Selling a Small Business Unit

Michael Frankel, Founder and Managing Partner of Trajectory Capital When times are good, big companies tend to ignore their smaller business units, as they operate smoothly on their own. It is only when the economy gets tough that these little businesses get more attention, and often seen as off-strategy or a distraction. That's when the company's leaders decide it's time to sell them, which is not ideal, as the business is no longer in their prime, making it harder to sell.  In this episode of M&A Science podcast, Michael Frankel, Founder and Managing Partner of Trajectory Capital, joins us to share his best practices of selling a small business unit. Episode Bookmarks 00:00 Intro 03:35 The decision to sell a business 05:01 Reasons to sell the business 06:43 Steps in selling a small business unit 09:59 Finding buyers 11:53 Avoid using bankers 13:30 Pitching the deal 14:50 Avoiding non-serious buyers 16:42 Important factors other than price 23:01 Real life example 27:54 Valuation gap 30:29 Evaluating the business 34:45 Hardest part of selling a small business unit 37:03 Advice for first time buyers 41:48 Proactively approaching a seller 47:25 Earnouts on small deals 48:44 Craziest Thing in M&A This episode is sponsored by FirmRoom, the fastest virtual data room used to get deals done. Leave the pay-per-page world behind by going to https://firmroom.com/