Tag Archives: sell a company

Your kids (milenials) don´t want your business, they want your money

A business owner should understand and accept that his or her children may want to pursue different careers rather than following in their footsteps.

Sometimes it is the own business owner who sees that his or her kids are not prepared to assume the responsibility and encourages them to look for a job that suits their abilities instead of forcing them to deal with the burden of managing a company.

In other times, the kids realize a little too late that the burden is too big to deal with.

We received a request for help from a young adult who had inherited his father’s company. He knew absolutely nothing about the business and everything was foreign to him. The employees of the company still saw him as a child that was not prepared to undertake the management of the company. In addition, he was pouring too much money into the business to maintain it afloat. His inexperience made owning and running the business too overwhelming and selling the company became the only option.

We advised him through the process of selling the company to an industrial group, allowing him to save his inheritance and free himself from a difficult situation.

As an owner and a parent, you must understand and accept that your children want to pursue different paths from yours. If you, as a parent, see that none of your kids have the capability or the willingness to be a business owner, which would mean working tirelessly to face a competitive environment that becomes more aggressive as time goes on, don’t force them to inherit your business, don’t put that burden on them, let them be free so that they can pursue their own dreams.

This article was written by Enrique Quemada, Chairman of ONEtoONE Corporate Finance Group.

Slave of your own company?

Just because you started or inherited a company doesn’t mean you need to spend your entire life dedicated to it.

After many years doing the same thing, business owners might become fed up. Many have already made enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives and now they would like to focus on other things. This is very common.

There are numerous owners that come to see us and explain how they want a change in their lives. They don’t want to become slaves to their own company.

Two business owners came to see us and explained that after twenty years doing the same thing, they wanted to sell their business and dedicate their energy to other exciting projects.

One of them wanted to give back to society and spend his time in an NGO that he had started. The other one wanted to sell in order to devote more time to his true passion, his family. The sale also allowed him to have time for other things, like playing golf with his friends. The process of searching for buyers began, and some of the buyers demanded that the owners stay in the company for some time.

We knew that this was not an option, as our clients already had other plans for their futures, we continued searching for buyers, and were finally able to find a buyer with a skilled management team capable of replacing those eight months after the acquisition.

The sale of a company is a complex process that lasts a minimum of six months and can be extended to twenty-four if negotiations with potential candidates fall through.

Experience has shown us that the average time of a professional sales transaction maximizing the interests of the seller takes around nine months. Therefore, if you are tired of your company, it´s time to start the sale process. Do it before this period of outstanding liquidity ends.

Article was written by Enrique Quemada, Chairman of ONEtoONE Corporate Finance Group