What are some things you have done to set your company up for a successful merger or acquisition?
Entrepreneurs share how they prepare to sell their company or buy another one
Chris LaBossiere, CEO of Yardstick Testing & Training
(getyardstick.com), says that it is important to keep everything in order when preparing for an acquisition. “Working on our second acquisition, we have found that we must maintain intensely organized financials, plus be able to prove our projections, budgets and normalizing items. Having this level of financing literacy is very helpful when you need to raise money or defend a value in merger discussions.” “It’s always important to have an exit plan and as such, your company needs to be structured so it can run without the primary owner or leader. This means you need to build a great leadership team that can operate as best-in-class. One of the best programs we participated in was “Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies”. This program helped us ensure we were operating as best-inclass. Things like measuring, monitoring, benchmarking, reporting, tweaking and repeating the cycle are just one example.” — Ashif Mawji, president of Trust Science — trustscience.com “Part of our strategic growth and expansion planning began with going through a business optimization process which included developing and implementing standardized operational processes in every department of the company. Ensuring we have a solid foundation with the right people in place and a culture where our employees are engaged and committed to our vision and mission. And, developing a detailed and planned integration strategy to ensure a successful merger and acquisition.” — Shelly Barless, president & CEO of Dust Queen Maid Service — dustqueen.com “I sold my last company, and unfortunately, I didn’t do enough. After a successful exit, what I learned is that the best way to run a business is to have the reporting, systems and people you would need for an exit. There is value in exit planning even if you never sell.” — Cory Janssen, co-founder of Janalta Interactive, divestopedia.com “I always strive to work myself out of a job. Doing so makes me non-essential. If I am essential to the business, it’s worthless without me and no one would want to buy it.” — Gregg Oldring, founder of Mailout, industrymailout.com “We share knowledge gained in one area to strengthen that in others. For example, knowledge obtained in residential construction can be applied to the commercial segment. We leverage knowledge transfer through centralized, dynamic employee training and lessons learned sessions. In the event of ownership change or acquisition the business will be successful by being implementing these processes and systems.” — Shannon Lenstra, president of Kon-strux Developments Inc., kon-strux.com “In our role as transaction advisers, we are fortunate to see great companies sell all the time. A dependable management team and low reliance on key individuals or customers are all characteristics of a solid company. I would propose surrounding yourself with a strong advisory team which has significant experience in mergers and acquisition. A team with experience can add much needed bench strength to your company during a transaction.” — Hussein Poonjani, managing director at Grant Thornton Corporate Finance Inc., grantthornton.ca