The Best Time to Prepare Your Staffing Firm for a Sale? Before You’re Ready to Sell
“If you wake up one day and decide today is the day you are going to sell, you are probably leaving money on the table.”
– Alan Bugler, Managing Director, Brown Gibbons Lang & Company
For staffing company owners, a successful exit rarely begins when the business goes to market. By then, many of the factors that will influence value have already been established.
Buyers will examine years of financial performance, customer concentration, management depth, forecasting accuracy, margins, growth trends, working capital, and the quality of your underlying data. Some of those areas can be improved relatively quickly. Others may require a year or more of intentional work.
That preparation matters in an increasingly sophisticated buyer landscape. During REACH: A Staffing Executive Masterclass, Alan Bugler noted that he tracks approximately 220 private equity-backed staffing companies, illustrating just how significant private equity participation in the staffing sector has become. With sophisticated buyers scrutinizing everything from financial performance and customer concentration to management depth and forecast accuracy, owners who begin preparing well before a transaction is contemplated may be better positioned to protect and maximize value.
The takeaway? Preparation creates options. Owners who understand what buyers value can make strategic decisions today that strengthen their company whether they ultimately sell next year, five years from now, or not at all.
Explore the Full Insight
This was just one of the many M&A insights shared by Martin L. Borosko, Managing Partner at Becker LLC, and Alan Bugler, Managing Director at Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, during REACH: A Staffing Executive Masterclass.
In the full REACH Insights article, Marty and Alan explore what staffing owners should understand about buyer expectations, due diligence, financial forecasting, specialization, management depth, transaction structure, and the factors that can increase or erode enterprise value. Most importantly, they explain why many of the decisions that influence a future transaction need to be made long before a company ever goes to market.
Continue Reading: Building a Staffing Firm Buyers Want to Acquire →