The Prize or the Prey:
Discover How Private Equity Secretly Views Business Owners And How It Can Swing Your Exit by Millions
Thinking of selling your business in the next 1-3 years?
Excited about retiring or reinventing yourself but nervous about screwing up and missing out on the opportunity to set your family up for life?
Do you know the traps that sophisticated buyers like private equity or strategic acquirers set for business owners and how they snare them into accepting a worse offer or terms than they should by making it look like their only option?
Imagine standing on the precipice of the most significant decision of your life. You’ve poured your heart and soul into building your business, and now, you’re considering an exit.
But you’re expertise is starting and growing a business, your business in particular.
You probably aren’t an expert in selling a business and you don’t know the tricks up the sleeve of sophisticated buyers.
"Am I the Prey or the Prize?"
I’m Nick Bradley and for 10 years I hunted businesses for a living – a very lucrative living. It’s true, I was one of the sharks in the world of Private Equity, using every legal trick in the book to get the upper hand for the firm.
With over 100 acquisitions under my belt and $5 billion worth of deals, I know the playbook like the back of my hand.
Ever seen the Showtime series “Billions” with the lead character Bobby Axelrod, you’ll know who I was, emphasis on “was.”
private equity or strategic acquirers set for business owners and how they snare them into accepting a worse offer or terms than they should by making it look like their only option?
Imagine standing on the precipice of the most significant decision of your life. You’ve poured your heart and soul into building your business, and now, you’re considering an exit.
But you’re expertise is starting and growing a business, your business in particular.
You probably aren’t an expert in selling a business and you don’t know the tricks up the sleeve of sophisticated buyers.
I still play the game, I just switched teams
One night, many years ago, after a particularly brutal negotiation, I woke up in agony. I’d shattered two molars from the sheer stress. That was my first wake-up call.
In the middle of a high-stakes deal, the pressure was immense. Suddenly, it hit me. The strategies I was using on my acquisition targets were affecting people like my father, a small business owner. I imagined someone doing these negotiation tactics and deal terms with my dad, and it made it all too real. I couldn’t be a part of it anymore.
So, I switched sides and began showing small to medium business owners how to be the prize and not the prey.
It’s like when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator character came back as the good guy in T2 and helped protect Sara Connor instead of hunting her. Or when you hire a CPA who used to be an IRS auditor and knows their playbook.
It’s like having an unfair advantage.
But I digress. This isn’t about me anymore.
Now it’s about you...
Are you a business with untapped potential, ripe for the picking, ready to make private equity very happy that they get to reap all of the potential in your business after they buy it?
Or do you run a well-oiled machine that will make buyers start a bidding war to take over your business?
- Are your financials strong, showing consistent growth year over year?
- Do you have a competitive moat that sets you apart from your competitors?
- Are your systems and processes well-documented, allowing your business to run like a well-oiled machine even in your absence?
- Is your team strong, capable, and committed, driving your business towards success?
Or is your business a diamond in the rough, with great potential but lacking the polish that would make it shine?
Are your financials inconsistent, showing potential but also volatility? Are your systems and processes undocumented, making your business heavily reliant on you? Is your team lacking the direction and leadership that would take your business to the next level?
The difference between being the Prize and the Prey can mean a life-changing sum of money.
It’s the difference between walking away from the closing table with your head held high, or with the bitter taste of regret.
Some say that “ignorance is bliss,” and many sellers are blissfully ignorant of how much money they left on the table after selling and never realize that proper preparation could have yielded head-turning results.
Maybe it’s best they never found out how much more money they could have had.
When your business is viewed as “the Prize,” you walk into the negotiation room, confidence radiating from you, you don’t actually need to sell your business, but you will for the right price. You’re in a great position to negotiate.
The buyers can see it too. But if they’re smart (and all private equity folks are) they won’t let you know that you’re the Prize, not a chance. They’re looking for any edge they can get because they know you have the upper hand. (Sometimes in this stage they even act unimpressed. But it’s an act.)
If you’re “the Prey”, the scene is drastically different. You walk into the negotiation room, unsure and apprehensive. The buyers can smell your fear, your uncertainty. They know they can get your business for a bargain, and they’re ready to pounce.
Paradoxically, when this happens, the prey often feels like the prize, they’ll treat you wonderfully, buttering you up with flattery while also delivering the bad news about your lowly valuation yet still offering to take it off your hands.
As a result, you walk away with a fraction of what your business is worth, even worse is when you thank them for it before they celebrate their victory with an extremely expensive dinner and a bottle of rare scotch, on you, of course.
Good news: you have the power to choose your role now.
You can be the Prize, command the respect you deserve, and secure the future you’ve worked so hard for.
And you can avoid being the prey. You can discover their playbook and see their tactics coming a mile away. With ample time to prepare, you’ll be unstoppable.
They’ll see you as a peer, a shrewd business owner who knows their value and expects what’s rightfully yours. Their games won’t work and they won’t risk losing the deal because after all, you’re the Prize.
This is possible even if your business is struggling now, even if it feels like you want out because it’s a headache on its way to heartbreak… it just might require a little more time and a bit of guidance from someone like me who’s been on both sides of the fence.
How I Help Business Owners Become The Prize
When I left private equity I started a company called “High-Value Exit” to help business owners prepare for one of the biggest decisions they’ll ever make.
I use my experience, connections, and playbook in both scaling my own businesses as well as that of portfolio companies to prepare them to be the prize.
The way I help them is either by partnering with them and guiding them through the process one-on-one or through my methodical High-Value Exit group intensives and advisory programs for those who aren’t quite ready for strategic partnership.
When should you seek this kind of help? How soon before you decide to sell?
That depends on how frantic you want your life to be when it gets close to the deal. The truth is a business of substantial size can’t turn on a dime. It takes time to get the systems in place and the people necessary to get yourself into position.
Most of the companies I work with engage me up to 3 years before they decide to exit. It doesn’t always take that long but the sooner you get started, the easier and more effective it will be.
Feeling that you need to explore this further?
If your company is doing between $1 to $10 million a year in profit and you’d like a second opinion on how exit-ready your business is, the time to act is now. The clock is ticking and starting the process early can be worth millions (sometimes tens of millions) of dollars on the day you close and choose your next act.
Don’t be the Prey. Become the Prize, and secure the future you deserve.
Here’s what to do next…
Down below is a free High Value Exit Ready Assessment that only takes 4 minutes of your time.
This produces a report that gives you a score based on several fundamental factors and explains what they mean.
This also qualifies you for a call with me and my team to explain the results of the assessment and see if there is an opportunity for us to work together or not.
You have nothing to lose from a call like this and potentially millions to gain if you are serious about structuring a high value exit in the near term.
Looking forward to talking to you,
Nick Bradley
HighValueExit
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