Mergers & Acquisitions     

Business Brokers  

Business Plan Review

FINANCIAL EXCHANGE

Established 1989

Asset Transfer Consultants

Business Intermediation

Finance

Why Owners Transfer/Sell/Lease/Merge

Considerations When Transferring, Selling, Leasing, Merging or Acquiring

AVOID Crucial Financial Mistakes

Protect Your Business        Owner Coaching

Selling Your Company

When to Transfer/Sell/Lease/Merge

View a Sample Confidential FEC Web Page Prospectus

Free Personal Confidential Consultation-Information

Why Businesses Fail

Eight Mistakes By Business Owners When Transferring

Why use a Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Consultant & Intermediary?

• To maintain confidentiality - one does not want to lose customers or employees.

• To have a loyal and professional person representing your interests.

• To have a professionally prepared marketing presentation of your business and a marketing plan that will result in a sale or transfer with increased value of proceeds.

• To include one's estate and financial planning goals during planning and negotiations.

• To assist with tax advantaged options to help you maximize proceeds.

• The owner can concentrate operating the business, maintaining and increasing business value. 

• An independent party can often present a more impartial and un-emotional picture of the business.

• Reduce stress caused by inexperience with business transfer preparation, communication, negotiation and legalities.

• Transferring one's own business is as representing oneself in court.

The process of buying or selling all or part of a business can be summarized simply:  There is a decision to buy or sell/lease with the qualified buyer/lessee or seller contacted, negotiations initiated, offers evaluated, selected, and the the transaction closed. But describing the process in these simple terms is misleading. The process involves emotional decisions, negotiations over many details, dealing with attorneys, CPA's, financial advisors and others. Success can be achieved if the parties can focus on the end-result so that various details do not undermine original goals.

Reaching the decision to sell a business, divest operations, or pursue growth through an acquisition or sale/lease strategy is a function of the business owner who must rely on enough information to execute an informed decision. Executing, the decision is more difficult, often because the business owner is entering unfamiliar territory in an increasingly competitive market. The owner facing these decisions should consider assistance in the form of an experienced professional intermediary.  When attempting it alone, an inexperienced buyer or seller could risk paying too much, selling too cheaply, or not successfully negotiating favorable prices, terms, and conditions.

Why pay Taxes Unnecessarily?  Many Business Owners do!  Over One Billion $ Taxes Unnecessarily Paid Annually.  

FEC has alternatives.

1031-721 TAX-DEFERRED INVESTMENTS FOR EXCHANGE      

• Value the business

• Recommend proper terms and structure

• Develop a marketing plan, and sourcing buyers

• Screen and qualify potential buyers

• Negotiate and structure a successful sale or other transaction

• Assist the buyer in obtaining financing

• Evaluate the buyer's goals

• Formulate the buyer's acquisition criteria

• Locate appropriate acquisition candidates

• Evaluate acquisition candidates

• Negotiate and structure a successful purchase or other transaction

• Assist in obtaining financing

Transferring or selling a business is like taking an airline flight across the country. When one boards the plane, one has no idea how the trip will be. Neither does your pilot! One could run into many types of turbulence or have a smooth flight and arrive on time. The pilot will use his experience and professional skills to navigate around storms and produce the smoothest flight possible. He cannot promise a flight free of any turbulence. His job is to give one the best ride possible and arrive safely and on time.

Financial Exchange Corp. (FEC), as a mergers & acquisitions Consultants and Intermediaries, see ourselves as the pilot of a client's plane. Our job is to assist an owner in transferring or selling his/her business for the most money in the least time, with the fewest problems, and assist the owner to keep as much of the proceeds as possible.  FEC can utilize our experience and skills to give a client the smoothest flight, and that if it becomes turbulent, we won’t bail out!  FEC will be on a client's side throughout the flight and assist the client safely to his/her destination.

Financial Exchange Corp.:

• emphasizes the value of your name, location, reputation, service, products, employees and other intangibles. 

• is experienced at analyzing financial statements to show the true return a business generates. 

• we are well prepared to represent your business in the best possible manner when a potential buyer requests information about a potential purchase. 

• prepares a marketing package that will be thorough and fair and will often answer most of a purchaser’s questions at the first reading. 

