Thinking About Selling Your Business in 2022? A Few Ideas to Consider

By John Churchill | Published: March 2022

It remains to be seen if 2022’s unique blend of positive and negative factors will slow down the piping hot mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market that emerged in 2021.

On the positive side for potential sellers, strong economic and profit growth plus record amounts of capital remain potent forces. These factors are likely to drive continued high levels of M&A activity in 2022. Business valuations are at, or near, all-time highs. The market for businesses, like the housing market, is currently a strong sellers’ market.

However, because these valuations are at all-time highs, this could be seen as a negative for potential sellers, if potential buyers are convinced that current prices are not sustainable. Rising raw material costs, and energy and logistics costs, as well as the cost and shortage of qualified labor are pressuring profit margins. Consumer price increases may be temporizing consumer spending. COVID-19 still has the potential to disrupt the economy in unanticipated ways. Finally, the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to have an undetermined, but likely negative, impact on regional, national, and global economies.

Given this uncertainty, prudent business owners who wish to sell, or otherwise transition the ownership of their businesses over the next 18 months, should focus on a few things no matter what happens in the short term.

Three Suggested Areas of Focus for Sellers in Any Economic Environment
A good thought exercise for any business owner is to ask oneself: who are the likely buyers of my business and why would they want to buy my business? A shrewd prospective seller must empathize with their potential buyers (family members included if they are potential buyers), anticipate their motivations as well as their reservations, and consider how a prospective buyer intends to deploy their business as a strategic asset. This thought exercise should help any business owner identify the areas of their business that are the key drivers of future value and where to focus their energies during the near term.

As a next step, a business owner must consider how their business would look under the microscope of a prospective buyer’s due diligence process. What might they find when they analyze a prospective acquisition’s financial records? One suggestion would be to ask your CPA about a Quality of Earnings (QoE) report. A QoE is a detailed, independent analysis of a company’s revenue and expense streams. QoE differs from an audit and is a better way to identify any potential problems or risk areas before a company enters a sale due diligence process. Finding out problems and risk areas in advance will circumvent efforts by prospective buyers to renegotiate the price lower because of findings during due diligence.

A third area of focus for a prospective business seller is their team of key manager employees. Prospective business buyers would like their new business to be able to function without the involvement of the previous owner. Therefore, a business owner must review the employment contracts of their most essential employees to make sure the key employees will agree to stay with the business through the transition, as well as under new ownership for a negotiated period after the sale. If there are no established mechanisms that incentivize key employees to stick around through a process of ownership transition, now would be a good time to add those provisions.

Two Tips for Prospective Sellers in Today’s Economic Environment
In the current environment, potential buyers are going to be most excited about companies with pricing power, supply chain diversity or the ability to diversify their supply chain, and the ability to source labor from a large pool of prospects.

Buyers are also placing a premium on companies that have meaningful annual recurring revenue (ARR), mimicking the desirable Sales as a Service (SaaS) subscription business model that promises predictable cash flows and higher customer retention.

Suggested Personal Financial Readiness Considerations
For most business owners, transitioning out of ownership is psychologically and intellectually challenging. This is because ownership transition planning requires an entirely different skill set than building a business.

Trusted advisors like attorneys, CPAs and financial advisors must be part of a collaborative cross-disciplinary team that helps business owners plan to transition ownership successfully.

A good quiz for your current advisors would be to ask them the following questions:

1. Is the current legal structure in which my business is currently owned the most efficient structure for a sale?
2. Is there a risk that I will pay more tax than necessary?
3. What has been our strategy for transferring ownership to any of my chosen beneficiaries, and how has this strategy furthered my personal financial planning and estate planning goals?
4. Have you helped previous clients plan for their business exit?

If your current advisors shy away, or fail to confidently assert, their advice on these topics or their experience advising selling business owners, they are not the right advisor for you in this critical pre-sale moment. If you sense that any of your current advisors are unable to coordinate their efforts with other key advisors, or that your advisor doesn’t have considerable experience assisting in helping other owners sell their business successfully, it may be time to source a new team.

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About the Author – John Churchill
John Churchill is WSFS Bank’s Business Strategist. He leads WSFS’ efforts with business owner clients who are considering an ownership transition. John’s goal is to help WSFS’ clients plan for the future of their businesses with an understanding of how that future will influence their personal financial wellbeing, as well as the financial wellbeing of their families. John is well-versed in the commercial risks facing businesses across industries; the variability of competence and willingness of family members to take over the responsibility of running the business; the need to balance financial and non-financial factors in decision making; and a business owner’s desire to divide his or her legacy fairly.

John is strongly positioned to help business owners succeed through his experiences and accomplishments working at a life-sciences regulatory consulting firm, a New York based family office sponsored venture capital firm, a multi-family office and investment advisor located in greater Philadelphia, and through his government service as the Director of Economic Affairs for the Consulate General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region. John is a graduate of Georgetown University where, as an undergraduate, he worked in Georgetown President, John J. DeGioia’s, Policy Department. He also holds a master’s degree in Elections and Campaign Management from Fordham University.

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This communication is provided by WSFS Financial Corporation for informational purposes only. Investing involves the risk of loss and investors should be prepared to bear potential losses. Past performance may not be indicative of future results and may have been impacted by events and economic conditions that will not prevail in the future.