is highly advisable that the buyer and seller do not negotiate the price and terms directly. It is recommended that experienced and skilled Florida business brokers assist both parties with negotiations.
After a purchase contract has been executed, it is time for the Buyer to perform due diligence on the business. This is a critical time. This is when you have the opportunity as a buyer to analyze the business in depth, including the financials, equipment and other aspects of the business. It is important to hire an accountant/CPA and possibly other professionals to properly review the business to verify whether that the information the Seller provides is true and accurate. There normally exist standard out-clauses in the purchase agreement that allows for contingencies. This ensures that it is possible to make the contract null and void if the business does not hold up during the financial due diligence period.
Aside from the Due Diligence, there are often other contingencies that are mostly revolved around qualifying the candidate. The Landlord has to accept the new prospect Buyer. If the offer is contingent upon a Visa approval, the respective countries’ embassy must issue the Visa to the candidate. If a franchise is involved in the deal, the Franchisor must approve the candidate as well.
These documents are constructed based on the nature of the deal by a 3rd party attorney that represents the transaction, not the Buyer or Seller. These documents are typically provided before closing with enough time for the Buyer and the Seller to consult their private attorneys (if they desire). These documents sometimes include, but are not limited to: Closing Agreement, Closing Statement, Buyer/Seller Indemnification, Bill of Sale, Assignment of Purchase Agreement, Broker/Closing Attorney Disclosures, Security Agreement, Buyer/Seller’s Affidavit, Promissory Notes, Schedule A of Equipment List, Guaranty, Document Stamp Recording Documents, Covenant Not To Compete, Asset Allocation Agreement, etc. Inventory is taken, and a final walk-through is conducted. The day of closing, typically in the morning or at some time prior to the closing appointment, the Buyer and Seller will meet at the business location (if applicable), and a final inventory amount will be collected (if applicable). The Buyer and Seller will also walk through the location and ensure that all items that are conveying in the sale (if applicable) are still working and present.
During the contract period your Boss Group business broker will guide you through the entire process including working with landlords, franchisers, banks, attorneys, accountants and others in order to make the transfer of sale successful. Your Florida Boss Group business broker will develop a customized checklist of all activities which need to be accomplished prior to closing. This could include essentials such as creating a corporation, applying for a Florida Department of Revenue sales certificate, obtaining proper licensing, completing an inventory count and many other items you will need in order to complete the sale in order to be prepared to start running your business.
The closing is the day the transfer of the business from the seller to the buyer takes place. A few days prior to closing you should receive the closing documents to be reviewed by you and your attorney. The day of closing will include the signature of pertinent paperwork.
Disbursements of funds take place. It should be an exciting day for you as the buyer and for the seller.
Many times there will be certain measures that will need to be completed post closing. This may include transfer of utilities, merchant services, and vendor applications for credit. According to what was stated in the purchase contract and closing documents, accounts receivable and accounts payable may still need to be completed between the buyer and seller post closing. But most importantly, our experienced Florida Business Brokers will hold your hand and guide you through each and every step of the process to help buy a business.
Do you have other questions?
Be sure to visit Buyer FAQ for answers to the following questions.
- Why should I buy a business rather than start one?
- What is the real reason people go into business for themselves?
- How are businesses priced?
- What should I Look for?
- What does it take to be successful?
- What happens when I find a business I want to buy?
- Why should I go to a business broker?
- Do I need an attorney?
Checklist of Items to Ask Yourself.
Owning one’s own business is still very much “the great American dream,” but it’s not for everybody. Make sure it is the right move for you and your family.
- What is your primary reason for buying a business?
- Is your family supportive of your owning a business?
- Can you make the “leap of faith” necessary to buy a business?
- Do you have reasonable expectations?
- Are you open-minded about different opportunities, or are you looking for something specific, only?
- Do you have a contingency plan and an exit strategy?