Services

Small Business Consulting

Maximising the sale price of your business

Preparing your business for sale

You’ve worked hard and your business has served you well. Chances are your business is one of your most valuable assets and now you are ready to wind down. The trick is getting someone to buy your business. How will you maximise value for your years of hard work? How will you structure a sale to reduce or eliminate tax?

Many people think that selling a business is about convincing someone to buy the business. Astute buyers know that it’s about risk – minimising risk. Buyers pay less for a risky offering, and they don’t want the additional expense associated with the extra due diligence and negotiation that goes along with a messy offering. Presenting your business in the right way gets results.

Capricorn Investment Partners (CIPL) has the people and experience to help you get the presentation right, find a buyer and consummate the deal.

Our process

Our comprehensive process includes the following

Meeting with you to really understand your business and what you want to achieve. Is it a full or partial sale, replacement of management and technical skills to allow you to ease out, or a merger with another business?
Analysis of the most appropriate manner in which to operate your business. Should the business continue to operate in its current form. Would a partnership, trust or company be more appropriate?
Reconstruction of your books to meet commonly accepted business standards and to make them user friendly to a buyer
Valuing your business against benchmarks and generally accepted valuation methods.
How should the sale progress? Should you sell outright, merge, or gradually bring in equity partners?
Have you got a succession plan in place? What are your key man insurance needs? What strategy exists for replacing you in the event of injury or illness?
Arranging all accounting, legal and business broking services
Providing a buyers data pack, complete with report on your business

Our experience

Based on financial planning work for hundreds of clients, specific small business projects include:

Capital raising and expansion advice for a family owned meatworks
Asset restructuring for a manufacturer of pipes and tanks
Business restructuring for specialist medical practitioners, vets and dentists
Readying primary production businesses for sale
Separation of business and investment assets, and strategic advice on business sale for a family owned leisure provider
Advice on separating mining activities from agricultural activities on primary production land
Ownership and succession advice for a sole owner of an extremely successful consulting business
Advice on a potential acquisition for a listed public company.

How do we charge?

CIPL charges a flat fee and a percentage of the sale value of the business. Our fee schedule is as follows:

Small business with less than $3 million turnover - $5,000 plus 2 per cent of sale value
Medium business - $3 million to $20 million turnover - $8,000 plus 1.75 per cent of sale value
Larger business – > $20 million turnover – POA

What are the benefits?

Quicker sale and a higher price for your business
Greater respect on both sides, resulting in more professional and satisfactory negotiations
Minimise tax and maximise returns to you
Less stress
Greater ability to retain staff and keep value in the business
Integrated financial planning outcomes
Lower legal and accounting fees – we do much of the “grunt work”
Broader experience and creative application for better results

Our flat up-front fee and share of sale proceeds means that our interests are aligned with yours.

What other services does CIPL provide?

All financial planning and investment strategy services
Self managed superannuation advice and administration
Insurance analysis and broking
Estate planning services
Legal, accounting and business broking referrals
Business advice regarding performance monitoring and benchmarking

The Investment Collective

Our Duty is your Future ®