Articles & News

Selling a business to one or more employees can result in complex and emotionally taxing negotiations. (For the purposes of this article, I will assume that we are dealing with a single employee, as dealing with multiple employees make it even more complex.)  On one hand, the business owner may have a desire to transfer the business to a team member that has a thorough knowledge of the business operations, which makes the transition more streamlined.  On the other hand, the employee may feel entitled to a significant discount in value as the employee believes that he or she was

Many of my experienced peers in the M &A Advisory industry remember a book that was published in 2005, “The $10 Trillion Opportunity”, authored by Richard E. Jackim and Peter G. Christman.  In summary, the book highlighted the opportunities in the business exit profession, as aging Baby Boomers with privately held businesses were aging out and starting to exit their businesses.  Part of the concept was that this was the beginning of the tidal wave and there would be more businesses than buyers in the market. Well, like many predictions, the tidal wave never fully materialized, due in part to

There is an old saying that “timing is everything“. That is especially true in the investment world. Be it the stock market or buying a business, timing can be critical to the rate of return on investment or even the survival of the investment. Although there are many people far more qualified than me to address the timing in the stock market, I will address the timing of business acquisitions in the current market. Business Acquisitions in the Current Market In addition to what my team is experiencing at the FBB Group, conversations that I have with business intermediaries across

Recently the Biden administration has proposed numerous tax increases to pay for its infrastructure plan.  Two of these changes, an increase in the Federal Capital Gains Tax, and changes to the Estate Tax can have significant tax implications to entrepreneurs.  We will address both proposed changes below. Capital Gains Taxes For capital gains taxes to apply, an asset needs to be owned by the taxpayer for a year or longer.  The gain is calculated by taking the sales price, less appropriate expenses of sale, and subtracting the taxpayer’s basis.  (Note: This calculation can be more difficult than it seems, and

When you are reading this article, on or about March 9th, it will be approximately 51 weeks since most of the country shut down in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19.  At that time, the majority of the population and financial markets were gripped in fear, due to the unknown impacts of the virus.  At the time of the shutdown, my firm had several transactions in process.  Not surprisingly, all of them imploded as buyers did not want to buy a business that was shut down and lenders did not want to loan money to purchase a business

Buyer Acquisition Incentives Although December 2020 was a strong month for business transaction closings for The FBB Group, I believe that most of us are glad to see 2020 in our rear view mirror and are looking forward to a “Back to Normal 2021”. For the business transfer industry and sellers considering a sale in 2021, Santa delivered a late but significant gift when the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This legislation included significant incentives to purchase a business with SBA funding, which can apply to loans up to $5,000,000 for a business acquisition and even larger