Brokers pull both sides of the deal together.

For the best value.

When selling your business, you want to command the highest selling price possible.  You also want assurance that your buyer can and will pay the final agreed-upon figure. You can rest easy knowing that George & Company helps to pull the deal together from both sides, in that we work for our sellers to help the prospective buyers qualify ahead of making an offer.  We regularly work with representatives of national, regional, and local business lenders to provide the best financial services to help put the most money possible into your pocket at the conclusion of the deal.

 

Our team of intermediaries work with your prospective buyers to ensure that they are pre-qualified, which then in turn ensures that you receive qualified, serious offers that are capable of closing. We can assist with asset-based loans, cash-flow business loans, SBA financing, business underwriting procedures, and other financing services.

 

George & Company’s financing services can help ensure that your buyers are taken through the financial process step by step, and we help to pre-qualify them.  We will help build their business financial portfolio and identify their business’ areas of strength and weakness to improve your financing options – all to help with the end goal: getting you the most money.

Loan and Financing Services

You can turn to us and our expert team to make the business financing process easy and work in your favor. This may be the largest single investment or sale of your life. At George & Company, we have a plethora of resources and connections locally to ensure that our clients are taken care of and fully informed throughout the financing process. There are a variety of financing sources for business acquisition loans, and buyers can find one that fills their particular requirements.

Asset Based Loans

What is an asset-based loan?

An asset-based loan is different from a cash flow loan in the sense that the loan is not secured by the amount of cash flow that a business accrues but instead by the company’s assets. This could include real estate, inventory, equipment, accounts receivable (A/R) or other forms of collateral. The loan may be secured by a single asset or a combination of assets. Typically lenders will loan at a 50 to 65 loan to value ratio. This means that if an appraisal value given to a specific asset or combination of assets is $1,000,000.00 a lender would loan anywhere from $500,000.00 (50%) to $650,000.00 (65%) to the borrower.

Who typically receives an asset-based loan?

  • Borrowers with no, little or poor credit.
  • Borrowers with an income that will not sufficiently cover loan payments. These borrowers may have to rely on the loan itself to pay back the lender until the property is either refinanced, sold, or their income increases.
  • Borrowers who can provide little or no down payment on a large commercial transaction, as would otherwise be required, because they are purchasing it under value.
  • Borrowers who may have made a deal with the seller to lend them the remaining balance of the purchase price which would not have been covered by the first position mortgage.

Why get an asset-based loan?

On a short term basis, an asset based loan can provide needed recovery time for financial reconstruction. It is a prime financing choice to facilitate maximum cash flow during a period of down time or fiscal changes. With the utilization of an asset based loan, companies can prove they are worthy of long term financing by making payments on time and by improving their current working and financial operating environments.

 

Asset based loans are often the catalyst of opportunity. When a door opens for a business conventional financing often takes too long to process leaving the company unable to take advantage. Sometimes company resources cannot handle the cost. In this case an asset based loan provides a supreme short term solution that will allow the company to fully take advantage of business opportunities.

George & Company will support your financial decisions

True asset based or “Equity based” lending is easier to obtain for borrowers who do not conform to typical lending standards. We will work with borrowers who may have little or bad credit, they may also have a low level of income to support the loan payments and may even rely on the loan itself to pay back the lender until the business is either sold, refinanced, or their income resumes. This type of loan will also cover the buyer who may have little or no down payment on a large purchase. George & Company believes in your investment and capacity to buy, sell, and operate a successful venture, this loan option is available for the investment that may be considered to be more risky by the financing institution, but we back your cause and support your investment.

 

 

When financing a business timing is critical. Having the proper contacts and connections to guaranty the best rates and loan structure quickly and efficiently is imperative to a successful financing package. We will work with you to professionally pre-qualify you before making any offers. We will build your portfolio to have your information on hand at all times for quick reference as well as identify weaknesses and areas for improvement in your financing options

Cash-Flow Loans

What is cash flow?

Cash flow is the amount of money spent and received by a business during a specific period of time or for a specific project or product. Cash inflows (how money is coming in) are usually acquired through operations, investments, and financing. Cash outflows (how money is going out) usually result from investments or expenses.

What is a cash flow business loan?

A cash flow loan is typically an amount of money borrowed in order to operate business effectively on a day-to-day basis. They are generally short-term and used to support seasonal changes in the company, expansion, operations, financing an acquisition or merger, or aiding a slow business cycle.

