¿Who is the ideal business partner?

Working with an external partner is an excellent opportunity to accelerate your business plan and opens up a wide variety of considerations that a bank loan may not have.

Do you want to bring in someone with management experience to help lighten your load in that area? If your growth strategy requires entering new markets or territories, would you benefit from the expertise of someone who knows them well?

If you plan to enter a foreign market, what restrictions apply and what freedoms might you have to craft a beneficial agreement that you wouldn't have domestically?

There are strategic investors, purely financial investors, or in some cases, something in between.

Typically, strategic investors are in your market and can bring synergies to your company's operations. For this reason, they are more likely to seek a majority or controlling position and tend to hold their positions for the long term.

On the other hand, financial investors seek to maximize the return on their investments over a period of 3 to 7 years, although this period may be longer in some sectors.

They don't necessarily seek control, as they recognize the value of the founding team, but they can bring best practices that will undoubtedly improve your company's results.

In each case, you can negotiate many of the terms of the shareholder agreement, so be prepared to be as demanding with your new partners as potential investors are with your company.

With the support of Heritage Financial Advisors, you will have the peace of mind of having properly evaluated all options to make the right decisions at the right time and find the the ideal business partner.