Why is presale planning important?

Presale planning involves five key areas:

Income planning modeled around your future
Estate planning strategies designed to protect your wealth
Maximizing your business value
Capturing the business cycle at its peak
Equalization with family members

Income Planning

Whenever a sale or transition of a business takes place, we’ll focus on what your cash flow looks like going forward. Complex cash flow analysis helps owners understand what kind of lifestyle they can expect to enjoy after the sale. Diligent presale planning – factoring in all assets, liabilities, sources, and uses of cash – can help you be better prepared when the right opportunity presents itself. Knowledge is power, and planning can give you the knowledge needed to make an educated, non-emotional decision.

Business Cycle

Proper presale planning will put you in a position to consider selling your business when the business cycle is at its peak. Our cash flow/income planning analysis will provide a recommended price to sell your business at if want to live your ideal life post-sale. Thus, in a strong business cycle – when you are more likely to have better offers – you will have knowledge around what you need and be more willing to take advantage of the right opportunity when it comes along.

Estate Planning Strategies

A proper estate planning strategy makes sure all your years of hard work will benefit the people you care about most. In many cases, and in order to help achieve maximum benefit, there are strategies that should be put in place before a transition occurs. Also, as the laws continue to change, planning techniques of the past may need to be modified or replaced. Our Private Wealth Financial Advisors help coordinate this ongoing work with your legal and accounting advisors to make sure everything is tied together and in order.

Equalization with Family Members

Pre-sale planning is helpful when transitioning to family members, especially when not all parties participate in the business but equalization of wealth is important. Proper planning can also help identify appropriate gifting or sale strategies for transitioning between family members. It is particularly important to start early in transitioning to family because some of the most appropriate strategies take years to complete.

Maximizing Value

We strive to add tremendous value to the sale by taking early steps to assure you are prepared to get the best price available for your business when the opportunity presents itself. Some clients have told us they had an “a-ha moment” when they listed their business because we had presented a lifestyle business rather than an investment opportunity. Many of our clients have realized that by making changes to their approach to the business, they could potentially increase the value. We also have access to seasoned consultants to help us take steps designed to help maximize the final sale price.

Why Should You Work with Us?

Succession planning for business owners is one of the most fascinating and rewarding aspects of our work. It’s an honor to help a generation – and sometimes multiple generations of entrepreneurial, spirited, and passionate business owners – find a path forward to an entirely new chapter of their lives.
From our perspective, when it comes to working with us, you can boil it down to two things:

We know the market + We have the experience

Knowledge

Bill and John have lived all of their lives in Eastern North Carolina’s vacation market area. John is a past real estate broker and business owner on the Outer Banks. They understand the market and have witnessed real estate management companies go from startups to thriving businesses. Having worked with many successful VRM owners, they know how hard the owners have worked and how important it will be for them to understand what the other side of a sale or transition means to the owners and their families.

Experience

With over 100 years of combined industry experience, Bill and John have built a seasoned team of six professionals and a network of talented legal and accounting professionals outside the firm that they can refer you to, all of which help them navigate the complexities of building, managing, and transitioning your wealth. They are currently members of the Vacation Rental Managament Association and the Outer Banks Association of Realtors.

Successful family businesses are not created overnight.