Ahern Advisory - Pre-Sale Audit

I receive telephone calls and emails from trucking and logistics owners, daily, indicating;

Phoenix, AZ (prHWY.com) March 12, 2013 - I receive telephone calls and emails from trucking and logistics owners, daily, indicating;

* I want to sell my business, but I don't know how;
* What is the market value of my business?
* I don't understand the process;
* How do I locate a Buyer?
* How do I assemble a team to help me through the sales process?
* How do I make sure the deal closes once a legitimate buyer is located?
* What information should I release; what information should I withhold?

And the list goes on and on!

I have seen countless business owners walk into a deal completely unprepared for the process of selling their business. They don't have a clue as to what they should do;

1. They receive a fictitious value of their business from someone not in the industry;

2. They believe their business is worth 2 or 3 times what the market is willing to pay, and;

3. They put a lot of emphasis on putting together a fancy packet of information, and then when the company doesn't sell, there is a great sense of frustration.


I always recommend to a potential seller a "pre-sale audit".

Many people ask, what is a pre-sale audit? A pre-sale audit is an intensive 3-day , "on site" review that thoroughly examines a business from top to bottom, including:

* Operations/Dispatch;
* Customer Profile/Concentrations
* Sales/Marketing;
* Management talent, or lack thereof, and;
* Potential growth.

When Ahern goes through "their audit process", we review a company as a Buyer would. If there are any "red flags", we highlight them. When Ahern uncovers any "red flags" that could potentially "kill" a sale, we offer Management a way to correct these deficiencies: if there are ways to reduce operating expenses and increase the bottom line, we also walk the Seller through that process, and then provide them with a step by step process on:

1. What a Buyer looks for;
2. What the due diligence process consists of;
3. How long the process should take, based upon the size of the business, and;
4. What are the "stumbling blocks" and how to negotiate properly?

For many of you that have been a reader of The Ahern Advisory, you know that the most difficult part of the sales process is, "letting go." You need to be emotionally, and financially prepared before you determine the financial aspects of the business.

I have stated, in numerous instances, that there is no "utopia" in life. What appears to be "utopia" is another step in the "process of life".However, assuming that you have taken the 1st step of "letting go", emotionally, then you need to be prepared for "the process".

1. What is my company worth;
2. How long does the process take?
3. Who should I utilize to help me through the process, and;
4. Is it really the time to sell?

A pre-audit addresses all of these issues. Before you consider the pricing issues, you need to understand that;

* Once you sell your business, it becomes the property of someone else;
* Once you sell your business, for all practical purposes, your legacy dies, and;
* Once you sell your "house" you cannot tell the Buyer what color to paint the house.

One of the most difficult processes a Seller faces is that he or she may feel a certain amount of loyalty to their employees. In some instances, a Seller expects the Buyer to compensate their employees for what is the Seller's perceived obligations, and you can't do that. If you are going through that process, it means that you are still too emotionally attached to the business to let go.

It is important that you understand there are 2 types of Buyers.

1. Strategic Buyers, and;
2. Capacity Buyers.

A strategic Buyer is looking for specific things:

1. Historical performance;
2. Length of time in business;
3. Type of operation/customer concentration;
4. The intellectual capital, as well as the technology value that your company may possess.

Strategic Buyers are interested in intellectual capital and growth potential, and believe that success in the marketplace is increasingly linked to an organization's ability to manage and leverage its intellectual capital. That doesn't mean that if Charlie has been with you for 30 years, Charlie is an intellectual genius. Intellectual capital is a valuable asset if you know how to leverage it properly, and that is what the pre-audit does.

* If you decide to go through the sales process:
* You need to know how to qualify a Buyer;
* What information to release to a Buyer and when;
* What type of questions you should ask the Buyer before you proceed, and;
* How to test, and re-test a Buyer to make sure they are not wasting your time, and;

The list goes on and on. Capacity buyers want just that - Capacity!

I am amazed that companies that go through the sale process do not go through a pre-audit process. What amazes me is every year, Corporations send their Executives for physicals, why? They want to make sure that the employee is examined to sustain the stress of the day-to-day business functions. Well, that is exactly what you should do, if you want to sell your business;

* There is an emotional attachment to the business;
* There is a certain amount of stress involved in the sale of a business, and;
* There are certain things you need to do, to make sure that nobody finds out that you are in the process of selling.

In closing, to receive the highest rate of return, you have to learn how to leverage your intellectual capital. Strategic Buyers believe that those who do the best job of capturing, storing, and leveraging what their employees know, will make the best investments. You need to be able to take that thought process, and be able to relay it in a very clear and concise manner to a potential Buyer.

If your company is experiencing growth, year in and year out, and you want to attract a strategic Buyer, your mission becomes defining the intellectual capital that will attract such an investment. Unfortunately, part of this process that is traditional accounting measures, simply do not reflect the work of such vital, yet intangible keys to sustain growth. In Ahern's processes, that is what a pre-audit does.

A truly successful trucking/logistics views its total capital as a combination of human capital and structure capital.

###

Tag Words: trucking company

Categories: Transportation

Press Release Contact
http://www.ahern-ltd.com/
Mr.Andre Ahern
CEO
2198 E Camelback Rd Suite 210
Phoenix, AZ
USA, 85016
PH: 602-242-1030
Claudia@ahern-ltd.com

Link To This Press Release:

URL HTML Code