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	Key Representations and Warranties The following article is an excerpt from a new book just published by Business Brokerage Press titled Selling Middle Market Businesses: Guide Book for Intermediaries by Russell Robb. The representations and warranties in the Purchase and Sale Agreement take effect the date of signing. According to Stanley Foster Reed, author of The Art of M&A—A Merger Acquisition Buyout Guide: “These con...

	The Value of a Business Broker Maintains confidentiality Knows and gathers pertinent information Recasts financials Has valuation knowledge Understands goodwill value (70%-90% of total value) Maximizes the value of the company Provides an overview of tax consequences to the parties Has relationships with professional experts Clarifies what is being sold: Identifies, describes the historical Identifies...

	How Long Does It Take? We realize that we may be beating a dead horse, as they say, or you may think we have nothing else to write about. Our hope is that you might take us seriously this time. In a recent survey (February 2008), conducted by the listing web site Businesses For Sale (www.businessesforsale.com), 62 percent of the business brokers responding stated that it took them nine months or more from listing ...

	How Do Business Brokers Handle Up-Front Fees? Up-front fees are always a subject of interest among business brokers. As you will see from the following comments gathered from our last BBP Survey, the up-front fees are all over the place in both the amounts charged and the structure of these fees. We still feel that an up-front fee of one percent of the asking price makes a lot of sense. We also feel that this fee should be offered as a choi...

	Is the Buyer (Customer) Always Right? Some of the results from our recent survey were quite interesting, especially when compared to results from previous surveys. For example, in 2001, Sole Practitioners averaged 110 buyers (customers) for the year in which a personal meeting took place. In our most recent survey, 80 percent of the Sole Practitioners had fewer than 100 buyers (customers) in which a personal meeting took place. Consid...