A good agent will be able to prove that they supplied details with an NDA clause, therefore enforcement should be unwelcome but not impossible.

In my opinion, and I am a business broker, there is a great need for a broker for a typical business purchase. It is incredibly dangerous for the average business person to got to Google Maps to find a business for sale, or for the vast majority of business owner to simply put a business on a list somewhere. Most have never done this before, and there are dozens of pitfalls that can cost a fortune, if not prove to be fatal for the business. I know I am not completely objective, but I can assure you we more than make up for our fees in $value we provide our clients.

With that said, an unskilled or unprofessional business broker can make the problem worse. You can get to the same place, only it cost you more money to get there.

The idea is to do your due diligence to find the right broker. Check with their former clients, look at their history, etc. There are enough to choose from that if something makes you uneasy, you can go to the next one. I would admit that the majority are probably not adding value to the process comensarate to the fee they charge.

Ken
Princeton Capital Strategies, LLC

Thanks for the interesting comments. I think we are largely in agreement and I’ve emailed you and I hope you will accept the offer to write a guest post.

With regards to: “this Blog is titled – ‘Selling A Business: Don’t Waste Your Money On Business Transfer Agents’. ”

I would argue that the message is: not to waste your money on *bad* agents. The point of the post is really that there are a lot of bad agents out there who should be avoided. Secondly (and as this is a blog about business opportunities) there is an opportunity for good agents / new players to capture some of the market share by being better.

Perhaps I could have been clearer.

I totally agree with your comments.

However, you are writing from the perspective of a potential buyer, and, as you say in your last paragraph,”We’re now just using Google, Google Local and Google Maps to find businesses that meet our criteria then contacting them directly to see if they are open to being acquired” – How long then should a person who wants to sell his business wait for you to get around to him via Google and the like? After all there are more than a million small businesses in the UK alone. Also a direct approach can often unsettle a business owner as they have no way of knowing the true intentions of the so called buyer.

I am sure you are genuine and know what you are doing, and further, wish you every success, but this Blog is titled – ‘Selling A Business: Don’t Waste Your Money On Business Transfer Agents’. If they want, or need to sell, people simply cannot wait until you happen to stumble upon their oppertunity, do you not agree?

Business transfer agents are not perfect, and in common with ALL businesses these days, if they are to survive and be more successful they must offer better value and be more innovative.

Considering your comments about the release of information by a buyer which may put him at a disadvantage in any negotiations, I can asure you that a good agent will understand this point and will not require you to expose yourself beyond reasonabe assurance that you are genuinly interested. After all – we really do want to sell businesses.

There are always going to be shrewd. business minded and confident vendors who will do a good job for themselves and will not instruct an agent. There will always be shrewd, business minded and experienced buyers (like yourself perhaps)who will dislike the efforts of agents to manipulate the negotiations to the advantage of thier client. But the reason we exist is that we are able to act for a person who has succesfully run a family business but who does not have the necessary marketing or negotiating skills to get the best result from a sale of his business. After all anyone can sell a business if you are prepared to give it away – it takes skill, experience and rescources to get the best price.

I’m well aware who you work for and as I said in the post I don’t believe that many business transfer agents provide value for money to the vendor.

I do agree however that a serious buyer won’t mind answering a few questions, however making any level of commitment without any basic information is unreasonable. Having said that several agents asked for information that I wouldn’t give them either – as you note you act on behalf of the vendor and aim to negotiate the best price for them – so I certainly won’t tell you the details of my business’s acquisition budget as, should we enter into negotiations it limits my options and gives you an advantage.

In this day and age business transfer agents need to provide more value. We’re now just using Google, Google Local and Google Maps to find businesses that meet our criteria then contacting them directly to see if they are open to being acquired – which leads to some very interesting opportunities.

This is to ensure that timewasters and dreamers are filtered out from the sales process. Now that may not be what you want to hear, but many agents – and we have been in business over 35 years – have a vast amount of experience when it comes to negotiating the best price. As for loosing a buyer – well surely if the buyer is genuine then he or she will not object to answering a few questions to satisfy the seller of this fact? Unless of course the ‘Buyer’ is just dreaming.