2014: The Year of No Motivation For Business Sales

nj business broker,, January 1, 2015 (Newswire.com) - As 2014 draws to a close, A Neumann and Associates reflects on investor inquiries and deal flow in order to identify contributing factors which left business sellers and investors without a deal. Their finding is lack of motivation. No motivation, no deal.

In this age of instant gratification, buyers and sellers must schedule enough time to properly position themselves for a deal. In order for a deal to be executed, both the buyer and seller need to show patience.

“History has shown, over the past 30 years, that it takes, on average, a year to sell a business and even longer on the buy side to find the right business. There are no short-cuts,” says Achim Neumann, President, A Neumann & Associates, New Jersey.

Buyers are easily enticed by websites offering more information. Yet follow-through is non-existent in many cases.

“The number of buy side folks, induced by the simplicity of clicking the “More Information” button on a variety of business brokerage websites, and then never following through with their request, is staggering. Whereas such percentage has hovered around thirty percent ten years back, now the number of people requesting more investment information, but not following through, is rapidly approaching seventy-five percent,” says Neumann.

Motivation and sincere interest in pursuing a transaction are key factors in any deal.  Business brokers find most would-be investors are neither willing to sign a standard non-disclosure agreement nor provide any information to demonstrate their capacity to execute a deal. 

“One can almost come to the conclusion that in these times of ‘everything is free on the web,’ investors expect detailed information about specific mid-sized business to be open and accessible to even the most casual observer.  Unwilling to reinforce this perception, our firm will never release information without the proper documents from the buy side,” confirms Neumann.

 Sellers don’t fare much better. Without clear and defined reasons to sell, sellers often find themselves waffling back and forth about the sale. Lack of motivation on the sell side will stall a deal quickly.

“With the economy improving, says Steve Wrubleski, Managing Director, Southern New Jersey, we are being approached by an increasing number of sellers/business owners who are very much challenged to communicate the true reason for their desire to sell.” 

Being tired of the day-to-day business, financial woes, or other short-term issue has business owners seeking a sale. Once these issues are resolved, selling the business becomes less of a priority. Motivation is lost. No motivation, no deal.

Buyers and sellers assess quantifiable factors such as; valuations, cash flows, market share, personnel quality and growth prospects similarly. Non-quantifiable factors, such as chemistry between buyer and seller and synergy among merged businesses are prevalent, but lack of motivation will prohibit the final execution of the deal.

###

About A Neumann & Associates, LLC

A Neumann & Associates, LLC is a professional merger & acquisition and business brokerage firm with 30 years of experience in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland that assists business owners and investors with the business transfer process in a completely confidential manner. The company covers the North-East US market, has representations from NY state to VA state and has access to a 450 office national network of qualified investors and sellers. For more information, please contact A Neumann & Associates at 732-872-6777.