The Hill View Approach
The 6 traps for midsize companies in M&A, business exits, and capital—and how to avoid them
For middle-market and lower middle-market businesses that don’t carefully choose their M&A, sale/exit, or capital advisor, the marketplace is full of traps.
How do we know? Before Hill View, our team had spent their careers sitting on every side of the table advising, acquiring, operating, financing, and exiting such businesses, and we’d witnessed the narrative over and over again…
The business owners had worked hard, grown their businesses, and achieved quite a bit. That said, when the time came to contemplate broader objectives, they didn’t have a dedicated advocate to clarify, organize, streamline, facilitate, and execute the process.
That’s why many business owners fall into one or more of the 6 traps below…
1
Wrong valuation.
The owners never gain a full idea of their business’s true value proposition or the ability to substantiate it—in turn, the business can’t be marketed as powerfully as it should be.
2
Missed opportunities in sourcing.
Third parties who might have been more-advantageous acquirers or sources of capital, yet who aren’t already known to the owners, are never discovered.
3
A lengthy, stressful process.
The process drags on for many months or even years, draining countless hours of owners’ time, as protracted “maybes” turn into “no’s” or lowball offers. Moreover, if using a business sales firm without a driven, proactive outreach or 100% commitment to responsiveness, answers to questions may take days, advisors simply wait for the phone to ring, and owners just don’t know where the process stands.
4
Everybody finds out.
It becomes known—potentially to competitors, suppliers, key customers, and employees—that the owners want to sell before they want that to be public. This happens either because the owners themselves don’t know how to mount an effective discreet process (and why would they?) or because someone convinces them to mass-market their business to thousands or tens of thousands of hardly known “contacts.”
5
A poor price.
For sellers, their business is acquired by a competitor, private equity firm, or related party for far less than its intrinsic value. For businesses seeking capital, they end up paying far more for financing than they should have.
6
Poor terms.
Beyond pricing, other important terms of the deal, such as timing, structure, transition of duties, treatment of employees and stakeholders, etc. are far from ideal because the owners had no expert advocate to share what was possible and how to get it.
As a business owner, these traps don’t have to be your fate or determine your legacy.
At Hill View Partners, we are solely focused on our proactive and individualized (not mass-market) approach to extracting the best results for our clients.
There’s nothing cookie-cutter about your business, and it shouldn’t be marketed that way, either.
The Hill View solution includes…
Focus and Dedication
We are the country’s premier M&A, business sale/exit, and capital advisory firm for lower middle-market and middle-market businesses with $1 million to $10 million in EBITDA (pre-tax cash flow).
Deepest Specialized Network
Our US and international network of potential acquirers and capital providers is made up of actively interested and well-funded parties who we actually know. We know they are “real” and interested in acquiring and funding businesses.
Unmatched Speed to High-Quality Deals
We pace transactions according to our clients’ needs. For those who desire a longer timeline, we understand and accommodate. For those who want speed, we deliver: often two to three weeks to market, 100 days to high-quality offers, and six months to closing.
Responsiveness and Transparency
We are always easily available to our clients…respond to questions and requests promptly (usually hours; never days)…and provide full and straightforward updates.
Confidentiality and Discretion
We use targeted marketing to parties that we know, person to person, not scattershot mass-market email blasts or advertisements.
No Distractions
Our streamlined process requires only a handful of hours from our clients prior to offers—not per week, but a handful of hours period.
Strong Outcomes
The result of all of the above for Hill View
clients: optimal valuations and structures,
the best achievable terms, and a
streamlined and expeditious process.
The result of all of the above for Hill
View clients: optimal valuations and
structures, the best achievable terms,
and a streamlined and expeditious
process.