If you are selling your business, there are contrarian buyers out there, that is buyers that are deliberately looking for business that can be acquired for less than “fair” shall we say. They are looking for businesses that are NOT in good shape, have NOT been looked after, that may need surgery to make them as good as they can be. Yes there are buyers out there that like these types of opportunities, and they are aggressive in their valuation of your business – Why?

Because there is risk…

There is risk, as they see it, that returns will either stagnate, or otherwise decline or disappear…a higher risk. as they see it, than if profits were substantial and growing. Further there is likely to be investment required to be able to make it the best it can be.

If a contrarian buyer is all you can attract to your business you have a problem…less competitive tension around the sale of your business, and a higher likelihood of you accepting a lower price than you would like to.

But fortunately for you there are LESS contrarian buyers than other buyers. Your job is to make your business too expensive to contrarian buyers (and justifiably so) and make your business more attractive to mainstream buyers…but even then you may not appreciate how today’s mainstream buyer thinks …. more on this later.