A Few Important Notes

The Audience for this Book

I wrote this book not only for owners and sellers of companies valued from $10 million to $100 million, but for anyone involved in the M&A process, such as buyers, attorneys, accountants, and business appraisers. For the sake of clarity, I address sellers directly throughout the book, but I wrote this book with all of you in mind.

A Note on Exceptions

I’ve based the advice and guidelines in this book on what you can expect to encounter 95% of the time or at the middle of the bell curve. When selling or valuing your business, you shouldn’t count on exceptions – you should target the middle of the bell curve and base your strategy on what works the majority of the time. Doing so will increase your odds of success and significantly lower your risk of not meeting your expectations. Encountering an exception that works to your advantage is always a nice bonus, but you shouldn’t count on it, or you will likely be disappointed. 

There are exceptions to every rule. For example, a company earning $18 billion a year is unlikely to acquire a company that generates only $3 million per year. But I’ve interviewed the head of M&A for an $18 billion company on my podcast, M&A Talk, who did just that. You can listen to the episode titled The Acquisition Process with Brian McCabe at morganandwestfield.com/resources. 

To make this book readable and keep my advice sensible, I’ve avoided listing every imaginable exception throughout these pages. Instead, the goal of this book is meant to illustrate 95% of the bell curve you’re most likely to encounter. The M&A world is highly idiosyncratic, and there are deviations from every rule in the industry. I have noted when an exception is more likely to occur or when an exception can have disastrous consequences. Otherwise, the aim of this book is what you can expect to happen in the overwhelming majority of the situations you’ll encounter when selling and valuing your company.

When selling your business, you shouldn’t count on exceptions – you should target the middle of the bell curve and base your strategy on what works the majority of the time. 

Let’s get started.