Our fee structure is 100% performance based. We have an industry standard “success fee” if and when we sell your company. If we fail to complete a transaction and complete the sale, you will owe us nothing.
On average it takes 3-6 months for us to sell your company and complete the transaction. We have closed a transaction in as little as 8 days and we have completed a transaction 18 months after accepting the engagement. It really depends on many factors and varies from company to company. How profitable, how niche the business is and how long has the company been in business all factor in when considering how long it will take to complete a transaction from listing to wiring of funds.
MDR & Associates is all about integrity, transparency and strict confidentiality. With our 100% pay-for-performance fee structure, we put our money where our mouth is and set the right expectations from the first discovery meeting. If we cannot truly help you achieve your goals and objectives, we simply will not take the engagement. We are more aggressive in the way we secure the right structure, the right buyer and the right price, and we WILL see the deal through to closing and wiring of funds. We are open and transparent at all times and in all ways with our clients. And lastly, we keep strict confidentiality to assure that your employees, clients and competitors do not find out that you are offering your business for sale.
We have a fiduciary responsibility to present all offers to you in person. At that point you will have 3 options: accept offer, reject offer or make a counter-offer. And, of course, we will offer our advice along the way to make sure you’re not alone in this sometimes daunting process of selling your company for a fair market value.
Our firm is a boutique business sales/M&A firm and as such, we handle a select number of engagements at one time. You will have access to a world-class team of individuals that will be working in tandem to secure multiple offers. Multiple offers means a higher-selling price and natural fear of loss is established to give us an edge in selling your business. We have a VP of Client Engagement that will be your main contact through the entire marketing process. Rest assured, when the negotiating gets heated, one of our Partners will be in the middle of the negotiation and will see it through to the closing table.
Typically the best time to sell your company is when your business is experiencing growth and has experienced growth year after year for at least 2-3 years. Selling your business when times are good is optimal and will attract multiple offers creating natural fear of loss among the potential buyers. It is typically not a good time to sell if the company has experienced negative growth year over year, as the sale will most likely be perceived as a liquidation sale , which creates a much lower overall price and structure not favorable to the business owner.
It all begins with the first discovery meeting and setting the right expectations with the business owner. In this meeting we will discover your story and your value proposition. Once that is determined, we list the company on all the top “business for sale” websites for maximum exposure. Due to our deep database of qualified buyers, capital groups and private equity groups, over 50% of our listings are under contract before even hitting the Internet. Once a written offer and escrow funds are in hand, we are highly skilled in taking the deal to the closing table and wiring of funds.
A good listing is one that is profitable, trackable and bankable. Hopefully, the business has longevity and a solid value proposition. The ideal business has management that will stay at least 2-3 years after the sale and is scalable and has the ability to be run an absentee or semi-absentee business. Lastly, the business owner should be highly motivated to pull the trigger with the right structure, right price and right buyer.
Our firm has thousands of qualified individual buyers, buyer groups and private equity groups in our stable ready to look at any and all businesses that fit their acquisition criteria. Most M & A advisory firms rely on the Internet to hopefully gain traction and get offers on the businesses that they represent. That’s simply not our marketing strategy. We first go to our captive buyers before taking your business online. This gives us an extreme competitive advantage when taking your business to market. Let’s face it, you want to list your business with the firm that has the buyers, PERIOD!
MDR & Associates was founded in January of 2009. The company was founded as a main street business brokerage firm and its core values are and will always be centered around high integrity, high transparency and high confidentiality. In the beginning, our average transaction was around $500,000 and our clients were mostly main street businesses in Texas. Over the last decade, MDR & Associates began assisting much larger, more established business owners, and today our average transaction is approximately $8,000,000. We have sold 10-15 companies per year for the last 4 years in a row and have just completed our 200th transaction. We have grown into a boutique, high touch M & A Advisory Firm that handles 20-30 engagements per year and past-client references are always available upon request.
At MDR & Associates we are serious about high integrity, high transparency and high confidentiality. When we list your business for sale, you do not want your employees, clients or competitors to know your business is for sale. When buyers inquire about our confidential listing we require them to register online before sending them your detailed marketing package. Our registration process includes signing a confidentiality form and completing a financial profile that determines whether they are truly financially capable of purchasing your business. We only share the details of your business to qualified buyers that are READY, WILLING and ABLE to purchase your business that have completed our online buyer registration process.
First and foremost, using a professional M & A advisory firm will allow you to keep your focus and attention on your business and insure that the business continues to be healthy financially. Too often we see business owners attempt to sell their own business and take their focus off of the financial stability of the business. This typically results in a much lower overall sale price. Keeping your focus on your business during the sales and marketing process insures that the business will continue to operate effectively and efficiently. This allows the M & A advisor to focus on finding the right buyer, right structure and achieve the highest overall price for your business.
This is THE BIG QUESTION in our initial discovery meeting. We are more sales counselors or sales psychologists than financial advisors. We have found over time, that our sellers need to have an initial idea of “What’s Next” or they simply will not move forward with marketing their business for sale. We are always amazed how much trust is built over the process of selling their business and we will be here, after closing, assisting our client with the question of “What’s Next”!
The first step in selling your business is our complimentary discovery meeting and opinion of value with one or more of the partners of the firm. In this meeting we will listen carefully to your personal goals and objectives and determine whether we can meet those objectives. We will review the last 3 years of financials and give you a complimentary opinion of value from low to high and discuss your various exit options with you.
Statistics prove that in fact sellers do not have the buyer of their business. There are a couple vital reasons why selling your business yourself is simply NOT A GOOD IDEA. First, a natural buffer is needed to preserve good will between buyer and seller in every successful transaction. An experienced M&A advisor provides such buffer and takes the place of “the bad guy” in the process. Second, a top advisor will create a competitive landscape that produces a significantly higher value and better outcome for the seller. This higher value more than compensates for the advisor’s success fee.
Our deal team has completed over 200 transactions and has assisted many different sellers in finding their next business. Once closed, we are experts at assisting you with finding the NEXT opportunity. We have assisted many of our past clients in finding the perfect next business. We believe that the Closing and Wiring of Funds is just the 1st step in maintaining amazing relationships with all of our past Clients. Our Deal Team will be more than happy to assist you in finding the Next Perfect Business.
