Challenges in Exiting a Business, with Peter Faser, The Profitability Coach
Peter Faser: I think, the first challenge you always run into is valuation expectations. Having a good understanding of what recent trades are in a specific industry is vital to understanding what your company is worth.
I think a tendency of business owners, because they live it day to day and because they’re emotionally attached to it, is to always think that it is worth X. Like anything, it is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and especially in businesses, it is worth whether you’re running a discounted cash flow analysis or you’re running an enterprise value based on an EBITDA number.
Where I think I can be most helpful is I’ve spent a lot of time in my career helping clients get to the point where they are ready to sell. But also on the flip side, running due diligence, I worked for two years for an investment bank out of Birmingham, Alabama. And I led the due diligence team because they wanted to expand their line of business.
They wanted to bring a company into the fold, into the holding company. And getting into the weeds of what you look for, the interviews that you’re conducting, the questions you’re asking, and getting into the war room, if you will, of what are the financials really telling you. about the institution that wants to be acquired.
And when you’re on the flip side, I think having worked both sides of the trade, I think I can be very instrumental in helping business owners think through, okay, what is that going to look like for me?
Listen to Peter’s full ProfitSense with Bill McDermott interview here.
Peter Faser, The Profitability Coach
Peter Faser has over 25-years of commercial, corporate and investment banking experience. His passion has always been helping his clients get to a better place financially, whether they are a small business or a publicly traded company. He began his career with Trust Company Bank in Atlanta, managing a portfolio of middle-market clients and guiding them in appropriate balance sheet management and income statement efficiencies.
Peter then pivoted to specializing in the banking of other financial institutions, and for the next 17 years, Peter assisted his clients with debt and equity capital solutions to promote growth, along with providing startup capital solutions for de novo institutions. Additionally, Peter and his team ran due diligence on potential acquisition targets in the banking space and assisted in getting his clients ready to sell.
For seven years, Peter worked with Truist Securities, where he originated a new line of business designed to help corporate and investment banking clients recognize human capital efficiencies by increasing productivity, engagement and retention levels. Through this experience of working with over 500 clients across the country, Peter recognized that the level of advisory services offered to smaller clients was not as prevalent as it once was, and he found that most clients were so focused on running their businesses day to day that they were missing the sensitivity analysis required to move their business forward. He has now joined forces with his former teammate, Bill McDermott, to help fill this educational gap. He is excited to be working with The Profitability Coach and getting back to the fundamentals of helping small businesses discover the right path to profitability.
The “One Minute Interview” series is produced by John Ray and the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link.
Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has grown to become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.
