Maximizing Your Business Valuation with a Sell Side QofE

About the Episode

Unprepared business owners leave millions on the table or watch their deals collapse at the finish line during buyer due diligence. Discover how a proactive financial review shields your profits, forces buyers to take your asking price seriously, and protects your hard-earned wealth post-closing.

The worst thing you want to do is leave issues buried for the buy side to find, and what their tendency would be is to interpret them in the most conservative, negative manner possible.

Bill Wiersema

What You’ll Learn

• Boost Your Valuation Multiple: Discover how preparing a sell-side quality of earnings analysis can directly add a half to a full turn multiple to your final purchase price. This essential preparation guarantees that you do not leave significant money on the table when negotiating with sophisticated buyers.
• Control the Deal Narrative: Learn how to uncover and address hidden financial issues before a buyer’s due diligence team finds them and interprets them negatively. By taking the driver’s seat early, you prevent sudden price reductions, deal fatigue, or complete transaction collapse.
• Defend Your Working Capital: Understand how to properly define net working capital targets to stop buyers from chipping away at your net proceeds. Establishing a clear, defensible position ensures you do not accidentally leave extra cash behind in the business at closing.
• Minimize Severe Post-Closing Disputes: Explore the critical role of a data book in creating clear accounting specifications to prevent expensive legal battles. Setting tight definitions around inventory reserves and accounting standards protects your escrow funds long after the keys are handed over.
• Prevent Double Taxation Disasters: Master strategic tax planning methods, such as utilizing personal goodwill, to protect up to forty percent of your gains from being wiped out. Learn how an asset deal premium can force the buyer to absorb the extra tax burdens of the transaction.

Topics Covered

Want More? Related Resources:

• Quality of Earnings in M&A – The Ultimate Guide
• M&A Due Diligence Preparation
• Preparing Financial Statements When Selling a Business

Meet Our Guest

Bill Wiersema

CPA with Miller, Cooper & Co. | Chicago, Illinois

Bill Wiersema is a CPA with Miller, Cooper & Co., specializing in M&A financial due diligence. He is also the author of several books on finance. He has assisted middle-market companies, private equity groups, financial institutions, and international entities across Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Bill has extensive experience assisting sellers across diverse industries in preparing for sale, conducting due diligence, creating business plans and projections, assisting in negotiations with financial institutions, and advising clients on post-acquisition financial issues.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billwiersema/