We’ve been helping Buyers and Sellers for over thirty-five years. We have seen and heard the multitude of unfortunate stories about Buyers searching endlessly – literally for years! Most never buy a business while some are successful and live the American Dream of business ownership. OCA will help you avoid the most common and critical mistakes Buyers acting on their own make that contribute to their failure in buying a business.

OCA will help you narrow your focus for businesses to target and proactively reach out to prospective Sellers and our OCA database of advisors, and ancillary professionals who represent and interact with such businesses. OCA can provide Early Stage Screening of target businesses, Letter of Intent or Offer To Purchase, Disclosures, navigate through the Due Diligence and Worklist Items, Contract Documents, recommended areas to investigate for concern of issues, interact with attorneys, CPAs and all the ancillary professionals. OCA is accustomed to locating funding for acquisitions and guiding you through the lending process.

You should be asking yourself, “If so many try to buy a business and are not successful, then what is it they (or I) don’t know that causes the failure?” And further, “If I really want success in buying a business, shouldn’t I be willing to increase my probability of success and gain the insight of thirty-five years of experience?” “Do I really have the available time and resources to stay focused on all the transactional details and micro-manage the process?”

This is difficult to answer with any certainty because there are so many variables that impact the timeline. However, once the Buyer and Seller are engaged in meaningful discussions, generally speaking, and assuming all is well-prepared, and the stars align, most “mainstreet” businesses will close on the sale in three to six months. For larger or more complex transactions, it also varies. There are no two sale transactions that are the same. Just a few of the variables include: motivations of the parties, lending environment, price, terms, conditions, approvals, lease arrangements, SBA approvals, real estate issues, environmental concerns, employee retention issues, quality of the assets and the financials, what is included and excluded in the sale, the results of due diligence, the need to adjust any of the price or terms or conditions, the availability and access to the professionals involved, etc. . . Generally speaking, if you have OCA’s professional expertise at your side it will likely be six to twelve months (but no assurances due to so many unknown variables).

Yes! First, there is a business overview that will assist with determining a value that you might want to consider offering on the business and how that value can be accepted and funded by the Seller and the lenders. Then it’s a matter of outlining all of the critical elements and aspects that will need to be addressed moving forward and articulating that in a written instrument – that is, the Letter of Intent or Offer To Purchase. More often than not, we find that most Buyers (and many of their advisors) do not cover all the necessary elements or it is not clearly written so as to avoid misinterpretation by others. OCA has depths of experience in drafting very clear offers that help to avoid problems as the deal moves forward.

Yes! OCA will provide customized worklists of items that you as a Buyer will need to investigate and execute on so you are prepared for the purchase, and the operation of the business going forward. The due diligence should provide verification of all that has been represented up to the time of due diligence, and unveil or reveal other areas that are or should be of interest.

Getting approved funding for a business acquisition is unlike other lending people are more accustomed to. So, yes! OCA can help you prepare for introduction to Lenders, and all the information the Lenders will need to make a decision about funding. It is vitally important that the first presentation to Lenders is well prepared. It is unusual for Lenders to adjust from their original impression of a transaction – do it right, the first time. Equally important is that you approach the right Lenders with the funding opportunity. The appetite for funding an acquisition is contingent upon many factors and variables. Over the years we’ve had many transactions that Buyers and Sellers couldn’t get funded on their own and later came to OCA for help – and we got their deals done and the Buyer funded (so the Seller could walk with cash and the Buyer could be the proud owner of the business).