Our Value Goes Beyond Merely Searching For A Deal

The Vant Group (TVG) provides buyer-side representation on business transfers up to $100 Million per deal. We are M&A trained with professional knowledge of Investment Banking. You can count on our proven Buy-side process that will take you confidently from start to close. 

Buying a business can be a fast-track to growth and profitability when done well—or a risky venture if proper due-diligence is ignored. In fact, data shows that 50% of newly purchased businesses fail within the first five years—while the other half go on to thrive and grow. 

Deal Analysis

Keep you away from unsatisfactory deals – we know the brokers in the area and can protect you from wasting valuable time with the wrong partner.

Network

Our network includes business brokers, individual buyers, private equity firms, investment banks, and strategic buyers – groups who have engaged us to help them source deals like yours. 

Advisor

The seller will most likely have an advisor overseeing their best interest, so should you.

Financing

Assist with obtaining financing.

Negotiations

We are skilled and seasoned negotiators in this space.  We will either save you on the purchase price, get you a better deal structure, or both.

Been There, Done That

As a team; we have bought, sold, or started over 500+ businesses.

Consulting

We will work with you after the purchase to assist with issues that arise after the transfer.

Save Money

We are not attorneys or CPAs, but we walk you through enough of the process that you can save significantly on the fees you would otherwise pay to them.

Deal Structure

Help you structure the deal to maximize the value.

Buyer Representation
Are you an Individual Buyer
Are you a Corporate Buyer
Corporate Buyer Case Study

Buyer Representation is a success fee based search for a business acquisition target whose parameters are set by the buying company.  Some of the services that are included:

Business Qualifying:

  • Work with buyers to help target the type of businesses that best fit their strengths
  • Determine a list of acquisition criteria based on input from buyer
  • Compare and contrast different industry types  

Business Search:

  • Search all relevant websites for businesses available for sale
  • Contact all brokerage firms in the area to identify businesses for sale

Advanced Buyer Search:

  • Generate a list of companies using Dun & Bradstreet databases and from the buyer that fit the buyer’s criteria
  • Send out a mailer to the list of companies that The Vant Group and buyer have identified
  • Provide a list of potential targets to buyer
  • Follow up with personal phone calls to the identified companies by The Vant Group staff
  • Follow up on those companies with an interest and make a site visit to ensure there is a match. (if applicable)

Business Valuation:
Perform a business valuation on all opportunities that have been identified as potential business acquisition targets. Our business valuations use the standard financial modeling formulas. More importantly, TVG is able to offer more of a “real life” valuation based on its vast experience of acting as an agent in the buy / sell process, as well as through the buying / selling of its own staple of businesses owned by TVG.

Preparation of Initial Offers on an Identified Business Acquisition Target:

Upon selection of a suitable business acquisition target, we will help prepare preliminary offers on the business. TVG is able to use its experience from over 500 deals to formulate the best offer for the buyer, while factoring the seller’s needs to ensure a deal can be consummated. This is most likely the highest value proposition of TVG. A successful transaction is not only measured by the sale price, but more importantly by the deal structure. TVG can save buyers thousands of dollars by creating the most beneficial offer in terms of financing, deal structure, tax implications, etc.

Accounting Due Diligence:
Though TVG is not a CPA firm, we have over 500 deals of experience which help us identify the primary due diligence points to focus on before bringing in a CPA. This enables a buyer to save the time and money associated with going through a full due diligence exercise, especially if the deal does not materialize. The due diligence assistance that TVG performs will save a buyer thousands of dollars before the financials are presented to a CPA.

Negotiations:
Throughout the sale process, there will be ongoing negotiations that may not be covered in the preliminary offer such as: training, assumption of liabilities, office leases, payment terms, etc. This is the most difficult benefit of TVG services to measure, but certainly one of its most valuable. An attorney’s aid to a buyer cannot be replaced, but by using TVG to aid the process, a buyer can rely on us and not worry about attorney’s fees for the multiple issues that will arise throughout the months of the buying process.

