Information For Business Buyers & Buying A Business: Frequently Asked Questions

BizBen.com is an online marketplace that matches business buyers with sellers of existing businesses for sale. In addition, BizBen offers resources, articles, live workshops, online webinars, a syndicated blog, and a podcast on the topic of buying and selling small to mid-sized businesses.

Successful business buyers have these items ready to go back with all NDA's (non-disclosures): Business Buyer Profile Form, Personal Financial Statement, Professional Pre-Qualification Letter for Financing, & Resume. If you have these items and fax them back with all completed NDA's you will be taken much more seriously by business brokers, agents, and busness owners selling a business.

There is no cost to search and find businesses for sale. To advertise a business for sale on BizBen there are many different programs to sell a business.  In addition there are no costs to research resouces, read any literature, or utilize the tools to buy or sell a business on BizBen. BizBen is advertising supported with over 1200 California business brokers, agents, business owners, and small business advisors who advertise daily on BizBen.com

Typically, confidentiality is very important to a seller. It can be damaging to a business if it is known that it is for sale. Customers may not be interested in buying from a business that is up for sale, competitors could use the information to their advantage, and employees generally experience anxiety and often leave.

Sometimes the seller's business broker will review the financial records of the business and make a recommendation about the price. Other times, the seller will obtain a professional valuation of the business. Sometimes, the deal structure is more important than the financial status of a business in determining the actual selling price. As an example, the cash to be paid and the availability of seller financing are important determinants.

Yes, our BizBen Businesses Wanted To Buy database contains thousands of requests from motivated business buyers who are looking to buy certain types (and within certain locations) of small to mid-sized businesses. When you post a Business Wanted To Buy posting in BizBen it is placed all brokers, agents, and owners accounts so that they can see your request, and respond to you by phone and/or email. This is a great way get the word out to many sellers, and brokers/agents who may have a actual or "pocket listing" of what you are seeking.

Usually with four hours your Business Wanted To Buy request will be added to the BizBen database so that business brokers, agents, and small business owners have the ability to see your posting and respond to it if there is a match to your specifications to buy a business.

Some agents and brokers are better than others when it comes to follow-up with potential buyers. If you are emailing a advertiser about their business for sale, make sure you also call all their phone numbers listed in the ad. When leaving a message for the advertiser make sure you speak slowly and clearly leaving all your information, phone numbers, etc. Also leave a detailed message about which ad you are calling on and any other pertinent information.

Yes, absolutely - especially if you plan to leverage your cash and buy a larger business. Also if you have been pre-qualified for SBA and/or conventional financing you will be taken much more seriously by business brokers, agents, and sellers. In fact in many instances if you don't have financing lined up you may not be able to preview certain listings.

To make sure important emails sent to you from BizBen don't end up into your email program's spam folder make sure you put these email addresses into you address book: services@bizben.com, bizbendailyreports@bizben.com, and emailreports@bizben.com.  If you can put anything being emailed from @bizben.com also will assure you get all our important emails sent to you.

Due diligence is a systematic process for acquiring and analyzing information to help a buyer or seller to determine whether or not to proceed with a proposed business transaction. The information obtained relates to all aspects of the business to be purchased.
Due diligence should include both quantitative information, such as sales and other financial data, and qualitative information, such as an assessment of the existing management, internal systems, existing licenses, location and other matters. Sometimes the information to be reviewed can be quite technical or industry specific. It is important that the person doing due diligence have a complete understanding of the information being reviewed.

strong>The seller has:

* Imposed an unrealistic time frame for the transaction.
* Withheld key information.
* Limited access to information and people.
* Provided unclear or biased reasons for selling.
* Presented information that is significantly misleading or false.
* Displayed a lack of commitment to remain after the sale.

If these signals are present you should:

* View them as real warnings of increased risk to the transaction.
* Increase the amount and extent of due diligence procedures to ensure a realistic assessment of the business.
* Determine whether to invest more time investigating the opportunity or to simply pass on the deal.

In most cases, a portion of the total consideration paid for a business is paid in some sort of deferred payment - whether in the form of a seller note or payments contingent on the performance of the business. Third-party lenders are also available to make acquisition loans. Therefore, a cash investment of 1/3 to 1/2 of the purchase price may be sufficient to complete a transaction, depending upon the details of the transaction and the flexibility of the seller.

There are a variety of sources available for purchase financing. The availability of outside financing will depend upon the asset base of the business, its operating history, collateral availability and projected cash flow - the same issues considered in all business lending. Seller financing is also an option. In this case, the seller of the business takes back a promissory note for part of the value of the company. Seller financing may be a good indication of the seller's faith in the continuing operations of the business.

In our opinion if you don't utilize the services of an escrow company, you are asking for trouble later on down the road. The escrow fee should be looked at as insurance that the deal will run smoother and items that are respresented by all parties are documented. I have heard too many horror stories from buyers, sellers, and brokers/agents who wanted to save a little money or figured they didn't need to involve a escrow service to close their deal and got burned later on for not doing so.