Begin with the Knowns and Unknowns

/in , /by Exit Strategies

The world feels like it’s turned on its head right now. People are anxious, with good right to be. There’s so much we can’t predict about the weeks and months ahead. When planning your response, begin with what you know and what you don’t know.

What we know:

We’re in a pandemic, and social distancing can flatten the curve, meaning slow the rate by which the illness spreads. And, at this point, we can probably say this pandemic will be linked to an economic recession.

Start by responding to what we know. If you’re a business owner or in another position of influence, this begins with supporting social distancing efforts and following guidance from the CDC. For many, this means finding creative ways to keep your employees engaged and working so you can keep paying them for as long as possible.

Whether you’re shoring up remote work operations, or innovating your business model, remember your employees are anxious. Many of them are trying to balance work and childcare. Others are alone and will be feeling the isolation more keenly.

Now is the time to practice compassionate leadership. You can’t really know how much this situation is affecting each employee – who has vulnerable family members, who is most economically at-risk, and who has underlying mental health issues that will make this situation more difficult to bear.

Prioritize social connection as part of your workday. Plan virtual coffee meetings or happy hours via conference call. Managers, make it a point to check in on employees. Find out how people are doing, and not just in terms of work and technology. Ask how they’re feeling. Find out how the separation from the office is affecting them and what else is raising their anxiety.

Communicate. Rumors fly in uncertain times. Give your employees clear, reliable information. If you don’t know what your plan is yet, it’s okay to say that. Employees need to hear from you, and even those “we’re still considering our options” messages can head off misinformation.

What we don’t know:

The unknowns are many. We don’t know how long this situation will last. We don’t know the depth of the economic impact. So how do we respond in uncertain times?

Madison, Wisconsin based futurist Rebecca Ryan recommends scenario planning. Map out your worst fears, your highest aspirations, and your reasonable expectations (what feels most plausible over the next 18 months).

Do this together with your leadership team. Part of the value, as Ryan explains it, is stating your assumptions to the group. Which possibilities are you putting in the plausible zone, rather than the best- and worst-case scenario boxes?

Any scenario is possible, so spend time on each. Try to imagine how your business will respond to each possible future. A few weeks or months from now, you will have more information and can revisit your scenarios again.

If you tend toward pessimism, this kind of scenario planning may help lift you up out of fear by forcing you to imagine positive outcomes. That slight lift, that shift in perspective, can be extremely beneficial in times of stress.

But more than that, scenario planning helps you make thoughtful decisions in uncertain times – times when informed decisions aren’t always possible.

 

COVID-19 Exit Planning Insight: Keep a Journal

/in , , /by Al Statz

Al StatzThere’s no shortage of information out there right now on how company owners and CEO’s are responding to COVID-19. [By now, leaders have taken steps to survive and fight another day. Most now understand what business will look like for them until restrictions are lifted, and they’re formulating plans to thrive again post-pandemic.] With few companies going to market during this crisis, our insights will focus on exit planning, acquisition opportunities and non-elective sales for a while.

Today we have a simple but powerful suggestion for owners who wish to sell in the next three to four years: Keep a COVID-19 Journal.

Why a COVID-19 Journal

When you sell a business, the buyer’s financial diligence usually focuses on the past three years. Like it or not, what happens during this COVID-19 disruption will generate lots of pointed questions. It’s unavoidable. Your M&A advisor / investment banker will help you tell your unique story, but you’ll need to have the supporting facts and data.

Keeping a COVID-19 journal means tracking and documenting key events, management decisions and business performance data, in real time, during this crisis. Key events and decisions are those that will have a substantial impact on current or future business performance or risk. Decisions should be well documented, including timing, rationale and expected results.

The more data and details you have the better your story can be told. Don’t try to remember it all. Some of this data may not be captured in or stored by your ERP system. For example, you may need to be manually recording weekly RFPs, quoting activity and order backlog.