• through discreet advertising and our extensive referral network, will expose your business to investors from all over the USA and world who are seeking investments in Iowa 

• is very conscious of the need for absolute discretion in the promotion of a business opportunity. 

• carefully screens all prospective purchasers and will not reveal the name or location of a business to anyone who does not first sign our non-disclosure agreement and meet the financial and professional criteria we have established as required to purchase our client's business.

• coordinates our client's business transition with our client's attorney, tax planner, financial and estate planner, financial institution, public recorder, surveyor, environmentalist and geologist, among others necessary to complete the transition.

Business Owner Coaching

Financial Exchange Corp. Consultants and Intermediaries:

• assist educating individuals in business ownership exit and entrance opportunities..

• assist in the evaluation of owner goals.

• assist in guiding individuals through business-career transitions.

• They are "burned out" - the most common reason, some in as little as 5 years

• Health problems

• Retirement

• Expiration of lease

• Children not interested in the business

  Divorce

  Under capitalized.

  Changing technology requiring new capital inputs.

  Financial difficulties

  Employee problems

  Customer or supplier problems

  Estate planning

Should one buy, merge, sell, lease or hold?  FEC assists owners with alternatives.

An owner does not write his/her own will or trust.  A professional as an estate planner and/or attorney assists so crucial legal language and procedure is proper for financial protection.  Procedure and legal language are as important when transferring a business.  

An owner transferring a business his/herself can be a financial mistake.  It removes one's time from operating his/her business and can destroy the confidentiality necessary to retain employees and customers.  

It deprives the business owner of an experienced third party to negotiate on the owner's behalf.  One may price too high and negate the sale, or too low, and leave much of your money "on the table".  

Many self transferors or sellers are unaware they gift money to the buyer and to others unaware of how or what should be negotiated.

Unfortunately, taxes are often paid though the IRS has exclusions if a tax advantaged contract is negotiated that is concurrent with IRS guidelines.  Many businesses are negotiated and transferred with average or few tax considerations.

Do not expect every attorney or CPA to have negotiation expertise, exercise estate planning, have years of experience transferring many various businesses, and expertise practicing business transfer tax advantages.  Your attorney and CPA, invaluable at what they do best, are generally not the negotiators or experienced at negotiating the transfer of a business.  They commonly do their best with the deal you have negotiated.

FEC Consultants and Intermediaries assist an owner and the owner's professional advisors to maximize client monies gained and retained while considering all client goals.

• Collect marketing and analysis data.

• Define business partners and transaction entities.

• Create alternate strategies.

• Determine value, price and terms.

• Determine tax strategies and after tax net.

• Identify, qualify and target ideal business entity.

• Present, negotiate and close.

• Transition period.

One option to sell or transfer a business is to:

 Buy a business. 

Another option to sell or transfer a business is to: 

 Finance without debt.  

FEC has transferred businesses within one to two months and many within one year.  However, one to two years marketing time for a planned goal oriented business transfer can be normal.  Exceptions are that a lower price is acceptable, or a buyer/lessee/merger entity is unusually available.  Preparation time to market a business can be months depending the complexity of the entity.  Many owners do not consider what they skillfully and sometimes easily manage, can be complex to a prospective owner.  Ideally, consultation and organization to transfer a business should begin when the business is operational.  An owner's next best choice is to initiate consultation eleven years (11) before contemplated transfer to assure maximum tax advantages.  Seldom is this the case.  Many decisions are to transfer now, with minimum preparation.  Even preparation months in advance is financially crucial. One can hurry a transfer by absorbing a discount in proceeds.  A distressed, forced or unplanned transfer is not in an owner's financial interest, owner's family interest or health.

FEC successfully transfers many businesses.  FEC recommends experienced, qualified appraisal and valuation specialist to advise valuation-see Appraisal & Valuation.  We strive to have a base of satisfied former clients that will highly recommend our services to others. We are performance and service oriented.

NOTE:  Selling one's business is only one of many alternatives to exiting or retiring from one's business:   

Your FEC Consultant reviews all alternatives.

FEC Goal Number One:  To Assist Business Owners to preserve and keep wealth

FEC Goal Number Two:  To Assist Business Owners to increase wealth