| The Business Brokerage Profession | | | | Small to Mid-size Business Market? |
| Who are Business Brokers and what do they do? | | | | The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates |
| Business brokers are intermediaries between | | | | that there are sixteen to eighteen million |
| owners who want to sell their business (or | | | | businesses in this country and that 20 percent (or |
| businesses) and potential buyers who have | | | | 3.2 million to 3.6 million) are for sale every year. |
| expressed interest in buying those businesses. | | | | Of those businesses that are for sale, about |
| Typical duties of a Business Broker | | | | 250,000 of them are actually sold each year! |
| - Finding business owners who want to sell their | | | | In addition, research has shown that for each |
| business | | | | business listed for sale, there is approximately 20 |
| - Finding potential buyers to purchase a business | | | | buyers who have expressed an interest in |
| from a client | | | | purchasing it. This, of course, is due to the fact |
| - Valuing the business | | | | that it is far less risky to buy an on-going business |
| - Preparing an offering document to attract | | | | than to start one. |
| qualified buyers | | | | Furthermore, baby-boomers (a lot of them |
| - Helping a buyer raise financing to purchase a | | | | former company executives) are skipping |
| client's business | | | | retirement and going right into a business of their |
| - Helping with Due Diligence activities | | | | own. The easiest entry point, as we know, is |
| - Being the intermediary between the buyer's | | | | through the purchase of an existing and profitable |
| lawyer and the seller's lawyer | | | | business. |
| - Helping with closing activities | | | | Future articles will continue explore this exciting |
| What make this profession a critical piece of the | | | | profession... |