Examples of Key Events and Decisions:

Financial/Liquidity

  • draw-down on the credit line
  • renegotiated bank covenants or asset-base
  • cancelled all company credit cards
  • sold surplus assets to generate cash
  • other key cash preservation actions taken
  • government subsidies received and how accounted for

Customers

  • change in key customer payment terms or collections
  • major order cancellations
  • downstream verticals shut down and aided by crisis
  • customer loss or gain due to or during the crisis
  • impact on orders, sales and accounts receivable

Marketing & Sales

  • implementation of new remote/online sales strategies
  • implementation of new marketing initiatives
  • RFP inquiries and quoting activity

Suppliers

  • renegotiated payment terms
  • changed payment practices
  • notified that critical components unavailable
  • major order cancellations
  • major supply chain interruptions and changes
  • renegotiated lease or mortgage payments
  • impact on accounts payable

Employees

  • salary reductions, job-sharing, furloughs and layoffs (and severance paid)
  • major staff redeployments
  • organizational restructuring
  • new hires/rehires – impact on payroll

Products & Services

  • diversified (new product line or service) to generate sales
  • decision to stop replenishing certain inventory (to preserve cash)
  • major resource shifts
  • suspension of a product development initiative

Strategic/Operations

  • shifts in target markets, products, services or customers
  • major re-positioning or change in business model
  • permanent operational changes made
  • a new strategic alliance
  • acquisition of a distressed competitor

Action Steps

Start your journal today and cover historical events as best you can. Assign someone to take detailed minutes of weekly or daily executive team meetings and compile KPI’s. Schedule time each day to summarize key events, decisions and performance metrics.

One of my clients finds writing this journal to be “therapeutic, amid the chaos”. And he’s looking forward to telling his unique COVID-19 story to prospective acquirers (and their lenders).

As a result of this surprise economic crisis, acquirers may be adding “Evaluate the potential impact of future unpredictable business disruptions” to their acquisition due diligence check lists. We’ll soon find out.

If you are wondering what information to include in your COVID-19 Journal, Exit Strategies Group’s M&A advisors and valuation experts can provide invaluable insights. Don’t hesitate to call if we can help you prepare your journal, make a strategic acquisition, or prepare for a post-pandemic exit.

Previous COVID-19 M&A Updates:

COVID-19 M&A Update: Survival Mode

/in , /by Al Statz

As of 4/6/2020

The fact is, no one knows when this public health crisis will be resolved or when commerce will return to normal.

The fact is, most businesses are struggling. They have scaled back or stopped operating. Leaders have taken quick decisive action to stem losses and preserve cash. They are taking advantage of government assistance. Luckier ones are less affected; some are thriving. Indeed, these are unprecedented times.

Affected company leaders are taking stock.

Business owners and management teams are taking care of their employees first, as they should, and reaching out (by email, phone and video conferencing) and staying close to customers and suppliers. They are remaining calm, intentionally limiting their media intake. They are monitoring KPI’s and dashboards more frequently than ever – hourly or daily instead of weekly or monthly. They are getting a handle on what business is going to be like until restrictions are lifted.

And they are looking ahead.

They are formulating strategies to strengthen their market position and thrive when we come out the other end of this. They are revising their quarterly and annual business plans and executing on those plans. Many are working on systems, marketing, policies and procedures, and picking up some of those “B” projects that fell by the wayside.

Exit Strategies Group is here for you. Please don’t hesitate to call us if we can help you navigate this crisis, or just to touch base.

All the best to you, your families and your companies,
The Team at Exit Strategies Group

Three Questions to Ask for Growth

/in /by Exit Strategies

This is the time of year when business leaders make resolutions, update strategic plans, and generally take stock of their organization. I’m planning to do a similar assessment, but this year I’m going to look in the mirror.

I’m going to reach out to 15 to 20 people and ask these three questions:

  1. What two things should I continue to do?
  2. What two things should I start doing?
  3. What two things should I stop doing?

I’ll put these questions to several of my team members, some close personal friends, and a few people in my professional circle. And I expect I won’t like all the answers. But I’m going to trust that I will get fair and honest feedback.

Blind Spot Detectors

One of the tenets I’ve always adhered to in business is that ‘you don’t know what you don’t know.’ My goal with this exercise is to help uncover some of those blind spots. What can’t I see?

Most days it feels like I’m driving down the (proverbial) highway at 90 miles an hour. I know I need a better view of what’s around me, so these three questions are going to be my blind spot detectors. The answers just might help me avoid a few scary near-misses and perhaps, even, a company-killing accident.

Fresh Thinking

Researchers tell us that multiple perspectives are the key to innovation. Maybe I’ll uncover some new path we should be taking as an organization. Or just as likely, I’ll get people telling me to stay the course – to give ideas enough time to take root and sprout before I head off to take on the next “big” idea.

