MBA Business Broker has several points of differentiation in the market. First and foremost, everyone involved with the firm has an MBA education. The process of selling a business is complex. While the broker may not have a depth of experience in a particular industry, it is important that they have a depth of business experience. This means that our brokers understand business fundamentals. Most importantly, this includes understanding and interpreting the financial picture of the business. This is critical in establishing value. We do not use "rules of thumb." Instead, we pay attention to the marketplace and convert our interpretation of the financials to a relevant market valuation. MBA Business Brokers is an expert at pricing businesses to sell.

One important point to highlight is our approach to "add-backs." Add backs are expenses that are typically added back to the business' operating income. These expense items are typically classified or described as expenses that the new owner would not incur. More often than not, these expenses are of a personal nature to the existing owner. The only add backs that we present to potential buyers are the components of EBITDA, namely interest, depreciation and amortization. Given the structure of the business and the nature of the buyer we may of may not add back the owner's compensation or that of key employees that will not be replaced. The only other category of add backs may be related to one time capital expense purchases of equipment or other facilities related items.

It is our intention to get the businesses we list sold. In order to achieve that goal, we take steps to ensure that there is a market for the business, that the business is priced fairly and that we only spend time with buyers that are capable and compatible with the business. In our opinion, a certain amount of education and experience is required to conduct the process of selling a business efficiently and effectively. MBA Business Brokers has that education and business experience necessary to drive the business sale process to closing.

While we recognize that selling a business is a numbers game to a great extent, we are careful to limit the use of everyone's time to only those actions that make sense. We work to disqualify buyers that cannot afford to buy the business for sale. We work to disqualify buyers that will not stick with the process. We work to disqualify buyers who are not capable of running the business. We do this because we know that even if a buyer does not recognize that they are incapable or incompatible with a business for sale, their advisors in the process will. In most cases, their attorney, accountant or banker will disqualify them from purchasing the business for sale. We just assume make the best use of everyone's time and disqualify incompatible or incapable buyers immediately. We are experienced in ferreting out these types of buyers. As a result, our sellers and buyers make better use of their time. More importantly, we can spend more time with qualified buyers and increase the speed at which the business gets sold for sale.

We take a fact based approach. This means that when we evaluate a business for sale, we look to extract all the relevant information that a buyer for sale would need to evaluate a business. We work support all the relevant information with some type of documentation or industry facts. Qualified buyers and lenders will get to the facts about the business, and we ensure that they get them quickly with confidence. Buyers will move more quickly to purchase a business if they feel that they have been presented with a complete picture of the business. This means revealing the good and bad points of the business. Qualified buyers that are savvy will recognize that every business has strengths and weaknesses. Typically, the weaknesses are the source of the greatest opportunity for the new owner, so hiding those weaknesses is detrimental to the sale of the business.

Throughout the process, MBA Business Brokers provides feedback to the sellers with respect to the process. While we understand and act with a sense of urgency, the process of selling a business takes several months. We look to update our sellers of any and all activity every two weeks. We will use these updates to share our thoughts and ideas of how better to present the business based on buyer feedback and changes in the marketplace.

One of the keys to success in this business is following up. Everyone involved in the process is busy. Sellers are busy running their business and buyers are busy looking for businesses and running their lives. It is the responsibility of the broker to be proactive in our follow up efforts. This is one of the most time intensive aspects to the business. We are highly available during every day of the week, night and day. As a result, we can collect status on all outstanding activities. In addition, we set aside time to review our buyer interest records and place follow up phone calls with each qualified party to ensure that they have all the information they need from us to move forward.

At this point, we have established a reputation for being knowledgeable and straightforward. As a result, we have built a list of buyers that have an interest in working with us. While not every business we list is of interest to every buyer, we have credibility with our buyers. All things being equal, if we list a business that meets their criteria, they will pay more attention to our opportunity than other like opportunities in the marketplace. We pay special attention to maintaining credibility with our buyers and our sellers. Sellers and buyers can rest assured that we will present everything we know about the business, including its strengths and weaknesses. We have seen that credibility, trust and full disclosure improves the speed at which a qualified buyer will move to close on a business.

Buying a business is not an impulse purchase. The process takes time. More often than not, buyers will engage one or more business advisors to help them through the process. If the buyer is too caught up in the process to see clearly, then their advisors will point out any issues on their behalf. If we have done our job properly, then there will be no surprises that send the deal into the ditch. Surprises destroy credibility and the loss of credibility can destroy a sale. Therefore, MBA Business Brokers is convinced that our immediate, straightforward, factual full disclosure of all facts relevant to the business for sale is in alignment with our goal of selling businesses rapidly to qualified buyers.

We look forward to working with sellers and buyers of businesses for sale. Please feel free to contact us at 214-616-6180 or info@mbabroker.com.