Gerber amassed a solid list of public clients over the years, including the California Transit Association and a finance corporation that helped arrange the purchase of environmentally friendly buses in the area. Two years ago, Gerber said he sat down with two key employees, Paul Yoder and Josh Shaw, and started talking about devising a system where they could buy the business. Gerber, now 65, was thinking not only of retirement but meeting other challenges in the future. The most important thing is that our clients have confidence in these new owners . But Van Bruggen added there are some universal truths.
All business owners are busy people.
To that end, clients are asked to spell out cash reserves, goals, debt, potential pitfalls and strategies. That goes for businesses that are looking to boost value, not just those up for sale. Dodge said benefits can be found by carefully going through financial statements, uncovering potential value for a prospective buyer. Existing contracts can greatly enhance the value of a company, for example. From there, Dodge and Van Bruggen help by doing serious numbers crunching, management team analysis, employee analysis and pinpointing market niche.