Why We Do The Hard Work Upfront

Hi Readers,

Last week I was reminded why at PBS we do all the hard work with the business seller “up front”. You see
I had a conversation with a young man who came to me as a ‘buyer’. I, and some of my colleagues,
showed him a number of businesses. Then, as sometimes happens, it all went quiet and no purchase was
made.

Some weeks later I received a call from someone wanting me to sell their business for them. It turned out
the young man I had been helping had referred this person to me as a reputable broker he should use.
When I rang the young man (buyer) to thank him I asked how he had gone with buying a business.

It turns out he had gone to a different business broking firm and had put an offer in on one of their business
for sale. After spending time and ‘emotion’ going through the purchase, it all fell apart in due diligence
because of problems in the financials. The young man put in another offer through that same broking
company only to have this second deal fall through as well.

What this highlighted for me was the strength of our process at PBS and how it protects both the buyer
and seller and minimises the chance of the deal falling through. We get the seller to provide us a lot of information about their business, including finalised accounts, UP FRONT before we do the appraisal. If
things don’t stack up, we don’t take the listing. If we do take the listing, then the next step is the business report and this is such a strict process that all strengths and weaknesses of the business are uncovered
and documented.

By doing the hard work upfront we make it a more successful, lower risk and less stressful process for
both parties.

I thank that young man for reminding why we do the things we do.
Bye for now!