Todd Taskey is an M&A Advisor for CEOs and Entrepreneurs at Potomac Business Capital. For over 20 years, he has been an entrepreneur, business owner, investment banker, and business finance advisor. As well as offering M&A advice and investment banking services, Todd has also been a founding investor, member of the Board of Directors, or part of the management team of several businesses. He helps CEOs and entrepreneurs develop a successful exit strategy by understanding the mid-market investment banking process.
Todd sheds some light on what really goes down during an agency acquisition, what you need to prepare and strategize for an acquisition, when is the best time to exit, how to negotiate your way into getting the most value out of the deal, and what you should watch out for to prevent deals from falling through.
This Cast Covers:
- A horrific story about mergers and acquisitions that prompted Todd to speak about this on the podcast (01:28)
- What’s mostly missing from these deals that are vital to know when selling your agency (05:15)
- Is narrowing down in a niche important in being acquired or does it differ among industries? (08:50)
- The most valuable thing an acquirer looks for to maximize your multiples when you do exit (12:54)
- Why you better have a signed letter of intent with your chosen acquirer (13:44)
- When you sign a letter of intent with somebody, those guys should be ecstatic that they were chosen as the acquirer because a couple of things will happen (13:44)
- Most common mistakes Todd sees agency owners making when getting on deals (13:55)
- Two critical things when looking at the size of EBITDA you should consider before selling your agency (18:17)
- Two key concepts that you need to know so you don’t lose a great deal of money in an acquisition (18:51)
- How to handle “deal fatigue” – a normal phenomenon most agency owners experience when going through the motions (24:43)
- What founders should be optimizing in their agencies today before considering being acquired (32:04)
- How important is EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) versus contract link and SD (seller discretionary)?
- Having these operations and systems in place before the acquisition will make the process run a whole lot smoother and easier (33:34)
- Are acquisitions a strategic play to grow their business or creating more havoc for an agency? (40:41)