Introduction to Professional Services for Due Diligence
Once a deal is close to being consummated, TVG will introduce the buyer to professional services firms that are experts in the area of business transactions which are also cost effective. The areas of services include, but are not limited to:

  • CPA
  • Attorney
  • Banker
  • Insurance
  • Human Resources

Bank Financing:
TVG has assisted with over 300 successful business fundings. As part of this service, we will take a buyer from the initial bank application to the ultimate closing and funding of the transaction. Obtaining bank financing can be more difficult than the actual business buying process itself.

Post Closing:
Once a business is purchased, a buyer at times can feel lost during the first few months of business ownership. TVG continues to work with buyers even after the business is purchased to act as a pseudo “board of director” on issues that will inevitably arise for issues such as, but not limited to:

  • Employees
  • Banking
  • Financials
  • Vendor Issues

In addition, TVG will connect buyers with a cost savings company that will aid them on a success fee schedule to analyze all areas of business spend and propose costs savings solutions that could ultimately increase the net income of the business. Work with buyers throughout their business ownership to begin positioning the business for the ultimate exit strategy. Companies that prepare for sale early on in the process ultimately receive a much higher sale price.

Conclusion:
In summary, by hiring TVG to aid you with your buyer-directed search, we act as an ongoing / as needed resource to cover all aspects of the process, not only until the deal is consummated but well beyond that point. Our fee is earned from the time the first acquisition candidate is identified, through the negotiating process to the time the transaction is consummated and beyond. At TVG, we have not only assisted with over 500 transactions as an agent but have also bought and sold 8 companies that we have owned. We have been in the shoes of both buyers and sellers and therefore offer insight that cannot be afforded to a buyer who acts on his own.

What are the Fees?

  • An initial retainer will be required to prepare a buyer directed search package
  • A success fee commission based on the sales price of the business

Most individual buyers come from the corporate world and are looking for a solid and profitable investment. We start by listening to your stated business goals, and then search and assist you in qualifying to purchase businesses that best fit your strengths. We can also help you analyze a deal you may already have under consideration. In every case, we help you sift through all of the information and due diligence, so you don’t make the mistakes many first time buyers make.
For example, many novice buyers search a list of businesses for sale without knowing what questions to ask ahead of time.

Some of these questions can include:

  • How would you verify prospective company makes money it says it does?
  • Is it in a good industry with a good future?
  • Do they have contracts or not?
  • Is their workforce paid enough?

Every business purchase offers its own special challenges—and there can be many factors hard to uncover without the benefit of our extensive experience.

 

Today, many companies find they grow faster and get a better ROI through acquisition rather than funding their own sales program. Finding the right acquisitions can deliver major cost efficiencies, such as:

  • Can pick up new management talent
  • Acquire new and better documentation and training
  • Qualify more readily for financing-especially in your industry
  • Expand their geographic reach
  • Increase revenue and profit ratios
  • Add more operational capacity, marketing, etc.

We achieve any and all of these benefits—and more—through intelligent acquisition based on a strategic search to uncover good deals on companies that fit your specific criteria for success. We guide you throughout the process. TVG brings a special value to this process because we have been through both individual and strategic business purchases so many times before. You get the benefit of that experience at every step of the way.

Grexo Technology Group

The Vant Group has worked closely with an IT services firm named Grexo Technology Group. Over the last six years they have from $0 to $6M with little capital outlay through our buyer representation program.

During that time we have helped them identify numerous opportunities. As a result, they have acquired small, under performing IT firms at very good value as well as existing profitable businesses. We put them in our system and maximized efficiency. And lower cost.

The largest merger we managed for Grexo was with a company a little less than half their size. During the first month along, Grexo’s net profit went form 20 to 25 percent. Grexo plans to use our services to help them grow from $6M to $20M by 2020, using nothing more than our buyer representation group to assist them.