Business Exit Stories

How forty years of hard work all went down the drain when the business was sold with seller financing. After the business sale closed there was an equipment failure which allowed the buyer to stop making payments on the promissory note that seller had financed.

A lifestyle business that had been around for more than 30 years and was one of the most well known in the area disappears because the owner didn’t plan a head which destroyed his opportunity for survival.

A company that lost nearly half of its business because of a hasty decision by the owner. The owner was able to pivot and quickly recover from the loss of the sales revenue and turned it into the best thing that could have happened.

A business that has been around since Abraham Lincoln was president finally stumbled and had to be sold before it when out of business after six generations for reasons that were totally avoidable.

Gregg KunzRocky Mountain Business Advisors, Inc.Denver, ColoradoVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

An immigrant from Eastern Europe came to the US with $200 to his name and eventually became an all-American success story.  

Not thinking about how a sales model based on relationship-based referral of one of the partners caused a business to literally become unsellable.

A family-owned and managed logistics company had a family council to decide on what to do with the business since the son, although he worked in the business, didn’t want to take over the business from his father.

Three partners of a 60 year old large commercial landscaping company made the decision to exit their business early for a very surprising reason.

Les VeilNext Level Business AdvisorsSchaumburg, IllinoisVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A multi-unit franchisee in a national retail chain acquires a large local franchise location. The day before the sale was set to close, an employee got into an altercation with a customer. The incident was captured on video and posted on social media. This cost the seller hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A buyer threatens to sue the seller one year after a sale because of alleged misrepresentation of revenue.

How selling a business to a key employee can be a win for both the employee and the business owner.

A father can sell a business to his son but if this isn’t done right, can result in major pitfalls.

Peter HannaHopler, Wilms, & Hanna PLLCDurham, North CarolinaVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A challenging transaction involving a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. How this designation can impact a buyer pool.

A large-scale appliance retailer made more money by financing the sales of appliances than it did from selling them.

A business with a lot of inventory decides to liquidate their business vs. sell it and netted more money than if the business was sold in a traditional manner to a third party for the industry wide standard multiple on earnings.

An entrepreneur did everything right but failed to take into account one key aspect of his planned exit and nearly caused their business to fail.

Charlie ColeCole & Company IncDurango, ColoradoVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A buyer’s attorney began giving business advice to his client and as he continued to do so ran up legal fees by redlining the Asset Purchase Agreement repeatedly until the deal was falling apart from deal fatigue. Listen carefully to what happened to keep the deal on track. 

A seller’s classic and hot rod restoration car hobby, that was paid for by his business, had some unintended consequences that eventually caused of the all of the lenders to back away from financing the sale, even though the business was a cashflow generator. 

A business that nearly went bankrupt during the Great Recession but by sheer grit turned into a 400% ROI at the time of exit.

Wayne WrightWright Business AdvisorsArvado, ColoradoVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A transaction where a deal was set to close, until the buyer was notified by the SBA and bank funding the acquisition loan that it was not going to be funded. The only reason given was that there was an issue that turned up in the background check. What was it?

A sale nearly fell apart because the amount of company debt exceeded the purchase price. Could it be possible that this deal closed on a positive note for all parties involved?

Businesses that require a state mandated license to operate and how they work.

Why private equity is incredibly interested in the heating and air space.

A seller ended up staying with a small town business after it was sold and benefitted from it.

Patrick LangeBusiness Modification GroupHorseshoe Beach, FloridaVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A seller had to consider if it was ethical to sell their motorcycle dealership business to a buyer that was well qualified financially, but had some personality issues that raised concerns about the buyer’s ability to successfully run the business over the long term.

Transactions where the sellers, who were independently wealthy, weren’t all that concerned with the eventual sales price and priced their businesses aggressively to sell.  One sold, with a deep discount and the other didn’t.

Finally, a seller sold at the right time and didn’t try to milk the strong reoccurring revenue and cash flow from the business. This turned out to be a good decision, because shortly after the business was sold, the market changed.

Greg CarpenterM&A Business AdvisorsSan Jose, CaliforniaVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

The sale of a multi-million-dollar maintenance business was run by two brothers who were old school and dominated their niche. Learn why the brothers were only able to get 50% of true value of their business but the buyer turned around and resold it for double what he paid only three years later.

An attorney managed to crater a $27M cash deal from a public traded company because of his lack of business transactional experience.

A business owner inadvertently let it out that the business was being sold, which caused key people that were critical to the business to begin to look for other jobs. Only when the seller flew in to share with these key employees that they would be getting promotions and raises did they agree to stay on after the sale.

How a business sold for 40% over market by being creative on financing the business through some off the balance sheet financing.

Scot CockroftSigma Mergers & AcquisitionsDallas, TexasVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A cabinet maker that had old world woodworking craftsman skills is encouraged to sell his business by his wife when none of his children wanted to take over. However, he just couldn’t bring himself to sell the business. The reason he didn’t want to sell is not what you might think.

A business that needed a special purpose building facility and was paid for quickly because the business was profitable enough to pay off the mortgage. The owners didn’t need the money and so they didn’t charge the business rent. Learn how by not paying market value rent eventually leads to the business closing.

How leaving a business to the kids turned out to be a really bad idea and a junk yard business that made good decisions on EPA issues allowed the business to be sold for millions.

Peter ColemanSunbelt Business Brokers of Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaVisit WebsiteSend E-mail

A business owner designates the responsibility of a contractor’s license to the wrong person which threatened the business value, but the owner managed to negate this issue. A business owner loses hundreds of thousands of dollars by continuing to work with a potential buyer who refused to deposit earnest money in escrow, only to find out too late that the buyer was denied their SBA loan due to non disclosure of their criminal history and felony conviction. A transaction where a seller properly manages the impact of continent liability exposure as they prepare their business for sale.

Tim BellonVR Business BrokersTampa Bay, FloridaVisit WebsiteSend E-mail