PREPARING THE VENTURE FOR A TRADE SALE（二）.docVIP

marketing The venture For value realisation introduction Two of the biggest challenges an entrepreneur at start up faces are in building the leadership brand position for the venture and then creating and relentlessly communicating the marketing programme to maximise the ventures value realisation on exit. building to sell For entrepreneurs going for the ‘value realisation’ exit objective, their business decisions and the way they operate the business is going to be singularly focussed on attaining the best price that a target buyer will pay , when the time is right. They’ll be considering and learning about why a potential buyer would want the business? Just who are the prospective buyers to target? - becomes a key business issue. Building to sell is different to building to operate over the long term. Knowing who and what the target buyer wants has important operational and strategic implications. For example, it can be the case that the buyer is not interested in the real estate, buildings and physical assets of the business. It makes financial sense therefore to strip these out of the company and then concentrate on what the buyer would be interested in – the customer base. Potential buyers may have a critical customer base size criteria, which then becomes a driver for your business to perhaps acquire smaller competitors in your space to speed up attainment of that customer base size. positioning in two ‘markets’ For the venture with a ‘value realisation’ objective, the business has to be positioned to two markets – the capital markets and the prospective buyer markets. In terms of marketing to the capital markets, it is important to develop and nurture relationships with your industry’s investment bankers and advisors. They not only take companies public, but also act as intermediaries between the two parties involved in an acquisition. Building these relationships involves personal meetings contacts and participating in investment conferences sponsored a