Ignoring potential buyers does not protect your business. It only delays the inevitable: selling or disappearing.
The Natural Cycle of Companies
Most companies that reach a reasonable size or become attractive will eventually be sold. If not now, it is likely to happen in ten or twenty years—not because the owners planned it, but because it is the natural evolution of the market.
Very few companies remain in the same family for generations. In my work as an M&A advisor, I speak with entrepreneurs almost every day and hear similar stories: business owners without successors, children uninterested in continuing the family business, or potential successors who are neither prepared nor motivated. Then there are the opposite cases, where too many family members are involved, which almost guarantees conflicts over who inherits and who leads.
Why Many Founders Avoid Talking to Buyers
It is very common for entrepreneurs to avoid interacting with potential buyers. Many feel it is a waste of time, that buyers are only seeking confidential information, or that they are competitors disguised as investors. Others think “it’s not the right time,” that they are too busy growing, or that the business is not yet ready for such a conversation.
Of course, distinguishing between a serious buyer and one who is just exploring the market is not easy. It requires time, judgment, and some effort. That’s why the natural reaction is often to avoid the topic entirely and focus on day-to-day operations. But that attitude, though understandable, can be costly.
Don’t Close the Door Too Early
When a potential investor or buyer approaches you with genuine interest, in my humble opinion, it makes no sense to say, “now is not the time to talk,” or worse, to ignore them entirely.
Of course, you should evaluate who they are, to avoid wasting time with intermediaries or funds merely testing the market. But if the interest is real, you should engage. You may later decide it’s not the right time—and you could very well be correct. The offer may also not be compelling.
But if you wait too long, you risk selling at the worst possible moment: when growth has slowed, competitors have taken market share, the market consolidates, and your company is left as a small player among giants. Or a recession—or a pandemic—may hit. And we’ve seen plenty of strange things happen in recent years, haven’t we?
The Next Great Revolution
The internet was a huge revolution. Mobility was as well. But what is happening now is even more profound. We are facing a total paradigm shift, comparable to the Industrial Revolution, compressed into just a decade.
What is coming goes far beyond what anyone could have imagined. Until now, innovation was still human-driven: brilliant people working at OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Perplexity, Claude, Llama, or Tesla. But very soon, machines themselves will drive innovation.
We will no longer talk about humans creating technology, but about technology improving itself—machines designing, optimizing, and learning without human intervention. And that will change everything.
Robotics + AI = A New Industrial Revolution
Artificial intelligence is already transforming sectors such as services, software, consulting, engineering, and finance. Next, it will reshape the physical world.
Until now, robots could only perform repetitive, highly standardized tasks, useful in automotive or electronics factories but unable to adapt to process changes. That is changing.
In a few years, we will see construction robots that adapt in real-time to different blueprints, autonomous warehouses where machines self-organize, production lines that switch products without human reprogramming, and agricultural robots that harvest, sort, and monitor crops autonomously.
When robotics and AI are fully integrated, the impact will be enormous. Entire industries will need to reinvent themselves—not in fifty years, but in five to ten.
And if your company is not leading that transformation or adapting to it, perhaps it’s time to consider selling.
Always in Sales Mode
Being in sales mode does not mean you have to sell tomorrow. It means keeping the door open, listening, letting buyers show interest, and understanding how they value your company.
You can always say no later. But if you close the door from the start, you lose relationships with strategic buyers, opportunities to sell at the best time, offers with significant premiums, and above all, real information about how the market sees you.
Relationships Are Everything
In many processes I have advised on, a significant portion of potential buyers already knew the selling company. They had reached out years earlier when the company was still small. Even though it seemed too early at the time, the founders always picked up the phone.
They shared information, discussed the market, and even welcomed those competitors or investors into their offices. When the time to sell came, half a dozen buyers were eager to reconnect. The company was now larger, more profitable, stronger, and ready for a transaction.
Those buyers were the first to submit offers, moved quickly, and happily forced us to manage timing with new interested parties who moved much slower. Those who already knew the story had few doubts and were presenting LOIs within days.
When the Right Offer Arrives
If a serious buyer evaluates your business and presents an offer equivalent to fifteen or twenty years of the dividends you’ve been paying yourself, it’s worth taking a moment to consider it.
The best time to sell is when you don’t need to.
By Joshua Novick, partner at Bondo Advisors
Source: https://www.joshuanovick.com/p/siempre-en-modo-venta
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