Business Succession; the act of transferring a business to other members of the family, selling to management or a third party. An owner should start to think about the business’ succession the day after it is founded! The lead up to the transfer or sale we call the “runway” and the longer the runway the more value we can add. In other words the closer we can get to the top of the sales price range. Once a decision has been made to sell or transfer the last thing an owner wants to hear from a prospective buyer is “workout”, “holdback” or price reduction.

Most business combinations fail to deliver the promised synergy and the cause is most often people. The Human Well helps a seller in the shoes of the buyer and identify those parts of the business where a purchaser may have concerns. The Human Well will help add value to your organization with a pre-sale due diligence and repair, modify or introduce people practices that will likely generate a higher sales price and/or improved operating results until the closing date.

We help prepare businesses for sale and the more time we have the more we can do. Most owners think that their company is worth more than the market will pay and its best to find that out beforehand so steps can be taken to try and increase the value. We work with Distinct Capital Partners; our investment banking partner who will value the business, identify potential purchasers and being very familiar with our work during the succession “runway” will promote these activities with prospective purchasers.

The Human Well has deep and extensive experience in leading due diligence teams in major global acquisition and mergers. These include “bolt on”and fully integrated operating purchases as well as time horizon portfolio transactions for Private Equity and Venture Capital organizations. Should you be a purchaser  requiring help with the identification of potential liabilities, costs, talent retention or an assessment of the workplace culture in the target organization The Human Well can assist in identifying those and the likely effects on engagement and turnover of your proposed integration plan.

Whether you plan to sell or buy a business The Human Well can help with determination of the optimum price.