With 95% of businesses having between 0 and 10 employees, it would be easy for your business opportunity to get lost in the clutter.

How does a business stand out from this clutter and get noticed?

Depending on the size and type of business, it may be possible to make enough noise to be heard above the web din, but that can get very expensive if you adopt a shotgun method such as placing expensive advertisements where you would be buying coverage to reach many people without either the capacity or reason to buy your business.

These critical items should ring warning bells for owners when selling their businesses:

Look how well this M&A Database and Marketing System performs

Sample of $M+ businesses SOLD on the open market

*Average of 52 strategic buyers for each of these $M+ businesses sold on the open market, all within the last 2 years.

Our key strength is our ability to source strategic buyers for $M+ businesses by contacting them direct, while maintaining confidentiality where required.

MNA Direct offers you more with new added value enhancements

Timing can be everything.

Sometimes one direct targeted marketing campaign is not enough to secure a buyer for your client’s business.

You’d be surprised at how many new responses can come from the same target group in campaigns 3 months apart.

• MNA Direct now offers re-runs of COMPLETE targeted marketing campaigns at half price every 3 or more months until sold.
• We’ll also continue to include your opportunity in BASIC direct marketing to the subscriber database for up to 12 months if needed.

Frequent users are eligible for a 20% discount on scheduled prices.

• Only a fraction of the businesses available for sale are actually on the market.
• Approx. 50% of business owners are willing to sell via direct approach from or on behalf of genuine buyers.*
• Many business owners are attracted to a short-circuit process with a single purchaser. It simplifies their exit and makes it easier to maintain confidentiality.
• MNA Direct unlocks business opportunities by bringing vendors forward to the market; attracted by the confidential nature of the process.

* KPMG Family Business Survey 2013

Access the hidden market of owners who will sell but haven’t yet taken action

Who uses MNA Direct and why?

MNA Direct’s clients include the leading corporate advisory firms, business brokers, accounting firms, ASX and overseas listed and private companies, business owners and private investors.

MNA Direct is the most efficient and effective way to identify and contact large numbers of strategic buyers, acquisition targets and investors for businesses in the $1M+ market.

Most businesses in the $1M+ value range will be acquired by strategic buyers. Strategic buyers are those who place the highest value on the business, with the most to gain and the least to risk from the transaction. They are in the best position to leverage a business’s resources, IP and assets. Strategic buyers may include large corporate players in the same or related industries, private equity firms and other buyers with sufficient synergies and financial backing.

This article explains why a combination of 4 marketing methods delivers the best results when marketing business opportunities in the $M+ enterprise value market.

These methods are:

1. Direct approach - narrow based target marketing;

2. Web-based, press or industry publications;

3. Broad based targeted direct marketing;

4. Combination of the above, simultaneously 

The holy grail of business opportunity marketing is to quickly and efficiently reach large numbers of target investors. With the right strategy and resources, this can be far simpler than most advisors expect.

This article sets out some of the alternatives available to marketers of business opportunities.

Target investors are those who place the most strategic value on a business, with the lowest level of associated risk. As a result, they are often more committed to a process, and are likely to pay more than buyers without a strategic interest (i.e. general investors who attach no strategic value and are therefore more focussed on return from a standalone business).

If you rely on web or print advertisements for marketing business sale or acquisition opportunities in the $1M-50M market - you are doing it wrong!

While posting ads and waiting for active buyers/sellers to find and respond to an opportunity may yield mild success in a booming market, it becomes significantly less effective in a slower market when buyer activity is reduced. Today, an active marketing approach is required.

Web marketing, the most prevalent passive marketing option, is best suited to the broader ‘buy-a-job’ market for small businesses (<$1M). In this market, buyers are characterised by their large numbers, absence of strategic focus, low volume of acquisitions (often one per buyer) and relatively short shelf life of time in the market. All of these factors make it pointless to try and maintain a current database of buyers. Web marketing serves as a valuable tool for presenting an opportunity to such a broad and transient market.

 It is important for business owners who intend selling in the future to understand the motivations of prospective purchasers and the dynamics of the markets in which they operate.

Purchasers of businesses for more than $1M have been grouped into broad categories according to their investment strategy and funding mechanism. Many investors are hybrids or combinations of these. Some investment criteria are common to all groups.

The categories are shown discretely to simplify this discussion. 

When a client or colleague asks for advice on selling their business or sourcing acquisition targets, you would normally help them by referring them to those you know are best placed to assist. Without prior experience in the area, referring them on to a suitable advisory firm that will best meet their needs can be quite difficult!

This article contains the key questions you need to ask of any M&A advisory firm.

80% of Australian businesses are privately-owned, with a total value of $3.6 trillion. Family businesses range from small start-ups to $500 million organisations.

Australia’s ageing population has consequences for business. $1.6 trillion worth of family businesses will change hands as baby boomers retire over the next 10 years. 40% of business owners are planning to leave their business in the next 5 years.

50% of businesses owners expect the proceeds from the sale to be the primary funding source for their retirement.

Succession planning is fast becoming a major issue.