Our Team of M&A Advisors

Domenic Rinaldi, CBI, Managing Director
Domenic Rinaldi is the President and Managing Partner of Sun Acquisitions. He was awarded the professional designation of Certified Business Intermediary form the International Business Brokers Association and is considered an expert in the field of business brokerage. He is a seasoned executive who brings over 24 years of proven experience in merger/acquisition, sales, service, marketing and operations to the business brokerage arena.

Domenic’s career began at Sprint Corp, where he spent 13 years in sales and operations. As VP of their Hospitality Division he led a national organization to $250 million in annual revenue. His experience as Chief Operating Officer of an e-commerce travel company offered the opportunity to grow a Silicon Valley startup into an international solutions provider. Additionally, Domenic’s small business experience running a New York City technology company gave him first hand knowledge of the challenges facing business owners. It was at this privately held company he learned the business of raising venture capital and driving a small company to profitability, which ultimately resulted in an acquisition.

Domenic is recognized by colleagues and associates as a leader with determination and integrity. He has helped countless business owners develop, execute and maximize their exit strategies. Personally, he has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and started a citywide program serving under-privileged school children.

Jim Cohen, CBI, Director
As a business owner and entrepreneur for over twenty-five years, Jim has bought, sold and operated small to midsized businesses of his own and fully understands the passion and needs of individuals contemplating the sale of their businesses.

Using this wealth of business ownership and transaction experience, Jim helps owners by managing the entire business sale lifecycle while maintaining confidentiality and developing & executing marketing strategies that will maximize the seller’s return on investment. Jim’s vast experience in negotiating and closing transactions while managing coordination with other professional advisors such as attorneys, accountants, financial planners and bankers, helps to ensure the seller’s risks and tax consequences are minimized.

Jim is a proud member of the International Business Brokers Association and holds the Certified Business Intermediary® (CBI®) designation. This designation sets the industry standard within the intermediary community, and provides assurance of professionalism to clients and other key advisors. The requirements to achieve such a coveted designation better prepares those who hold it and offers confidence to others that the skills necessary to achieve success in the marketplace are present. Obtaining the CBI designation speaks volumes about an individual’s knowledge and expertise.

The CBI is awarded to IBBA members who have satisfied the educational requirements and conform to the ethical standards of the association.

Mark O’Brien, Senior Advisor
Mark brings 30 years of manufacturing and distribution management, sales, marketing, operations, engineering and merger transactions experience to the Sun Acquisitions team.

Mark gained extensive manufacturing experience as a cutting tool manufacturing business owner serving aerospace, automotive and woodworking markets. Working through every aspect of the business from engineering, manufacturing, operations, domestic and international sales and marketing, and new product development he gained thorough experience as a business owner. Mark knows firsthand the challenges of selling a privately held business and maximizing value. Mark oversaw the preparation, marketing and negotiation of his manufacturing business and executed a successful and smooth transition to an offshore strategic acquirer. After selling the business Mark worked and traveled internationally in business development for the new entity responsible for integrating cultures, sales and market strategies, and new product development.

Helping business owners restructure and run their business like they were going to sell…Mark spent a number of years in management consulting working with a CPA firm and directly with small business owners defining business visions, developing business and transition plans, implementing plans and managing change.
More recent as General Manager of a local Industrial Distributor Mark gained expertise in distribution, B2B sales and marketing, and supply chain logistics. Under Mark’s leadership the greater Chicago area Industrial Distributor more than doubled in size over a four year period despite the recession by executing a strategy of growth through both organic sales & marketing efforts and business acquisitions. In this capacity he gained more thorough knowledge and experience in the mergers and acquisitions discipline by leading and implementing two acquisitions during his tenure.

Mark earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and an MBA from University of Illinois at Chicago. Mark holds a patent for a special diamond milling cutter used in aerospace composite applications and is actively involved in Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Pat Grandle, Business Development
Chicago business broker Pat Grandle can help you sell a business in Chicago, Illinois and the surrounding area.

