E-commerce business selling homeware hardware, predominantly locks and safes with a mix of hardware for personal use, schools and government offices

Reselling other people's products (electronic keypad locks).

They have their own products, combination locks and key locks.

Primary customer base: schools and educational institutions, government organisations and private enterprises.

Client in his early 60's looking to retire in less than a year with no succession plan in place because there's no family that can take over the business.

As a family-owned business, the company operates with a lean management structure, with the owner playing a central decision-making role.

Understanding the business was not easy, as there is too much undocumented information that needs to be collected, arranged, and consolidated and getting enough information to evaluate and put out a valuation within a given time frame was a challenge.

There was no process set up for inventory management; no stock management software or system; Visibility into product stock movement within the warehouse was limited.

Current financial information is not readily available in a clear and organized nformat, and outdated accounting system struggling to keep pace with current business growth, making it difficult to conduct a thorough financial analysis and making shareability of the information challenging.

From a staffing perspective, while an e-commerce business may not be as labor-intensive as others, a core team with the expertise to run the operation is still essential.

Understanding the business. During valuation, the team looked at 4 main sections, (1) business specific background (operations) i.e., the people, the processes, intellectual properties (IP), structure, (2) financial assessment i.e., revenue, earnings, assets, balance sheet (3) market value of what a business goes for in this industry of this size range, and (4) assessment of where the value of the business sits in the market.

Since it was a time-sensitive transaction, with the business owner wanting to sell the business right as it is currently, a different approach was taken.

The team went to collect feedback from the different market segments such as investors for e-commerce, investors who just want to buy a business, family investors, industry players, business owners who like the model but they're not in the industry, so they're expanding to different products, and then you've got people who just like the business model itself, they don't care about the product to investors. Then you've got smaller investors and the family investors and our our goal with that feedback is to try and work out. .

The process was done confidentially, looking at buyer's appetite/preference, approach, their valuation , payment structures and handover process, approach, systems to implement in case of take over.

The team helped the business owner capture the stock information, available stocks, movement, as long as the information on stocks and financials can be tracked, managed and shared.

The team collaborated with the accountant to produce income and expense, and other necessary financial information base on bank statements.

The team set up a system and a framework that allowed the business owner to communicate its inventory and financial information in a structured manner.

From a staffing perspective, there was a clear strategy on what gets outsourced.

Tailored approach according to the business owner selling the business; deep diving into his requirements without sacrificing the value of the business.

Important aspect of the process was how seamless the collaboration with the business owner was, he paid the dues on the day the invoice was sent, he answered the IM questionnaire with 29 questions on the day it was requested.

The result turned out better than expected; as long as the information on stocks and financials can be tracked, managed and shared, there will be interested parties ready to buy the business.

It might have an impact with the handover but there wont be an impact on the business valuation, as long as information can be shared to interested buyers.

IM is underway and marketing material will go out at the end of July.

There was a clear understanding of where the business stands at.

Preparing for Sale.