In order to effectively represent a buyer in a purchase transaction, the business broker should thoroughly interview and evaluate the buyer in order to completely understand his or her purchase criteria. The broker needs to have a clear understanding of the buyer’s needs and expectations from the business opportunities to be pursued. The client interview thus becomes the primary step in the purchase process.

Initially fundamental information about the buyer is gathered by the business broker. This includes background, experience, education, management skills and financial requirements of the buyer Thus, the client interview enables the broker to judge the professional interests and industrial expertise of the buyer and hence seek a business opportunity that best suits the client’s skills and capacities. Throughout this process, the broker should enlighten the buyer about the nuances of the business purchase transaction.

The business brokers will often probe about the buyer’s past employment and the aspects of the position enjoyed most by the client. This is important information because with this knowledge, a business broker could best present business opportunities that include similar components to the past employment in order ensure to the buyer’s compatibility with business opportunity presented. A buyer is made aware of the capital intensity of a new business, so that he is prepared to finance unexpected and mandatory capital expenditures, especially if the prospective business involves equipment.

During the client interview the buyer is often informed about the documentation and paper-work he has to be ready with when approaching a business opportunity for purchase. The buyer has to maintain an organized file that should include important facets such as a accounting and financial section, owner questions section, sales section, marketing/advertising section, industry information section, licenses/permits/filings section, legal section, due diligence etc.

For a buyer, the client interview presents an opportunity to gain a certain comfort level from the business broker concerning what lies ahead and how to best be prepared. Information and guidance provided to the buyer in the client interview promotes success down the road by ensuring extreme diligence in understanding the products and/or services offered by each business considered and the competition in the marketplace.

In sum, the client interview sets the stage for each step of the business purchase process that follows. We, at Quantum™ Business Solutions Network, strive to ensure this process is executed in a manner most beneficial to our clients.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Buying a business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.