Recently, several Vistage members have been approached by larger competitors, Private Equity Groups or investors, who are unrelated to their industries, asking if they would be interested in selling their businesses.
Why now? Well there is a lot of money out their available at very low interest rates and not a lot of good places to put it.
These companies match the profiles we’ve heard from investment bankers lately.
Sales over $10 million. ..Check.
Profitable. …Check.
Scalable…Check
Management team that can function without CEO. Some Yes and Some NO. (That may effect the price)
Growth plans look good. …check.
So, we are hearing very high multiples for good companies like these.
Here is the issue: the owners don’t want to sell. They aren’t “Done” yet. They aren’t thinking of retirement this young, and the idea of more vacations, more golf, more fixing up the vacation house, good as a weekend activity, is scary to the point of terror as a full time project. One owner told me “If I have $25 million or 50 million, what difference does it make? I still like what I do every day.”
Most just want to work fewer hours. So, now we are going to create the plan for what they delegate and to whom to get another day or 2 for creative space, time with family and a little more golf. Is that what you want? Think about it.
image courtesy of the inbargroup.com