The Alchemy Group is a Colorado-based management consultancy that has been focusing on insuring the success of small business for more than13 years.
We are entering a new season and the pursuit of a new challenge. Over the next 15 to 20 years, $30 trillion in financial and non-financial assets is expected to pass from the baby boomers — the wealthiest and one-time largest generation in U.S. history — to their heirs. Inter-generational transfers of wealth will create risks and opportunities for small business owners, individual investors and the financial advisory industry.
This so-called great wealth transfer is creating challenges for boomers, their heirs, the business brokerage industry and the financial advice industry. The Alchemy Group is excited to become an important piece of this calculus for Colorado companies.
In 2017, small businesses were a much sought-after commodity, with the number of sales transactions rising more than 26% from the previous year! That report comes from BizBuySell.com, an online marketplace for small businesses that tracks the number of transactions reported by business brokers. The company counted 9,919 sales, up from 7,842 in 2016. In the fourth quarter, sales rose 23% from a year earlier. We feel that this trend is going to continue, if not accelerate.
The “perfect storm” in the industry is the projected steady increase in business sell activity combined with the steady increase in the age of the average business broker – 60. Today, the Business Brokerage Press is projecting a shortage of business intermediaries because the number of business brokers was reduced by the recession – there is one business brokerage firm for every 1,850 existing businesses. This number will only worsen as 60+ year old Baby Boomer business brokers retire.
Interesting statistics:
- The median sales price for companies was up 14% from 2016 at $227,880
- 80% of the brokers surveyed expect the sales momentum to continue in 2018
- Nearly 30% of the businesses sold the last three months of the year were restaurants, bars or other eating and drinking places.
- 3% were manufacturers
- 18% were retailers
- 40% were service providers, in a wide range of industries from hair salons to landscapers to dry cleaners
The Alchemy Group Value Proposition
The Alchemy Group value proposition for our client companies is that we guarantee that we will increase the attractiveness of their company while doubling its valuation.
Business Model
Our business model accommodates companies with less than $1M in revenue with a peer advisory board offering with cohorts of up to 15 diverse companies. Unlike traditional peer advisory boards that would not entertain a company with less than $1M in revenues, we welcome these small businesses. An unlike traditional peer advisory boards that are open-ended, our peer advisory boards have a specific focus on preparing the company for a 3-5 year exit.
Our business model accommodates companies with $1M – $5M in revenue with a more conventional consultancy program. The program targets five areas for improvement:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Operations
- Finance
- Management Team
The Scaling to Exit program features a Corporate Development resource that project manages the program for the client company. It also features experienced fractional resources in each of the target areas.
For all of our client companies, regardless of size, we provide a system for pre-collecting all of the due diligence information required to exploit a sale opportunity. Over the course of our engagement with our client companies, we constantly look for opportunities to streamline the existing process flow for selling a business.
In other words, we want to enable our sellers to get their business “shovel ready” and minimize friction in the sales process.