Due Diligence Services For Business Buyers

Willard Michlin, CPA, #106752, CFE, Forensic Accountant, Due Diligence and Business Evaluator.

CFE - Certified Fraud Examiner

Forensic Accountant - One who prepares financial statements for use in a courtroom.

Before you buy a business you need to have an expert make sure that you are getting what you think you are getting. You also need to know what the business you want to buy is really worth. We will help you structure your offer, work out the true owners cash flow, and make sure you have all the necessary contingencies in your contract. We will help you determine the true worth of the business you wish to purchase.

Serving all of California and the United States.

After being business brokers for 18 years, and looking at thousands of small business financial statements, I really get angry at what I see in the business brokerage industry. It rarely, happens to my clients, but I have heard dozens of stories of buyers who have been cheated. The stories include sellers who lied openly and even produced fraudulent documents in order to entice an unsuspecting buyer into purchasing their worthless or worth-a-lot-less business. Then when I dug deeper I became sick to find that some listing brokers passed on known false information to buyers, as if it was factual. The unsuspecting buyer then relied on this information to make their wrong business decisions. Then since the buyers were not experienced enough to catch these fraudulent reports, they spent their life savings and home equity on a worthless business. This caused economic damage from which many families never recovered. Some lost their homes, others had their wives divorce them, and in a few cases suicide resulted or family abandonment. To compound the problem, sometimes these cheated buyers decided that they will get even with the world for their mistake by cheating their future buyers in the exact manner in which they were cheated. This is clearly not what should be occurring, and does not need to happen to you!  Buying a buying a business can be tricky, even in the best of economic times. Because I wanted to prevent fraud in business sales, I spent years studying to become an expert in fraud discovery and prevention. There are so many issues to be looked at when buying a business, and no one person can be expected to know them all.

It is interesting that no one would think about buying a house without a home inspection report and a termite report. Why would anyone buy a business without having the same care and inspections? A business due diligence and financial review is like a home inspection. Everything is looked at and important items checked more closely.

- Willard Michlin, CPA, CFE

Our Mission Statement:

Our goal is to make sure that all sale transactions between buyers and sellers are made with full knowledge and disclosure of all the facts concerning the economic conditions and the current financial situation of the business in question. We offer assistance in the key areas involved in the buying of a business. Willard Michlin and his extremely experienced, honest and trustworthy experts know exactly what to look for, so that you get the honest story about a business’s profit and market value. When you have all the necessary and truthful data in your hands you can make a sound purchase decision. In today's economy it is more important than ever to know exactly what you're getting, when you decide to buy a business.

Call Willard Michlin direct on his cell phone at 805-428-2063 for more information and an appointment.