In business circles, this feedback tool is generally known as the SSC or SSK (start, stop, continue/keep) process. The exercise can be used in any area of your life, in your role as a business leader, coach, partner, parent, etc. See this Forbes article for more information.

You can use the exercise for company-wide analysis as well, asking employees and customers what the organization should start, stop, and what you should preserve.

Either way, whether we ask the question of ourselves or of our organization, I expect the magic truly comes from how we respond. I’m sure I’ll struggle with some negative feedback. But If we can accept the answers with grace, humility, and perhaps even transparency, we can improve communication and trust.

When I started my business, I created a board of professional advisors who served as my sounding board and helped guide my decisions. Today, I look to my management team and outside consultants for similar insight.

In 2020, I’m going to add fresh voices to the mix. And I’m fully confident that those voices – even the critical ones – will be a pivotal part of my personal and professional growth.

Al Statz can be reached at 707-781-8580 or alstatz@exitstrategiesgroup.com.

Building Value Means Building Leaders

/in , /by Exit Strategies

It’s the New Year, that time when many business owners make a fresh resolve to develop their business. For some, that means updating equipment and driving sales. But others will focus on something more personal and possibly more pivotal: developing their leaders.

GF Data shows that a solid management team will increase the valuation multiple. For smaller businesses, the quality of your management team can be an even bigger factor, influencing whether your business sells at all.

Here are five ways to develop your managers and bring out their best:

1.  Coach, Don’t Rescue

A lot of leaders are “rescuers.” We care about our people and we want to see them succeed. But instead of onboarding correctly or coaching, we take over for them every time they have a problem.

Try coaching your team member to a solution. Help them find the courage to voice their own suggestions.

Questions like, “What do you think you should do?” often yield “I don’t know” answers. But a simple reframing can take the pressure off and encourage people to share their own thinking. If you’re trying to get someone past “I don’t know,” try one of these approaches:

“Suppose you did know. What’s a possible answer?”
“What if you knew you couldn’t fail?”
“Who’s the smartest person you know? What do you think they would do?”
Getting people to reframe the answer from someone else’s perspective can take away some of the discomfort we all feel about being wrong. What’s more, it helps them stretch and develop their own capabilities and confidence.

2.  Set a No-Penalty Zone

Create an environment where it’s okay for people to make mistakes. Begin by setting boundaries (wide boundaries, preferably) around decisions and actions they can take on their own. As long as people are acting ethically and in adherence to your corporate values, support the choices they make.

You can always coach people and explain why you would have made a different decision, but don’t impose any negative consequences. It’s better to have a proactive team than people who sit in a state of paralysis waiting for you to sign off on a course of action.

3.  Assess Your Team

Behavioral assessments can go a long way toward employee retention and development. From MBTI to DiSC, Strengths Finder, and others, tools like these can help your team identify their unique gifts and areas for improvement.

Invest in a business psychologist or other professional facilitator to take your team through the assessment. With the right guidance, the results can help improve team dynamics and equip you to be a better coach to each individual on your team.

4.  Give them a Voice

Give people a place at the table. For a long time, I made the vast majority of my business decisions based on what I thought was best for the company. But over the last few years, I’ve gotten better at listening to my internal team.

My management team has helped me challenge my assumptions, develop new initiatives, and most critically for me, stay the course on a promising business plan instead of following my next big idea.

5.  Get Out

We’re working with a husband and wife team who haven’t taken a vacation in five years. That’s not great on many levels. I don’t know if they haven’t developed their people or if the issue is more about an emotional, personal need for control.

If that sounds familiar, start slow. Take a long weekend away. Leave early on Fridays. Build up your ability to step away. As you leave your team in charge, their confidence will grow, and so will yours.

In terms of value, the ideal goal is to work yourself out of the business. Get yourself to a place where you can take extended vacations. Transition your role from working IN the business to working ON the business.

Buyers want businesses with transferable value. That means you need a leadership team that can sustain operations and, better yet, drive growth, without your direct involvement. If the business can’t survive without you, its value declines.

At the end of the day, building out your management team is a critical investment in your business. If it makes your life easier in the process (and it will), that’s just a nice side bonus.

