How long does it usually take your firm to sell a security guard company?
Since we specialize in managing the sale of security guard companies, we already know who the most aggressive buyers are, so we don't have to advertise or search for the best buyer. We've also qualified the buyer prospects. This takes SEVERAL months off the time it normally takes to sell the company.

Once we reach an agreement with the owner to manage the sale process, we then prepare the confidential selling memorandum. This takes about two weeks. The negotiations with the buyer leading to a letter of intent, due diligence process and contract preparations take 60 - 75 days. If any of this falls around a major holiday or vacation season, the process may be delayed somewhat.

The entire process, starting from the time we are engaged by the owners to manage the sale to the date of closing the transaction, takes three to five months.
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If I want to sell my company, why retain your firm to manage the sale? Why not negotiate directly with buyers, or through a local business broker?
Sellers who negotiate on their own or through business brokers generally do so because they think they are saving money. But the money they believe they are saving is more than offset by the lower selling price they receive, not to mention the fees some of the advisors are charging regardless of whether the transaction closes.

Our primary focus is managing the sale of security guard firms, so with our expertise, we can add a lot more value to the transaction than the fees we charge our clients.

We are able to add value in several ways:

We don't have to advertise the company as being for sale. We already know the most aggressive buyers, and we know about their financial ability to handle the deal. Going straight to the best-qualified buyers keeps the buyer population to a minimum, which protects the all-important confidentiality of the sale.
We know how to present the company. Our unique presentation format shows the most attractive aspects and, usually, the details a buyer needs to know to make an offer. At the same time, we do not reveal specific account information. Our presentation methods enable us to get through the offer stage quickly, which leaves the owner free to run the company and preserve its value during the sale process.
We manage the remainder of the process. We work with our client's accountants and attorneys toward closing the transaction. Although we don't offer legal or tax advice, we are often able to assist the advisors when problems arise in these areas. We have managed the sale of over 140 transactions and have the benefit of providing solutions to the many issues that threatened the success of all of these deals - issues that may actually come up in our next deal. We bring the solutions orchestrated by the advisor team on our prior engagements to every seller we represent.
The buyer prospects are more generous and move more quickly when they know we are managing the transaction. They know our reputation in the marketplace and our familiarity with all the buyer prospects. Since we are managing the process, they know that their competitors are probably also looking at the possibility of buying our client's company. This creates a spirit of competition among the buyer prospects, and prompts them to give their best price and terms at the outset. This reduces the normal time for protracted costly negotiations.

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Your only office is located on the East Coast of the U.S. How can you effectively represent sellers who may be hundreds or thousands of miles away, or in other countries?
We spend a lot of time on airplanes. Because our office is located close to a major airport, we can leave our office and be in almost any major East Coast city in about an hour and a half. We can be on the West Coast in less than five hours. With the short connecting time through major airports, we can be in South America or Europe in about a day.

While we're traveling, we have other professionals who stay in our office and handle the administrative functions, prepare our clients' presentation books, use our many resources to locate buyer prospects and keep up with our traveling schedule.

When we're on the road, we correspond with the office through e-mail, receive documents at the hotels through overnight packages and fax messages. We track our activities through our custom-made software packages, and we have a worldwide web site so buyers and sellers can learn more about us. We have a large commitment to our resources, but it's all necessary in staying organized and efficient.

Since the largest security market in the world is in the U.S., obviously most of our clients were headquartered here. However, we have also represented sellers located in several countries in Europe, South America and the Middle East.

Our first step in deciding whether to take on a representation assignment is to qualify the seller. We look at the quality of the business and determine the seller's commitment factor. When we feel that the business is saleable and the owner is serious about selling, we start buying airplane tickets and making hotel reservations.
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I want to set up a joint venture arrangement with an international security company with the resources to service other worldwide locations for a very important client and then take an executive position with the joint venture partner. Can your firm handle this assignment? If so, how would you handle the representation, since we're located half way around the world from your single headquarters office? (From a recent caller from Israel.)
We probably can help. Since some international clients are located so far away, it's not practical to have our usual get-acquainted meeting first. Rather, our fist step will be to contact the executives we know at the international security companies to find out if there's general interest in the proposal. If there is, we'll accept the assignment. Then we'll prepare the confidential selling memorandum from information a client sends us through e-mail. We will negotiate with the various prospects through phone calls and e-mails until we receive an acceptable offer. Then we'll set up the negotiation meetings, probably in a mutually convenient location somewhere in Europe. We'll then manage the process to a successful closing.

(Note - We did in fact locate several interested prospects and accepted this engagement. We managed a series of meetings in Paris and were able to put the joint venture in place for our Israeli client)
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What size companies does your firm represent?
Since our fee is based on the selling price of the company, and we pay out of our pocket all the travel expenses for the several meetings it takes to manage a sale to closing, the size of the company we can accept obviously depends on how much travel time and money it takes to attend the meetings, which is determined by the company's location.

We can accept a full management engagement for companies with revenue as small as $1 million for many East Coast locations. For West Coast companies, our minimum size is around $3 million in annual revenue, but we frequently make exceptions. For potential foreign clients, we examine all the circumstances - size of company, services offered, existence of quality buyer prospects for the area, etc. - before we accept an engagement.

We've managed sale transactions for companies with revenues as small as $1 million and represented multi-billion dollar public companies in divesting Security Guard divisions.
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