Purchase of Printing Firm Fails

Despite what I thought were my best efforts, my attempts to assist two clients purchase a printing firm in North Florida collapsed earlier this week. The reasons for the collapse were many, but the two key reasons were (1) the seller's apparent lack of enthusiasm in wanting to really get the deal done, plus (2) the dramatic decline in the U.S. financial markets in recent weeks.

When the owner began balking at requests by the buyers to stay on and assist them one day a week for the next six months (something I thought was very reasonable), the deal began to collapse quickly.

Lessons for sellers - If you're going to sell your business you are going to need to "SELL" your business and that means helping the buyers get all the information they need on a timely basis, and being more than willing to help the buyers succeed after the sale. It also means being enthusiastic and that is the last word you would have used to describe this last seller.

You need to be able to provide to the buyers all the financial information they need and you need to do this in a timely fashion if you hope for a sale to go through.