Success Story

JG Moore

The opportunity

A client came to us several months back who wanted to sell their business to devote more time to their passion—-to help others recover from natural disasters. Through their local church the owner and his wife had been sporadically helping folks rebuild their lives after hurricanes, floods, and other disasters. And they found this was their life’s calling. The problem was their business which was 10 years old was consuming too much of their time for the them to really pursue their passion. This desire to serve others competed with the demands of owning the business—and this began to fester and create an ever constant conflict for their time and undivided attention. By the time Solid Rock got involved the owners were resolved to sell their business and do what they love—even though it would mean giving up a business that they had nurtured like a child.
When the owners initially called us, I could hear the passion in their voices—it was to help others. But they needed significant help in transitioning their business to new owners so they could leave Wilmington at a minutes notice to help the next disaster victims.
Our solution was to begin to understand their business. Being very loyal the owners wanted to sell to a long time trusted employee. But they acknowledged it might need to be sold to an unrelated third party. To answer the question though we completed a valuation of the business. The valuation is the starting point for most business transactions—after all when you are selling the single largest asset that you will ever own—you need to know what it’s worth before embarking on the journey. Once we knew the value of the business we worked with the key employee to ascertain if she could (or even wanted to buy this very significant asset). After months of working with the trusted employee, the owner’s, and Lenders everyone agreed the best case scenario would be for this key employee to stay onboard but find a third party to buy the business. Enter the buyer. The buyer turned out to be a potential future competitor who was expanding into Wilmington. But instead of competing we decided perhaps this new competitor could simply buy our clients business. After all they were the ideal buyer candidate—they already operated a complementary business in Raleigh. The negotiations began almost immediately. And after a few months of due diligence which included the buyer vetting tax returns, financial statements, redacted customer lists, kicking the proverbial tires, etc., we were able to come to terms. The buyer would buy the business and the trusted employee world stay on to help with the transition and manage the business for the new owner.

The results

Almost two years later the former owners are living their life’s dream by helping people from Texas to Florida to Puerto Rico recover from natural disasters. And they still come in from time to time to say hello or even help with a small project. And The buyer is already reaping the benefits of higher profits and they will soon be moving into their new location right up the street in Wilmington. And the trusted employee is still managing the business—she enjoys a higher salary, greater benefits, and a good rapport with the new owners—and she is getting a nice new work space when in the new location. Yes, this was truly a win/win/win story.
For more information on how we can help you realize your dream to transition to the next chapter in your life —contact us today for a free consultation.
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