For further information on what buyers look for in a management team, contact Al Statz at 707-781-8580 or alstatz@exitstrategiesgroup.com.

5 Ways to Make Your Business More Sellable, Right Now

/in , /by Al Statz

It was time. After 30 years running their small 25-employee company, Frank and Martha were ready to retire to the Oregon Coast. To their surprise, after a 12-month listing with a business broker, there were just a few interested parties and no offers. Instead of enjoying retirement, Frank and Martha are now a year older and no closer to retirement. For them, preparing to sell was an after-thought.

Regretfully, this scenario plays out often. Many small companies aren’t in shape to sell. This post offers tips for building a more marketable company.

5 Ways to Make Your Business More Sellable

  1. Clean up financial reporting. Nothing scares buyers away like poor financial statements and back up data.  If you don’t have the resources to do this work in house, find a CPA or fractional CFO to help with this.
  2. Build a team. Often, businesses are too dependent on the owner(s). If buyers are unsure about a company’s ability to prosper under new leadership, they won’t buy. Buyers want to see a capable and committed management team. Stay bonuses can help.
  3. Diversify the customer base. Companies with a few clients that represent a majority of revenue are tough to sell. Contract manufacturers often have this problem. A business may not survive losing its top client, let alone continue to pay down acquisition debt. A good rule of thumb is to keep top clients below 20% of revenue.
  4. Document, systematize and automate. The more confident buyers are that a business will continue to run smoothly under their watch, the more likely they will buy and the more they will pay. Most companies have opportunities in this area.
  5. Quality of earnings. Buyers and lenders discount or shy away from businesses with declining or uneven earnings. They also don’t want to see deferred capital spending or excessive working capital needs that put a drag on future cash flows.

These are some of the most common recommendations we give to company owner clients. Every business has its own unique levers to pull.

I realize these recommendations are easier said than done. Just know that failing to prepare for a sale can result in no deal, or selling at a substantial discount and not having enough money to enjoy retirement or prolonging retirement for several years.  See my recent post on Why Business Owners Should Prepare to Sell Now.

At Exit Strategies we counsel business owners before taking their businesses to market. After an initial assessment, we sit down with owners to create simple plans to improve sale-readiness and value. When our clients are ready, our senior M&A brokers guide them through the sale process. As a result we have one of the highest success rates in our industry.

*          *          *

Al Statz is the founder and president of Exit Strategies Group, a leading M&A advisory and business valuation firm with offices in California and Portland Oregon. If you are interested in selling your company in the next few years, call Al at 707-781-8580 or Email him.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Mergers and Acquisitions

/in , , /by Al Statz

Like it or not, and irrespective of our personal political ideologies, corporate social responsibility has gained in popularity in the past decade. In this article, we’ll discuss what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is and what it means for private business owners from an exit strategy perspective.

The Four Pillars of CSR

CSR is often thought of as having four pillars: the community, the environment, the marketplace and the workplace.

  1. Community. This pillar refers to the manner in which a company contributes to the greater community. Contributions can range from simply providing good jobs for people in your local community to donating money for a new playground or public art project.
  2. Environment. People around the globe are becoming more environmentally conscious. Increasingly, consumers want to know that the companies that they patronize have sound environmental practices. These practices range from recycling, to using low-emission high-mileage vehicles, to using biodegradable packaging. The more your company can demonstrate how it is protecting the long-term health of our environment, the more customers will be attracted to your product or service.
  3. Marketplace. Proper corporate social responsibility includes adopting fair treatment policies towards suppliers and vendors, contractors and shareholders. It’s critical to view all stakeholders in the company as partners. The marketplace aspect of CSR means rejecting any exploitative business practices that you may have in favor of fairer and more equitable business practices.
  4. Workplace. With respect to workplace, CSR encourages the implementation of fair and equitable treatment of employees. It makes sense that having a healthy, financially secure and committed workforce with a strong corporate culture and a safe work environment improves the desirability of your company. Profit sharing, medical coverage, retirement and wellness programs are all part of this mix.

Are socially-responsible companies better investments?

In my experience as an M&A advisor, I have to answer yes, all other things being equal. It’s not the most important factor, but today’s acquirers prefer to buy companies with a culture of social responsibility. Owners considering selling or recapitalizing should plan for this. Being able to demonstrate a strong CSR track record should serve to increase buyer and investor demand and therefore selling price.

