If you are a business owner and have been pondering when to sell your business, then this article is a "must read" for you. I will share with you some of the reasons why 2010 is shaping up to be the dream year for business sellers, and why you might not get another year like 2010 for years to come.
Someone once quipped, "I'd rather be lucky than good." Often "luck" has to do with the right timing. As a professional business intermediary, I believe that a number of factors are in play to make 2010 the right time to sell a company. As 2010 began, economic tides were rising somewhat. And, a rising tide will raise all ships (companies may be more valuable in 2010).
Economic Confidence is Growing
According to the November National Economic Report by KeyValueData, the economic recession plaguing the U.S. economy for the past two years finally appears to have ended. On October 20, 2009, the Commerce Department announced that the U.S. economy grew during the third quarter of 2009. This was a rise for the first time in more than a year, signaling a conclusion to the worst U.S. recession in 70 years.
More recent data suggest that the rebound was not quite as strong as originally thought, however. In revised estimates released on November 24, the Commerce Department said that GDP actually rose by 2.8% for the third quarter. The main factors behind the downgrade from the original report, according to the Department's analysts: consumers did not spend as much as thought, commercial construction was weaker, the nation's trade deficit was more of a drag on growth, and businesses trimmed their inventories significantly. The import of the new figures therefore was both positive and negative. "The good news," said the Associated Press "is that the economy finally started to grow again... The bad news is that the rebound, now and in the months ahead, probably will be lethargic."
(Author's observation: A lethargic rebound may help eliminate another "bubble" that would be sure to "burst.")
Stocks started off 2009 in dismal shape. But by late March a turnabout had begun. These positive trends continued throughout the spring and summer with the result that, by mid-June, the Dow-Jones Industrials Index entered positive territory for the year for the first time since January. Stocks largely moved sideways for a time, but October proved to be highly positive, as the Dow reached the coveted 10,000 mark for the first time since October 2008. Then, in early November, the Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ indices all rose, achieving year-long peaks. The Dow closed 2009 at 10,428.05.
Rebound in Business Activity
U.S. industrial production rose by 0.7% in September, representing a third straight monthly gain. For the third quarter as a whole, output climbed at an annual rate of 5.2%, the first quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2008 and the largest increase since the first quarter of 2005. U.S. manufacturing output also advanced by 0.6% during August and subsequently rose by 0.9% in September. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis further reported that corporate profits from current production rose by $67.6 billion in the second quarter of 2009 following a $59.1 billion jump for the first quarter.
View article on one page