Commercial Services Division

Business Sales

(800) 618-2113

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Thinking of buying a business in Oregon?

You've come to the right place! We have years of experience in assisting prospective buyers to find and acquire the right business.

Some of the essential functions we provide include:

• intensive search campaign
  
• initial screening
  
• data gathering and review
• negotiation support
  
• financial analysis coordination
  
• reference to financing sources
  
• due-diligence guidance

When we conduct a search for you, we access a wide variety of sources. Some of them, such as business-for-sale websites, are accessible to the public. Other areas include private broker sessions, associations, and individual broker listings that are not publicized.

It is not uncommon to view hundreds of businesses for sale. We look for high-value offerings that appear to meet your criteria, quickly discarding the many that don't. When we find a possible candidate we discuss it with you to see if you want us to conduct an initial screening analysis.

When an acquisition candidate passes the initial screening, we obtain more data from the seller's broker and coordinate a more detailed financial analysis with your CPA and other professionals as appropriate. This is also the time to start inquiring about "value drivers"- those aspects of the business that are critical to producing future profits (e.g., contracts, equipment, skilled employees.)

When a candidate rises to the level of being an acquisition target, it's time to prepare either a letter of intent to purchase, or an actual offer to purchase (with appropriate conditions to protect you if the business turns out to be not as represented or if further investigation shows that it doesn't meet all of your criteria. We work with you and your other professionals to make sure that you can safely go forward, while providing for a safe exit if your conditions are not met.

Getting the offer accepted may take several rounds of offer and counter-offer. We are accustomed to that, and can serve as a valuable buffer to make the negotiation more flexible.

Once your offer is accepted, we go into high gear to open escrow with a title company experienced in the special area of business sales, and we provide you with references to severalbusiness finance lenders. Collaborating with your CPA and other financial professionals, we assist in the preparation of your loan application exhibit package.

Concurrently, we assist you and your team in conducting an intensive on-site due-diligence review.

Once all of this is done, we schedule the closing and attend the closing meeting with you.

Of course, there are many more details than described here. We are happy to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to call us at 800-618-2113.

If you would prefer to contact us by e-mail, please feel free to do so.
You can reach our broker in charge of business sales, Gary Richards, at