Our M&A advisors to small businesses have noticed that older (baby boomer) owners in particular are surprised by the importance of good CSR practices to the younger generation of buyers. With the advent of social media, its easier than ever for them to get a sense of your company’s social responsibility.

It may be time to to gather your management team to explore the value that CSR can bring to your organization and assess your CSR performance. Here is an HBS white paper on Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It.

*          *          *

Al Statz is Exit Strategies Group’s founder and CEO. For further information or to discuss a current need, confidentially, Al can be reached at 707-781-8580.

M&A Advisor Tip:  What Buy-and-Build Means for You

/in , /by Exit Strategies

Private equity firms have increased their use of buy-and-build investment strategies.

A buy-and-build strategy involves bolting together several smaller companies into a larger business enterprise that will likely sell at a higher multiple. See our post on the size effect. This trend is affecting many industries, from healthcare clinics to niche business service companies.

The uptick in buy-and-build acquisitions could mean more buyers and more competition for your business than you expect. Contact Al Statz at 707-781-8580 or alstatz@exitstrategiesgroup.com to learn more about consolidation trends in your market.

Business Interruption 101

/in , /by Exit Strategies

If you are reading this blog post from the Left Coast today, you know all too well the front page pictures and stories on the wildfires affecting Northern and Southern California in the past few weeks. The devastation is unimaginable.

As I write this, the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County (just north of our Petaluma office) is 60% contained and 76,825 acres have burned. In local terms, that is about the size of San Francisco plus a little bit of Burlingame near SFO airport. On the East Coast, it’s roughly the size of Washington, DC from Alexandria, VA to north of Chevy Chase, MD.  While the fire has destroyed almost 300 structures so far, we are lucky that no lives have been lost and there have been minimal injuries.

No Power, No Business…Maybe

For local businesses, it has either been boom or bust, not only from the fires but the local utility’s response to fire prevention, specifically shutting off power throughout the Bay Area. As the affected population moves towards the communities with power, people are dealing with a new way of life during a difficult time.

In Petaluma, which is located just outside the mandatory evacuation zone and has had minor power outages, business has been booming. Restaurants have been overflowing with displaced evacuees from the north. Hardware, department and grocery stores have been full of people looking to replace essentials. Meanwhile communities without power have experienced a bust. One local market is experiencing heavy uninsured financial losses from losing power. A local catering company may lose up to $150,000 in revenue if they can’t reopen in time for this weekend’s wine country weddings.

Insurance for a Dark Day

Business interruption insurance is a form of commercial damage coverage that covers the loss on income that a business suffers after a disaster. Business interruption occurs when the event, such as the Kincade fire, affects revenue and/or cost and profit is lost. Other events include natural disasters, movement from temporary sites to a permanent site, and/or Government actions causing it to cease operations.

In each of the events mentioned above, one thing is common. Revenue is being missed and expenses continue. The company bears the initial burden of the expenses but insurance or litigation can help business owners get through this loss and remain profitable after recovery. If the interruption to the business was caused by a third party (in this case, the power utility), litigation would be carried out through subrogation (or the assumption of debt or damages to a third party) to recover the losses. This situation would mean that the insurer pays the claim initially then goes after PG&E or another party that caused the event and therefore the loss.

How to Calculate the Loss

Whether it is insurance, litigation, arbitration or settlement, covering your business interruption expenses can be challenging. We have handled the expert/calculation side of these type of engagements in valuing the losses/lost profits.

Many losses fall into three areas:

  • Service Interruption – This impact could be direct damage, physical loss, destruction to utilities, services, telephone, transmission lines, substations, equipment of suppliers of such services as well as related plants.
  • Business Interruption –Here, the property damage to the receivers or suppliers is typically covered by the insurance policy.
  • Restoration – These are expenses incurred during the length of time that is required to replace, repair, or rebuild the damaged property, starting from the point the damage occurred.

The value impact is effectively the difference between a “with/without” analysis where the “with” relates to the actual financial performance as a result of the interruption and the “without” is related to the operations of the business without the interruption based on historical performance. In addition to the matter of recovering costs, extraordinary events or “acts of God” can affect the valuation for a business, either temporarily or permanently.

