Galliard Family Business Advisor Institute

Buy-Sell Agreements

Setting Sail/Sale!

The 5 Elements of Successful Acquisitions

Jake was so excited—an offer had come across his desk, by way of his attorney, that fulfilled most of his wishlist! The investor company said all the right things: they believed in the mission and vision, wanted to keep the employees in place and would keep the business operating from the small town where Jake was born and raised. His Dad had given his life to this business and while Jake wasn’t as willing to devote his every waking moment to Sandstone Industries, at least he wanted to see his father’s legacy live on.

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Fallout: Protecting the Family Business Through a Divorce

6 strategies for creating a new path forward

I walked into Dan’s office on a bright spring morning expecting to hear about his recent ‘wins’ with his new hiring strategy. Instead, I found Dan, the CEO of a small family business and a long-term client, sitting in the dark, the shades pulled and his head in his hands.

He asked me to shut the door and silently motioned for me to take a seat beside his desk. “Sally and I have decided to split. We’ve been trying to make this marriage work for years and I guess we’re just too tired to do it anymore.”

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Buy-Sell Disagreements

Avoiding the pitfalls and finding peace of mind

The title of this article doesn’t sound quite right, does it? The purpose of buy-sell agreements is to provide peace-of-mind for shareholders. In theory, these “agreements” should provide relatively easy business transitions from one shareholder to another.

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The 6 Elements of a Valuation Process Buy-Sell Agreement

Getting specific to crack open the conversation

A “valuation process” buy-sell agreement is an agreement that stipulates the process for determining a value of the business. This differs from a fixed price agreement, which states the dollar value of the business right in the agreement; a formula agreement, which states a formula for valuing the business (X times annual sales, for example); and a shotgun agreement, where one person has a right or obligation to buy (or sell) at a some price, and the other party has the right or obligation to sell (or buy) at that same price.

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