Buying and Selling Businesses

Leaders and owners of midsized companies turn to CEO to CEO for expert advice and coaching on how best to incorporate M&A into their overall business strategy and objectives.  Unlike traditional M&A advisors and investment bankers who are incentivized to get deals done as quickly as possible (which may not be in your best interest), CEO to CEO consultants are former CEOs of midsized firms who led their firms to identify and deploy the right M&A strategy, bringing the greatest value to shareholders and owners of their firms.

When it comes to M&A, the stakes are too high to go at it alone. What better way to hedge your bets than to retain the advice of a former CEO who has successfully bought and sold businesses?

Sell-side advice:

If you’re thinking about selling your business, we know from experience, it will take several years of preparation to properly position your firm to optimize its market value before you put the business to the market for a sale.  Here are a few important questions you should be thinking about that we will help you navigate through:

• What parameters are most important in our industry to maximize firm value and which ones should we focus on?
• When is the right time to sell the company?
• What do I want to do after the company is sold?
• Do I have the right leadership team in place to execute a sale?
• What investments or operational changes need to be made?
• What internal and external resources do I need?
• And many others…

Buy-side advice:

Many midsized firms institute a formal acquisitions program as part of their strategic growth planning.  CEO to CEO consultants are former CEOs who successfully deployed such programs to grow their own companies, and we can guide you through the good, the bad and the ugly.  If you are thinking of growing through acquisition, here are some things you should be thinking about:

• Why do acquisitions make sense for the business I run?
• What has been our experience with acquisitions?
• Who, what and where are the right targets?
• Who on my team has the “bandwidth” to execute an acquisitions program?
• How will we finance our acquisitions and what can we afford?
• How will we integrate our acquisitions and who will do it?
• What systems, technology, people investments do I need to make before making acquisitions?
• And many others…

The CEO to CEO team will bring a world of trusted experience to your M&A considerations. We’ll coach and advise you on what we believe is best for your firm.

Assessment Tool

Risk is such a critical issue in M&A. To reduce it, we’ve created an online assessment tool that business owners can use to determine just how risky a deal might be. Try the assessment on a past acquisition (as a test) or an upcoming one.

Take Assessment