Our New Normal

In the case of Northern California, the local utility has already let customers know that the “new normal” will be one of power blackouts and a bag packed with emergency supplies. It may take Pacific Gas & Electric 10 years of blackouts before they can make their infrastructure more immune to weather events. PG&E even has its own marketplace for generator sales. Yes, the irony is not lost on us. With increased migration out of California, these fires may be the tipping point for some families who just can’t afford to accept these risks.

Hopefully reading this blog post doesn’t scare you away from visiting California, in particular the beautiful wine growing regions of Sonoma and Napa counties. Like a good Boy Scout, you just need to be prepared for our new normal and share the beauty of our part of the world with the friendly and increasingly resilient locals who call this place home.

Exit Strategies values businesses and intangible assets for a variety of purposes including divestitures, mergers and acquisitions, purchase price allocations, financial reporting, corporate restructuring and planning. If you’d like help in this regard or have any related questions, you can reach Joe Orlando at jorlando@exitstrategiesgroup.com.

Profit from Intangible Assets in a Business Sale

/in , , /by Al Statz

The sale of a business includes intangible assets. This article explains what intangible assets are and how articulating, supporting and protecting them enhances business sale outcomes. Let’s get started.

What is an Intangible Asset?

Intangible assets are things that are non-physical in nature that you can identify, describe, document (e.g. a contract, list, logo, drawing or schematic) and, most importantly, transfer. Intellectual property is an example of an intangible asset.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), in its ASC 805 standard for reporting of Business Combinations, separates intangible assets into these categories:

  1. Marketing-related: such as trade names, trademarks, non-compete agreements and URLs
  2. Customer-related: customer lists, contracts and relationships, order backlog
  3. Artistic-related: works of art, magazines, books and articles
  4. Contract-based: permits and licenses, licensing and royalty agreements, franchise agreements
  5. Technology-based: trade secrets, databases, patented technology

Do all intangible assets have value?

Just because an intangible asset exists, doesn’t automatically give it economic value. To have value it has to produce some form of economic benefit. For example:

  • Generate operating or licensing income
  • Reduce operating expenses or future capital spending
  • Reduce business risk

Of course, an intangible asset must be transferable in a sale to have value to a new owner. (Intangible asset valuation is a topic for another day.)

Goodwill is excluded from the above list because it is considered to be a blended residual asset. Goodwill is influenced by factors such as high profit margins, barriers to market entry, competitive advantages, a regulated protected position or lack of regulation, longevity in the market, a trained work force, etc.  Synergistic value associated with premiums paid by strategic buyers are often considered “blue sky” value above a “justifiable” goodwill value.

Document to Impress

After you take an inventory of your company’s intangible assets, the next step is to be sure that the key ones are documented in a manner that will satisfy buyers. For example, support for customer-based intangibles may include: a well-populated CRM database, master supply agreements, vendor quality audit records, open quote files, important correspondence, sales and contribution margin by customer history, AR aging schedules, purchase orders, etc.

Protect Your Assets

While documenting your company’s primary intangible assets, you are likely to uncover some that need better protecting through public registration (e.g. patents), securing or improving contracts, or better restricting access.

For many of our clients, trade secrets are their most valuable intangible assets. Suppose a significant portion of your company’s profitability is attributable to a proprietary production process. Ask yourself these questions: Is the process perfected and well documented? Are you taking appropriate measures to keep the process secret? Is access sufficiently limited? Do you have appropriate data security? Do you have non-disclosure agreements with third parties?  Do you have confidentiality agreements with your employees? If not, you know what to do.

Capitalizing on Intangible Assets in a Sale Process

Your intangible assets become the focal point of the Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) prepared by your M&A advisor. The CIM can also articulate those intangibles that are underutilized and have potential to produce economic benefits to a new owner. We use our knowledge of your intangible assets to decide which target strategic acquirers are likely to derive the greatest benefit from them. We tailor our outreach strategy and communications accordingly. In the end, this generates more interest and better offers for the company in an M&A auction process. The M&A advisor can also advise on how and when to disclose sensitive details about key intangible assets during the discovery and due diligence phases of a merger or acquisition process.

*         *          *

An investment in perfecting, identifying, documenting and protecting intangible assets is usually well rewarded in a sale. Exit Strategies helps clients take full advantage of the intangible assets in their businesses when going to market. If you’d like help in this regard or have any questions, you can reach Al Statz at 707-781-8580 or alstatz@exitstrategiesgroup.com.