History

MidAtlantic Business Advisors had been assisting clients in the valuation, sale, and acquisition of privately held businesses since 2002. We believe in the importance of the "personal touch" so we restrict our engagements to the mid-Atlantic area, primarily, Virginia and North Carolina; places we can get to within a few hours whenever necessary. Because our founder owned and operated multiple unrelated businesses of his own prior to starting MidAtlantic, we are generalists, working with all kinds of businesses. We believe this gives us a broader understanding of business and a much larger "universe" of potential buyers and sellers; a great benefit to our clients. Our success rate verifies our belief.

Success Rate and Business Model

At MidAtlantic Business Advisors we are passionate about what we do. We understand the importance of delivering our clients desired results and we do so four times more often than the industry average. This is a direct result of our business model. Our model includes our target market, unfailing integrity, strict confidentiality, limited engagements, high level analytics, carefully timed marketing activities, and skillful structuring of every transaction designed to maximize value and minimize taxes. Unlike many in our industry, we have taken the time, and spent the money necessary to obtain the education, certifications, designations and licenses we believe everyone should have to facilitate what is often the largest financial transaction of a business owner's life, the sale or purchase of a business.

Our Market

In most markets, there are business brokers who handle the sale and acquisition of small retail and service "main street" businesses (those with annual revenues below $500,000). It is also not hard to find other brokers/intermediaries with larger investment banking firms who focus their attention and services on upper middle-market businesses (those with annual revenues above 25,000,000). Recognizing, and personally experiencing the void between these providers, our founder and Senior Broker, Ron Rash formed MidAtlantic Business Advisors to specialize in this underserved market. We provide small and lower middle-market businesses with the level of representation and professionalism that was previously only available to much larger firms.

Integrity - A Trusted Partner and Guide

MidAtlantic Business Advisors knows it is vital for sellers and buyers alike to have a comfort level with the firm and individuals they entrust to achieve their transaction objectives. What that means to us, is a commitment to honesty and "above board" dealings always, even when it "hurts". It also means that we provide a high level of personal attention, professionalism, service and expertise irrespective of the size of the transaction. MidAtlantic Business Advisors does not employ "professional openers/closers" or transfer the handling of an assignment to junior level personnel. Our team ensures that every transaction receives the direct involvement and attention of the partners in our firm. We apply a team approach to every engagement.

Confidentiality - a Must!

Having sold several businesses in which he was personally involved, Mr. Rash understands the vital nature of confidentiality. It is the rare owner who is not extremely concerned about it becoming public knowledge that his or her business is on the market and rightfully so. In most businesses, there are potentially serious negative consequences if employees, vendors, customers and/or competitors learn that a business is for sale. It is one of the major reasons that owners should not try to sell their businesses themselves. At MidAtlantic Business Advisors we have designed our entire marketing process with confidentiality in mind first and foremost.

Limited Engagements

MidAtlantic Business Advisors limits our number of engagements at any given time. We are not in the "listings game", our objective is to successfully conclude EVERY engagement. This is different than most in our industry and it ensures our ability to be highly pro-active and responsive while providing a high level of personal attention to every client. It is a major factor in our extraordinarily high success rate, which enables us to achieve our income goals while maximizing our clients' satisfaction.

High Level Analytics

Every business has unique qualities and characteristics which need to be understood by the broker if it is to be most effectively marketed. Beyond that, it is imperative that the broker completely understand the intricacies of each company's balance sheet and income statement. History, trends and anomalies must be understood and explained for there to be any hope of valuing a business correctly and obtaining its fair market value and any premium that is warranted. At MidAtlantic Business Advisors we do not farm out valuations or analysis because we learn the business while perform these functions ourselves. It is a key part of our process and a major reason why we have historically obtained 98% of our asking price.

Optimally Timed Marketing Activities

The only sure way of obtaining the best price and terms available in the market is to have multiple buyers engaged in the process at the same time. Even professional acquirers will pay more when they are competing. That is why the MidAtlantic Method of selling businesses includes strategic timing of our marketing activities in order to maximize the possibility of engaging multiple buyers simultaneously. When we have been able to accomplish this, we have occasionally been able to obtain more than our asking price, which again helps account for our historical 98% average.

Tax Structuring

It must be kept in mind is that there is a third, unwelcome party in every transaction, and that is Uncle Sam. Every transaction must be structured correctly in order to minimize the tax impact on both the buyer and the seller. We at MidAtlantic Business Advisors are very sensitive to this issue. We often save our clients more than our fee by minimizing their taxes. We are not accountants or tax advisers, but we understand the tax implications of various deal structures. It is important to get the structure right during offer negotiations, rather than hoping the accountants will "fix it" later. Post offer acceptance attempts to "fix it" often result in aborted deals. It is our job to get transactions closed. We do this better than most, and one of the reasons is our knowledge of tax issues.

Industry Regulation - Licenses & Designations

Historically, our industry has been unregulated. In Virginia as in many states, the only "requirement" to being a business broker or intermediary was to say you were one. At MidAtlantic Business Advisors, we never believed this to be appropriate in an industry where we are advising individuals on such consequential matters as the purchase or sale of a business. We pursued and achieved the certifications and designations described in the "Team MidAtlantic" page of this site in order to assure our clients that we are serious about our business and qualified for our role.

Our Services

For more information on our Business Sale services click here.

For more information on our Business Acquisition services click here.

For more information on our Business Valuation services click here.

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