Exit
Strategy Planning
In 1990, George Spilka and Associates (GS&A) introduced the Exit
Strategy Planning process to the middle market. GS&A is
the only firm that executes it with the sophistication and business-oriented
approach required to maximize a selling owner's transaction price.
We help you define the personal and financial objectives you want to
achieve from an exit strategy. Various business alternatives are evaluated
and their financial consequences quantified. GS&A then recommends
the exit strategy that best satisfies your personal and financial objectives.
We define what you can and can’t expect from a sale. Furthermore,
GS&A can explain what is likely to happen after a transaction is
consummated, including the emotions that you can expect and how to effectively
deal with them. This ensures that your decision to sell will
be an informed one. Consequently, it minimizes the risk that you will
be disappointed with the decision you made and your life after a sale.
Exit Strategy Planning helps you decide if selling is the right alternative
for you, as it is not the right alternative for everyone.
If Your Exit Strategy Is Selling
If you decide that selling is the exit alternative for you, GS&A
helps you plan and time the sale and provides the guidance to strengthen
your business foundation through the Sale Price Maximization Planning
process. This will increase your transaction price.
We not only determine the current market value of your company, but
also evaluate and discuss current and expected future pricing levels.
Based on your personal and financial objectives, the fundamentals of
your company, the strength of its business foundation and the expected
future deal pricing levels, we advise you of the appropriate time to
place your company on the market.
Sale Price Maximization Planning (Positioning The Company
And Timing The Sale)
In 2001, GS&A greatly expanded its original Exit Strategy Planning
process with the introduction of the more comprehensive Sale Price Maximization
Planning process. This process encompasses a thorough review of all
major marketing, operations, personnel, financial, legal, tax and economic
matters affecting the company. GS&A will recommend the changes that
enhance your business strategy and improve your operations. These
will position the company to realize a significant increase in its sale
price. The recommendations could include changes in the product
mix, the markets and customers served, or the sales and distribution
methods used. Recommendations are made regarding business expansion
and/or diversification strategies. The organizational structure and
personnel are evaluated to determine if they need strengthening.
An evaluation is made of the corporate structure, tax policies, and
accounting systems and procedures. Changes are often recommended in
these areas that increase the sale price, however their major impact
is usually to reduce your “tax bite”. In many cases,
the changes that we recommend substantially reduce the tax on the seller’s
deal proceeds.
The end result of the process is a strengthened business foundation,
an increase in the expected future earnings/EBITDA, a substantial increase
in the selling price and in some cases a sizeable reduction in the taxes
that will be due on the deal proceeds.
In certain situations due to the types of changes necessary, it can
take several years before the full impact of the benefits will either
be apparent to acquirers or are reflected on the bottom line. When either
of these events occur, the company will be capable of obtaining the
maximum premium price. However, in many other situations the results
can be achieved relatively quickly, thereby producing a significant
increase in the transaction price in a short period of time. Two actual
case studies defining the results this process produced for GS&A’s
former clients are described in detail in George Spilka’s nationally
syndicated article on Exit Strategy Planning.
Other Benefits Of Sale Price Maximization
Planning
As the Sale Price Maximization Planning process evaluates your company’s
fundamentals, long-term opportunities, and potential threats to its
business niche, it helps you better understand your company and its
future.
In today’s fast-paced global marketplace, most middle market executives
and entrepreneurs don't have either the time or perspective to evaluate
their company’s long-term outlook and develop a long-term business
strategy with the same thoroughness and intensity they bring to maximizing
short-term earnings. They are usually focused on increasing sales and
pricing power, instituting cost reduction programs and keeping operations
technologically current. In so doing, they often miss major expansion
and diversification opportunities or overlook major operational changes
that should be made to maximize long-term profitability.
The Sale Price Maximization Planning process assures
that a selling owner’s price expectations will not be sabotaged
by a preoccupation with short-term considerations. It usually
produces a significant increase in a company’s long-term and future
profitability, which is essential to obtaining the maximum premium price.
Former Clients Describe Process Benefits
The following are selected comments of former clients:
..... |
“Over
and above significantly increasing the eventual transaction price,
the benefits of the process enabled me to run a much more
profitable business prior to its sale. The process is
a meaningful and necessary exercise.” |
..... |
"The
knowledge gained from the process increased profits and produced
benefits that exceeded the cost of the services many times over.
It is truly a value-added process." |
..... |
"I have
never felt so secure in understanding where my business is going
and what must be done to get it where it should be." |
..... |
“The
changes you recommended in our corporate structure and accounting
practices should produce very substantial tax savings, when we
sell the company. Neither our attorneys or outside accountants
had made me aware of the tax reduction opportunities available
to us. As you know how important taxes are to me, I can’t
thank you enough for your knowledge and perceptiveness.” |
..... |
"This
process helped me learn things about my business that I never
realized before." |
..... |
"This is a process that I
would use, even if I didn't want to sell my company." |
If you would like to speak to former
and current clients that have or are currently using these processes,
please contact us to obtain a list of references.