Pat brings to Sunbelt a wealth of knowledge and expertise related to small and medium- size companies. Over the past two decades, she has held several sales, marketing and leadership positions and managed several disciplines at a vice presidential and ownership level. This was at a highly successful, family-owned manufacturing company in the mid-west primarily serving the automotive marketplace. She spent her entire professional career at this company until it closed in 2009.

This experience has allowed her the ability to build relationships with high-level personnel and close large deals in heavily competitive environments. Pat has extensive professional, corporate, and sales experience with a specialty in marketing. She first demonstrated her career strengths and critical thinking skills when she obtained a degree in business management and a minor in psychology. She also brings substantial life experience to her work as a business broker, having served the business communities in Mexico and Europe.

Pat has served as a member of several associations including the American Marketing Association (AMA) and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). She was Chair of the Society of Automotive Engineers International Trade Show Committee for two years. In addition, she spent time in the community as Chairperson of the Indian Boundary YMCA and as board member of her home owners association

David Gronski, CPA, MBA
David brings 30 years of diversified management experience and knowledge structuring complex business transactions to the Sun Acquisitions team. He was an integral member of the management team for two of the largest M&A transactions of the time, the Baxter/American Hospital Supply and Kraft/Phillip Morris business combinations. David’s responsibilities ranged from establishing the pre-acquisition deal structure, to execution and management of the financing to consummate the deal, to post acquisition operational business process re-engineering to align the infrastructure of the new company. In addition, he has structured, negotiated and executed over $5 Billion in multinational financing transactions in 11 countries, leading a diverse team of professionals.

Out of David’s 30 years of experience, 18 of them have been within the entrepreneurial arena. As an entrepreneur he has experienced, first hand, the trials and tribulations of taking an idea and making it into a viable, competitive, economic entity. He understands a business owner’s passion for his/hers life’s work and is able to structure a fair transaction that will be equitable to all parties. Recently, as a partner in a real estate development project, David and his team structured a joint venture agreement to fund and build a $1.5 Billion resort in the country of Belize. Before that David structured a settlement agreement with investors and dissolved the operations of a failed 150 unit, mixed use development, on behalf of a developer. Over the last few years, David has been involved with over two-dozen small businesses, structuring transactions, assisting with strategy, business planning and financial analysis. He has a strong work ethic with a focus on results; never confuses efforts vs. results.

David is a CPA and earned his MBA, with Honors from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and his Bachelor of Science, Finance, from Northern Illinois University. In addition, he has earned a certified cash management (CCM) designation.

Kathy Beimfohr, CBI
As a former business owner, Kathy brings extensive knowledge and experience that supports her ability to assist buyers and sellers alike meet their objectives. By understanding the day-to-day challenges that a business owners face, Kathy is able to appreciate the objectives of clients who are contemplating the confidential sale of their businesses.

With over seven years of experience, Kathy has assisted numerous business owners in the sale of their business. In her role as an intermediary, Kathy is able to identify key issues in the process of selling, create marketing strategies that bring results, negotiate offers, and work closely with a client’s advisors such as attorneys, CPA’s and others to help ensure a smooth and successful transaction.

She is a member of the International Business Brokers Association and has been awarded the professional designation of Certified Business Intermediary. This designation is earned through the IBBA who maintains industry standards within the business brokerage industry in order to ensure that professional conduct and ethics is extended to clients at all times. In addition, this achievement certifies the individual as having completed educational coursework designed to develop skills and knowledge that will assist the process.

In a specialized service such as this, Kathy’s attributes her success to upholding professional business ethics at all times, while providing extraordinary client service. Most importantly, Kathy believes in what she does, and recognizes her role as an intermediary to champion, protect, and oversee, the transfer of a very valuable, as well as highly personal asset such as one’s own business.

