In 2020, I formed the Valenus Group with the intention to acquire and merge successful businesses in the healthcare industry in Germany. I recruited a small team of advisors and business partners, as well as external advisors who support me along this journey.
Since then, I talked to hundreds of business owners, I submitted a dozen of LOIs, have looked at a handful of companies in the due diligence. I agreed to a binding LOI in late 2021 when suddenly mandatory vaccination for healthcare personnel was introduced in late 2021. Then, a first deal fell apart as key employees suddenly left the company. I paused the entire venture for over a year. In 2023, I continued pursing deals with Valenus Group and quickly found an excellent dental laboratory in South Germany. We agreed on fair terms, but the deal ultimately failed in late 2023 due to a huge delay in the financing, which ultimately came down to a high dependency on the current owner of the business.
I learned a couple of things in this painful self-funded search and process:
- Most small businesses are unsellable as they are too dependent on the owner, which makes it either too risky for a buyer and/or too risky for the financing bank.
- Most small business owners have unrealistic asking prices, as they project most of the potential value of their business into the future.
- Many business brokers in Germany are unprofessional intermediaries which are great at talking and creatively adjusting the EBITDA but do too little to get the deal done.
- The tax code in Germany is preventing many successions and deals by making seller’s financing largely unattractive.
- The process to find a truly great business takes at least 10x longer than anticipated.
As I self-funded this entire process, I unfortunately have to call 2023 a big failure for myself. Yet, I am not giving up. I have greatly enjoyed the process, and I find great joy in the deal-making process. I am more actively than ever looking for promising deals in very specific niches in the health/technology industry in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Doing deals is certainly something I want to keep doing until I die.
Yet, coming close to the depletion of my personal resources to self-fund my search any further, I realized that I can add a lot of value. By helping business owners optimize their business so that – instead of having an unsellable business – they have an attractive, growing, and future-proof asset they can sell at their desired price.
That is why I am announcing the founding of ReadySell, a succession consultancy and agency focussed on maximizing company value for a successful and guaranteed exit within 3 years.
I will bring in everything I have learned over the past 3 years, combine it with my unique know-how and skills when it comes to growth, innovation, recruiting, and sales to help business owners secure their succession.
Going on, I focus on ReadySell while actively continuing the search for Valenus Group. To avoid any conflicts of interest, ReadySell will not accept clients from the healthcare industry, unless agreeing upfront on a potential exit to Valenus Group.
If you want to learn more about the ReadySell Method I have developed or if you are interested in selling your business, please contact me personally.