 

A bank secures the cash flow loan based on the cash flow history of the borrowing company or through collateral. To ensure repayment the bank will provide a loan based on company variables such as the total debt, enterprise value (EV), interest coverage ratio, or the Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) metric used to determine the profitability of a company.

Why get a cash flow business loan?

It is important for a company to maintain its cash flow in order to pay for expenses, operations, investments, and employees in a timely manner. If there is a problem financing a merger or acquisition, or if there is a slow or changing business cycle a cash flow loan can temporarily aid the process and keep business running smoothly.

 

A cash flow loan can also help with the management of everyday cash flow such as improving the company’s cash conversion cycle, meaning turning over inventories faster, getting customers to pay, or improving vendor payment terms.  A cash flow loan can be that little extra that makes big things happen. George & Company will help your business determine what financing solutions will work best for to fit its individual needs and goals.

SBA Loans

What is the Small Business Administration (SBA)?

SBA (Small Business Administration) financing is available for small business owners across the United States. The Small Business Administration was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the US federal government “to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.” – From the official SBA website, www.sba.gov

 

The SBA was established to provide American entrepreneurs a starting ground where they could find financial aid or sound advice and guidance when building or growing their businesses. The SBA works with an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations across the nation to meet the needs of people in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

How does the SBA provide financing?

The SBA does not provide loans directly (with an exception to Disaster Recovery Loans), but instead guarantees the access of certain loans and resources for small business owners through its partnership and affiliation with thousands of lenders, banks, and organizations across the United States. George and Company can help business owners address their options using the SBA as a resource.

Business Underwriting

What is Business Underwriting?

Business underwriting refers to several different procedures depending on where and what business is being conducted. If a person goes to a bank or a private lender, underwriting refers to the detailed credit analysis and risk assessment performed before granting a loan, insurance, mortgage, equity capital, etc. The credit analysis would be conducted based on the borrower’s credit information including variables like salary, employment history, financial statements, credit history, lender evaluations, etc.

 

Business underwriting can also refer to the purchase of corporate bonds or government securities and can be termed security underwriting, insurance underwriting, forensic underwriting, or real estate underwriting. Each refers to a similar process of assessing a borrower’s risk or potential to receive or pay for a loan, security bond, real estate, insurance

 

George & Company can untangle the often complicated process of underwriting and make sure that your bank or lender has the proper information and documents to conduct a thorough credit analysis and risk assessment of your business. George & Company  will work with you and your lenders to ensure that whether you are selling your business, developing your business, or purchasing a business you get the financial support you need and deserve.

Escrow Services

Business Broker Escrow Basics

Escrow is a simple system whose complexity is dependent on the interested two parties, taking on the form of conditions, with the business broker wearing the hat of the escrow agent usually having suggestions to both parties about what conditions should be established. Once the conditions are set, the buyer deposits a payment into the escrow account (usually a portion of the payment for purchase of the business). Once conditions are met and closing paperwork has been signed, the funds in the account are turned over to the seller or other parties as stipulated in the escrow agreement.

George & Company and CMES

George & Company is a division of Central Mass. Escrow Services, Inc., (CMES). In addition to providing Merger & Acquisition, business brokerage and business financing services, CMES was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1986 as an escrow agent to provide corporate and personal escrow services, corporate collateral services, business and personal escrow and performance guarantee escrows. Our roles can include Escrow agent, Disbursement agent and Paying agent for real estate and business transactions, online purchases of larger ticket items such as cars, boats, motorcycles, collectables and other items having value, etc.

 

We can serve as a sole, dual or third party fiduciary as required by the client. Client funds are typically placed in non-interest bearing accounts per the client’s needs. Longer term escrows can also be placed in interest bearing accounts to the benefit of a designated beneficiary. Our fees are negotiable relative to the scope of the assignment and can be a low as one cent per dollar of the transaction depending on the complexity of the escrow. Please call 508-753-6228 or write escrowclient.com for a quotation.

George & Company Agency

Unlike real estate brokers, M&A advisers and business brokers do not usually work as dual agents. Our fiduciary relationship is exclusive to the party who engages our services. If we are engaged by a buyer or seller, we owe that fiduciary duty only to the person or company who hired us. While our expansive agency services make us experts at all aspects of acquisitions, our alliances are purely with our client. We also offer escrow services through our parent firm Central Mass. Escrow Services, Inc. (CMES), a licensed and bonded escrow corporation duly organized and in good standing in the Commonwealth of MA since 1986. CMES provides services similar to an attorney’s IOLTA account. We also offer funds transfer services on a global basis and act as a fiduciary for client and customer funds.