A business owner friend, in the process of selling his business, told me how frustrated he was with the deal and especially the buyer.
The buyer looked at it as a transaction not a partnership. The buyer kept attacking with strategies costing the seller large amounts of unnecessary tax and asking for impossible conditions.
Buying a business is not like buying a car, a refrigerator, or even a house. In all of these cases once the money transfers it’s over. With a business there’s an ongoing relationship, usually from a few months to years (at least as long as any deferred payments to the seller).
Buyers should want to make the seller happy. To have the seller tell the customers and employees they’re in good hands. To have the seller tell all his industry friends what a great gal the buyer is so when they decide to sell, guess who will be their first call.
It’s not about winning the battle (the deal), it’s about not losing the war (the future operations).
