Sell Your Company in 150 Days – Part 9: Execution of Legal Documents

Stage 9: Execution of Legal Documents

ECP Ventures offers a disciplined, diligent, structured 10 Stage 150 Day sales transaction process for business owners to sell their businesses with sell side M&A representation.

This stage is the culmination of an extremely effective and proficient process. All of the parties are in lockstep as the final transaction documents are drafted. There should not be any contentious or ambiguous matters remaining at this stage.

A Seamless Process

All of the participants including the buyers and seller's attorneys have been on weekly cadence calls the past month. The open tasks list has been contracted down to the transaction documents and schedules. Many find the preparation and completion of the agreement schedules to be painful and problematic and even trigger delays in closing.

That is never the case with us. Since we have taken an open books and records full transparency approach there is never a challenge over the schedules. Many brokers tell their clients that selling their company will be "easy" for the seller and that they will do all of the work. We never tell a client that. We are honest with them and tell them that it will be hard work and that we will need their help during certain stages of their offering. This is one stage where we need their help. Our clients possess all of the history of their company and they have access to their staff and reporting systems.

Painfully Organized

We illuminate them as to what is required on the schedules and what they are representing and warranting through the transaction documents. We also instruct our clients to prepare the most difficult schedules first and save the easiest for last. This method aligns much better with the fatigue curve and clients love finishing it out on the easy side.

Our firm leads the task and timeline management as well as ensuring absolute clarity on document control. We establish file name conventions and track every redline version as well as ensure that all open comments and questions are addressed in a very timely manner.

We have been told that we are "painfully organized" and we take that as a compliment. When participants are organized and timely they gain a sense of accomplishment and enrichment instead of distraction and frustration. We keep everyone on point for both sides and that leads to a very successful joint effort.

Ready for Closing

We strive to have all documents signed by both parties three days before the actual closing and put in escrow. A final funds flow statement with wiring instructions is provided to all parties.

Our goal is to have a tension level of zero as this stage concludes.

We are a 100% successful efforts firm so all services described above are performed with zero cost and zero risks to our clients.