When you are about to enter into a M&A transaction, why do it alone?
Whether you are selling some or all of your business or buying another business, this is outside your usual business operations. You are already operating a lean team, working flat out in leading your business, so you & your team don’t have time to take on all of the extra work that is required to reach a successful outcome.
This is when you need a highly qualified, specialist resource, which is
available on-demand, to support you through the process.
Your CFO Solution is that resource – led by a highly experienced
finance professional, who has managed the Due Diligence on a
number of buy & sell transactions, & can provide the support to
get the deal done.
Selling your business is an emotional transaction – look for support from an experienced outsider
You’re about to take on extra funding to support the growth of your business or maybe you are selling the business to an investor – you will find that there is an enormous amount of Due Diligence information that the other party will require you to complete. This can take an inordinate amount of time to compile & will include:
And that’s just an initial list, before the other party wants to really drill down & the lawyers/accountants/corporate finance advisors start generating their more specific requirements!
You are an SME business owner, likely to be fully involved in most of your business operations & decisions, working flat out to keep the business moving forward. How can you create extra time in the day to fulfil the DD requirements? One of two things can happen:
Neither outcome is ideal & this is where Your CFO Solution comes in – a trusted on-demand CFO resource, experienced in dealing with transactions, advisers & everything else to achieve a successful deal at the optimum price.
Your CFO Solution works for you, but is able to support you through the maze of advisors that will be involved from both sides. A well experienced, qualified accountant, well versed in corporate finance & legal matters – this is what you need to get through the emotional period that will come.
Continuing the growth of your business sometimes requires a big step to buy another company – do you have the skills in-house to guide you through the Due Diligence that you need to make it a successful acquisition?
You’ve identified that to grow to the level that you want, it is time to take the big leap by acquiring another business. Maybe, you’ve had a great opportunity arise to acquire another company but are not sure what questions to ask.
As the leader of an SME business, this may be the first time you are buying a business, in which case you don’t know what you don’t know & cannot foresee what needs to be asked to really get under the skin of the target company. You may be experienced acquirer, in which case you will know the time demands that this can take.
Either way, you understand that you will struggle to allocate the resource needed to fully assess the target business.
This is where Your CFO Solution comes in – a trusted on-demand CFO resource, experienced in dealing with transactions, advisers & everything else to achieve a successful deal at the optimum price.
Your CFO Solution has experience in over many acquisition transactions – from a sole trader to acquiring a hotel chain from a UK FT-SE100 hospitality group. There will be a need to review the financials of the target (& what the combined entity may look like going forward), but also perform Due Diligence on the target to confirm that you are getting what you believe you have agreed to buy! Your CFO Solution knows what is needed to be asked, to manage & review the many requested documents & prepare recommendations based on the findings. Ultimately, the decision to buy a business comes down to you – but at least, you will have the support & experience of someone who will be able to make the decision easier.
You are looking to invest in a business or supporting them in buying a business, but recognise that the depth of resource to complete the transaction is not in the business.
You’ve identified a business to work with – either you want to invest in them or are supporting them through another transaction. However, you can see that the Owner/Leader needs to continue to work IN the business to keep it performing at a high standard & that there is limited extra resource to dedicate to the DD process. You know how much work is needed from the Management Team & therefore appreciate that extra short-term resource is needed to hit the deadlines.
Your CFO Solution can be this resource. Having worked through 30 buy & sell transactions, we know how what is needed to get a transaction to completion.
The question is not if you need a CFO, but when. You’ve outsourced many other services – why not this one?
Whilst Your CFO Solution specialise in supporting management teams through an M&A transaction, part of the service offering is as a virtual CFO.
What is a virtual CFO?
Your CFO Solution helped an Adtech business reach a successful sale
Situation: Sparcmedia was an independent digital media business that the CEO recognised needed further funding to achieve the goals for the business
Task: Your CFO Solution was engaged to analyse the business model, work with the CEO to put it into a shape whereby it would be Investor Ready & through to completion of a deal.
Action: Your CFO Solution undertook a full review of financial processes of the business, implemented some financial disciplines to put the business on a firm footing & compiled an ambitious but realistic financial forecast. We then worked with the Corporate Finance advisers to compile an Information Memorandum & start the Due Diligence compilation. Once we had identified a number of potential investors, we took part in many of the presentations & discussions, as part of the management team. Your CFO Solution then took the lead in working with the Purchaser & their advisers to compile & generate all of the many requirements for Due Diligence.
Result: a successful sale of the Sparcmedia to Pureprofile for $6.6m, reaching the maximum earn-out for the vendors.
About Your CFO Solution
About Darren Taylor:
“During the 3 year period that Darren was CFO of BrandsExclusive, he was integral to building the business & the success that we achieved. Darren worked hard with integrity & was able to positively challenge myself & Daniel, the other founder/MD, throughout the period. He was very hands-on, setting up much of the financial controls, reporting & corporate governance of the business. Darren was well-regarded by the team & dealt professionally with team members throughout the organisation.”
--- Rolf Weber, MD & Seed Investor
“Darren is a very hands on and experienced CFO who joined BrandsExclusive at an early stage when there were little systems and processes. Darren built the finance team from scratch, implemented all key processes and systems, provided great team leadership and commercial direction to the overall company.”
--- Daniel Jarosch, CEO & Entrepreneur
“Darren is a skilled professional who delivers results in a time pressured environment. He took a proactive lead in projects and didn’t shy away from tough decision making. I worked with Darren on a major organisational restructure during a period of change, where he brought objectivity and new insights to the process which was invaluable to me and my colleague”
--- Sally Brighton, Retail Development Director
“Darren was initially recruited on a 3 month interim basis but due to his strong performance in the role, he was asked to stay on to develop and implement some of the recommendations that he made during his initial period. Through all of this work, Darren exhibited good commercial awareness and technical skills, giving the Finance team strong leadership during a period of large scale change for the business.”
--- Stuart Waldman, Finance Director
”Darren is a very experienced CFO with strong technical and relationship management skills. He was instrumental in helping me launch the New Zealand business of BrandsExclusive and in driving it to profitability. He was a respected member of the leadership team who bought new ideas and outstanding problem solving skills to organisational challenges. I have no hesitation in recommending Darren to any business seeking an exceptional CFO.”
--- Michael O’Driscoll, Retail & Franchise Management
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