Selling your business can be the most significant opportunity and challenge you face as a business owner. Many sellers struggle to find the right buyer—and to determine whether an interested party is a qualified lead or a poor investment of time.

Many business owners plan to sell their business alone. They may have received interest from a competitor or other buyer and decide to pursue the opportunity at hand. What they may not realize is that negotiating with one party—especially when that party is a competitor—is not always in the seller’s best interest.

Negotiating with a Competitor

Before we discuss the drawbacks of selling your business to a competitor, it’s important to understand the distinction between a direct competitor and a strategic acquirer. A direct competitor produces a product or service that is virtually identical to yours and competes for the same customers in your target market. A strategic acquirer, on the other hand, may operate in the same market or even call on the same customers, but their products or services are not the same as yours. Other times, a strategic acquirer may offer an identical product but does not operate in the same market space.

Direct competitors have a working knowledge of your industry and a transferable understanding of your products or services and your customers. They know your business and understand the market you serve, what it takes to run smoothly, and which investments of resources and capital to make. They also have their infrastructure, workforce, and operations in place. For this reason, they tend to pay significantly less for the acquisition of your business.

Time and again I have seen buyers pay a premium to knowledge they don’t currently possess. If they don’t require your business knowledge, your business has less value to them. Strategic acquirers, on the other hand, will likely require that knowledge to operate the acquired business successfully. They may also be using this strategic acquisition to augment their existing business, enter into a new market, discover process improvements, and of course, gain clients. Similarly, financial buyers or buyers with no previous experience within your market or industry will absolutely require your knowledge, client list, vendor list, and processes to continue a successful operation. In either case, the buyer has a greater need than your direct competitor and will consider the sale at a higher value. And while a higher value is important, also consider that these buyers pose little to no risk of potential damage to your company should the deal fall through.

Risk Exposure

In addition to short-changing the value of your business, you also open your business to significant risk by selecting a buyer that is a direct competitor. As the deal progresses and you enter further into the due diligence process, your competitor will have access to more and more proprietary information about your business, clients, and operations. And if the deal falls through, that competitor not only has the knowledge that you are for sale but also has unique insights to your business.

While there may have been a confidentiality agreement in place, you are still at risk of a breach or the competitor acting with bad intentions. Consider that a leak of information might be heard by your employees, vendors, and other competitors. Through the due diligence process, you may have disclosed critical information about pricing methodology, client lists, contracts and vendors, management processes, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, marketing strategy, and more. Whether or not you had an operations plan in place before selling your business (and it’s highly recommended that you do), the buyer will likely have figured out these important details.

Negotiating with a Single Buyer or an Employee

There is one key problem when negotiating with a single buyer and that’s the obvious lack of options. While it’s good to have an interested party and worthwhile to pursue it, it’s impossible to know you are getting the best deal when there is only one option on the table.

In some cases, an employee may offer interest in purchasing the company. The challenges with considering an employee buyer are similar to those that arise with a direct competitor. If the deal falls through, the employee may leak proprietary information about the business or announce to others that the business is for sale. They may also become upset with the failed deal and begin exploring other career options. But perhaps even more importantly, the employee may not have the capital to offer the best price, causing you to compromise the value of your business.

Maximizing Your Opportunity

As you consider a buyer for your business, you have to maximize the value that you have worked so hard to create. In most cases, a business with a good reputation and solid financials does not need to sell to a competitor or negotiate with a single buyer. There are almost always other opportunities that an owner may overlook and other potential buyers or private equity firms that may be interested. In order to maximize and understand the true value of your business, you should go to the open market.

A well positioned intermediary or broker who has a deep understanding of the marketplace, business valuations, and deal structures should be able to guide you in the right direction. These professionals can help you navigate all of the opportunities and challenges you face as a business owner and seller and ensure you get the best deal and the best selling price.

Team

Our Team of M&A Advisors

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Selling Your Business: Beware of Competitors and Single Buyers