Services

The Stony Hill Comprehensive Small Business Sale Process™

1. Valuation & Pricing

Using our Business Scope 360°™ & our RealValue™ Pricing System consultative sessions, we complete a panoramic, comprehensive and consultative review of our clients' business goals and personal needs; we ask the tough questions so we can provide the best recommendations for a better and more profitable experience. We are committed to the success of each one of our clients and offer a personalized approach few can match.

2. Market Review

What is the market for your company? We will review the types of buyers and the marketplace for your company. Is it an individual buyer or high net worth investors, strategic buyer or private equity firm? Maybe it's possible that more than one type could be our target. Once we determine who is best suited to acquire your business we can continue to build a marketing plan to maximize the value of your company.

3. Packaging Your Business for Sale

Value is in the eye of the beholder. Thus, we begin by examining those aspects of your company that a prospective buyer will find most attractive. We then create a narrative that highlights your company's unique value proposition, while at the same time addressing areas that may be viewed as potential risks. We position your business by packaging it properly utilizing our unique Pro-Step™ Business Transition Planning Services.

Stony Hill Advisors understand the sensitive nature of a business sale and that sometimes information about the transaction needs to be kept confidential, or communicated in phases to employees, outside resources and others. Our exclusive Pro-Step™ Business Transition Planning Services provides a detailed plan-of-action to gradually unroll your business plans at the right time and to the right people.

Preserving the highest level of confidentiality is built into our methodologies. By focusing on the most highly qualified buyers and investors, we maintain a higher level of confidentiality than others in our profession who rely more heavily on mass communication of their client companies. All prospective buyers must first execute a confidentiality agreement before receiving any materials related to the sale of a company.

4. Marketing Your Business for Sale

• Business Parallels™ Matching Systems - Our Business Parallels Matching System is custom designed to match buyers in our database with your business based on a narrow range of qualifications and specifications. This creates a fundamentally sound match between a buyer’s experience, qualifications and resources and the business we are marketing.
• Utilize our extensive buyer database - At Stony Hill Advisors, we have formed an extensive database of qualified and motivated buyers. We frequently send out email updates to our entire buyer database notifying every one of our new listings. This creates a buzz about your business minutes from the time the email is released.
• Confidentially market your company on various business acquisition websites.

At Stony Hill Advisors, we will select the most effective commercial websites to post your business listing. In conjunction with our own website, these commercial sites create hundreds of opportunities to speak with motivated buyers about your business.

5. Transaction Construction and Closing

With decades of experience in Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York City, the Stony Hill team will work to structure the best possible transaction and guide it to closing.

We begin by properly sequencing all process steps to build commitment and maintain the highest level of confidentiality. We then vigilantly scan the horizon to anticipate problems and quickly respond with creative solutions that keep the transaction on track. We keep all parties on schedule, ensure communication stays open and ultimately facilitate the closing where the exchange takes place.

Our management of the due diligence process also includes anticipating and understanding what the buyer is asking for and how to respond. The buyer may ask for something that seems harmless, but our experience helps us see that request for the "red flag" that it is. Conversely, the buyer's reasonable request may seem unreasonable and outrageous to the seller, but we can help the seller recognize why the request is important to the buyer and why it poses very minimal consequence, if any.

Business Valuations - RealValue™Pricing Systems

Making a good selling decision requires good information. Knowing how much your business is worth is far too important to rely on informal advice, even from well-meaning sources like accountants or lawyers, rules of thumb, or dissimilar comparisons. Stony Hill Advisors are trained and skilled at business valuations - the first step in selling a small business.

If you undervalue your business, you leave hard-earned money on the table. If you overprice it, you needlessly delay or even prevent the sale of your business.

Stony Hill uses our RealValue™ Pricing System to provide accurate values for the sale process, buy-sell agreements, partnerships arrangements or financial exit planning. Our determination of actual market value may be greater than your expectations... or it may be less. Either way, you can be confident that the values we report to you will accurately reflect your company's market value in a variety of sale scenarios.

A proper business valuation takes into consideration sales comps in various industries as well as location considerations. If you would like a simple tool to get an approximate value for your visit click here to access our business valuation calculator.  

Business Exit Strategy - Exit Value Planning™

You may not be quite ready to sell your business; we understand that. Stony Hill Advisors has a unique approach to help. Our Foundations Business Sale Planning Program results in an Exit Value Plan with written goals for the transition of business ownership and control, derived from a well thought out and properly timed strategy that considers all factors, all interested parties, and the personal goals of the owners. We will set up milestones outlining the recommended "critical path" to help you reach the goal of getting you the right selling price at the right time.