Cash at closing, seller notes, earnouts, seller financing, and the asset vs. stock sale tax decision every seller needs to understand.
Selling a business is the most significant financial transaction most owners will ever make. The proceeds fund retirement, family legacy, the next venture, or simply the freedom to do something different. And yet most business owners spend more time planning a vacation than planning their exit. The result is predictable: businesses that sit on the […]
The number on the LOI is not what you walk away with. This is one of the most important — and most consistently misunderstood — realities of selling a business. Sellers spend months focused on achieving a target enterprise value: $2M, $5M, $10M. They negotiate hard to reach that number. They celebrate when the LOI […]
Few deal structure components generate more seller anxiety — or more post-closing disputes — than the earnout. And for good reason. An earnout asks you to accept a fundamental bargain: we’ll pay you the full price you’re asking, but only if the business continues to perform at the level you’re claiming after you’ve handed it […]
Most business owners think of financing as the buyer’s problem. The buyer needs to figure out how to fund the acquisition — through savings, an SBA loan, private equity, or some combination. The seller’s job is to pick the best offer and close. Financing is a buyer concern, not a seller strategy. That’s exactly backwards […]
Here is one of the most consequential decisions in your entire business sale — and most sellers don’t know it exists until their attorney brings it up two weeks before closing. Asset sale or stock sale? It sounds like a technical distinction that lawyers and accountants worry about. It isn’t. It’s a structural choice that […]