What We Do
Our primary purpose is to help privately-held Middle-Market business (those worth between $1 and $50 million) to sell their businesses.
That’s just what you’d expect from a middle market business broker. But, we’re not business brokers by the strict sense of the term. We are Merger and Acquisition Advisors… and, even then any simple description falls short of describing what we do.
We have a well-defined 5-phase process for Selling a Business. What makes us successful, though, isn’t our selling process as much as it is our philosophy about working with business owners.
Back to Our Roots as Iowa Farmers
Kris and Eric have strong Iowa farming backgrounds. Eric’s father and grandfather were both farmers, and Kris’ family were farm owners.
When you think of an Iowa farmer, you’ll likely conjure up the image of an honest, down-to-earth person who understands the importance of his reputation. He’ll tell you what he thinks, and is a savvy businessman who thrives on hard work and integrity.
Buyers, lenders, and the CPA’s and Attorneys with whom we work understand this about us. They trust us, and not just because we’re from Iowa. They trust us because they know that we’ll always give a fair and accurate presentation of your business.
Kris helped us to stay focused on growing and running our business, as he systematically organized all the information, attracted prospective buyers, and negotiated the deal calmly and honestly. He’s ethical, hard working, and his insistence on transparency is a major factor in keeping both buyers and sellers honest. ~ Bob Pietila, Corporate Identity Systems
What this means for you, as someone selling a business, is that your Buyer will spend less time scrutinizing the minutia, and more time fighting for the right to buy your business. That’s one value of straight talk – it cuts down on the haggling and brings in more qualified and interested buyers.
Throughout our website, you’ll see us refer regularly to “transparency.” We believe this is the key differentiator that enables us to sell almost all businesses when we implement our 5-phase process.
What Does Transparency Mean For You?
- No sales pitch. You’ll understand how your business will be valued and sold. You won’t get a sales pitch, but instead will receive an honest and fair assessment and analysis.
- Fair and equitable offers. Bowman/Hanson is known in the industry for our fair and accurate presentations of businesses. Because they know we won’t misrepresent the potential, they will be less inclined to lower the price.
- Smooth selling process and deal close. The due diligence process is exhaustive and deep. Many deals fail because the broker oversells (or even misrepresent), or is not prepared and the deal falls through once the Buyer discovers the discrepancies. Our preparation, along with our honest and transparent approach eliminates these issues.
Learn and Prosper
We’ve listed below the key pages on this website that will help you to understand how we go about valuing and selling your business. Each M&A Advisor only works with four or so businesses each year, so we’re naturally selective.
But, really… the best way to know if we’re the right people to help you is to meet in person. Call us or use the quick contact form on the right and we’ll get in touch with you. You can also click on the “Contact” link at the top to give us more information about you and your business.