When Bob (not his real name) called me, I could tell he was tired. 他想卖掉他的家族企业, but he didn’t know how to find the right buyer and make sure he got a fair value for his life’s work.
Bob started his business in 1981 and built it into a thriving niche manufacturer of plumbing components. 但 at age 74, Bob was ready to sell his business and spend more time with his ailing wife. The business had taken some debt a few years earlier to finance a plant expansion, 鲍勃不想让这件事悬在他头上. He then said to me what I hear several times a week: “Can you tell me what my business is worth and how quickly can you get it sold? 噢,, 我不想要我的员工, much less my customers or competitors to know we’re having this conversation.”
到目前为止，一切顺利. I was confident I could find the right buyer and get a good price for the business. 但鲍勃接下来说的话让我大吃一惊:顺便说一下, my son is head of sales and my daughter’s husband handles the books, and I want them to be able to stay with the business.”
哎呀……
虽然大多数买家都希望有一个稳定的地方, 经验丰富的团队，他们正在购买的业务, 他们不喜欢强迫员工, especially when that staff is family members of the seller. A situation like this will raise suspicion: “If this is a good business, why aren’t the family members interested in buying it?” “What if those family members aren’t good employees, do I have to keep them?”
Having family members in key positions will complicate the sale of your business. A prospective buyer will assume –- rightly or wrongly — that the family members would want to buy the business if it was a good business. 潜在买家也会对需求保持警惕, 甚至是建议, that the family members have to stay with the business. The prospective buyer will think the owner is protecting weak employees (who just happen to be family members).
I once had a client with a very profitable business and the key employee was his 40-year old son. When the client asked for my help to sell the business, 我问他儿子为什么不买, and he gave me the best answer I could expect under the circumstances: “The buyer does not have to keep my son, there are other things he can go do. 但, a smart buyer should want to keep my son because he knows the business backward and forward, 他喜欢待在这里. 但 he just doesn’t want the hassle and responsibility of ownership that he’s seen me carry over the past years. My son tells me he is a great employee because he doesn’t have to worry about being the owner.”
These recent situations give rise to two pieces of advice if you have family members in key management positions in your business. 第一个, if they want to stay with the business but not be the buyer, be proactive to make those family members indispensable to the profitable operation of the business. 你是怎么做到的? 你让自己变得可有可无. 提前考虑, 三到五年之后你才会想卖掉, and begin to transition yourself away from the daily operation of the business so that when the time comes to sell the business, you are dispensable but your family members are not. 第二个, if you think you’d like to sell to your family members, decide well in advance of your exit what your desired exit number is, then work to have the business positioned to cash flow the amount necessary to fund a bank loan in that amount. You don’t want to enter your sunset years worrying about carrying a seller note held by a family member. 那通常不会有好结果.
Selling a business is traumatic and can be time-consuming. 当家庭成员参与进来时, you can add an emotional component that makes the process even more challenging. Planning in advance will mitigate many of these unique challenges.
JIM CUMBEE is President of 田纳西河谷集团, Inc. a retainer-based business brokerage and transition mediation firm 在田纳西州富兰克林. Cumbee is an attorney and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has a wide range of corporate and entrepreneurial experiences that make him one of the most sought-after business transition advisors in the state of Tennessee. The names and fact patterns above have been changed to preserve the parties’ identities.
