[EP 029] Start Up To $60M – Greg Savage on Fast Growth, Acquisitions, IPOs and Management Buyouts (Part 2)

Hi, it’s Joanna Oakey here and welcome back to The Deal Room Podcast, brought to you by our commercial legal practice Aspect Legal.

Welcome to part two of our exciting two-part series with Greg Savage of The Savage Truth. In part one, we introduced you to our powerhouse guest who had a lot to share about his own experiences in the sales and acquisitions space, as well as a great perspective from the coalface on multiple different methods of business exit.

We heard his story relating to the growth of his very first company from being a start up business to being a 60-million dollar company while surviving the 1990 recession. So any of those business who are suffering some tough times, Greg’s discussion in part 1 here is a really good booster in terms of what is available to you as a business owner.

We then talked about his experiences in an IPO, and we discussed how to optimise growth through acquisitions. And then we closed part one with some great discussion on that ultimate tricky area, earn outs.

So, if you missed part one of this series, don’t forget to jump back and listen to it after this episode.

But for now, keep listening as we dig deeper into Greg’s coalface experience in engineering a management buy out. We also talk about some key concepts Greg has learned in the M&A space – what has changed over the years in the way he approaches acquisitions and the brutal truths he has to offer from his encounters in this area. And finally, we wrap things up by running through a list of things that you ought to consider when getting ready for exit.

So, let’s get started!

Engineering a Management Buy Out

Joanna: One of the things that I loved when I was looking at your bio is you have so many elements there that touch on the different types of exit.

Quite often I think when business owners are looking at this concept of what does the end look like for me or what is the exit plan, it can become confusing considering many of the different types of exits.

You’ve talked about a listing here. You’ve talked about acquisitions and in your experience after you left your listed company, you then ended up in an organisation that you then participated in a management buy out of. Is that right?

Greg: Yes. So what happened there was I think I took a year. I was very lucky because I was about 40 or something. I felt I’d worked hard and all the rest.

I took a year off into being 18 months and went travelling with my family in Europe. We had another child, my son. I was at home for the first year of his life which is a magnificent benefit to me and my wife and to him, I tell him. He’s 17 now.

And then I was approached to join this company called Aquent.

Aquent is an American business based out of Boston and is the largest recruiter of marketing digital staff in the world. It had 40 offices in America at that time. They had five outside America and I was given the job of what they call International CEO. But in American speak that means everything outside America.

Joanna: Right.

Greg: It was actually quite a small job but I liked it because it wasn’t anything to do with accounting and finance. They had a different attitude to the way they treated candidates which was ahead of its time.

I was going to run offices that included Australia but also New Zealand, Singapore and Japan. So I like the thought of that. I actually worked with that organisation for 10 years and it was a brilliant sort of ride. It was from 2001 to 2008 was the first stanza of that story.

We grew those five offices to 35 offices. I opened offices in another 30 cities around the world. A chunk of those would have been by acquisition. We made at least four acquisitions in London to grow our business there and we opened offices in some places you may not have even heard of.

We have five offices in Japan. We were in Taipei. We were at three offices in China. We were across Europe, India. It was a brilliant ride and the revenues grew from like 20 million, less 10 million to 100 million outside of America. That was great and I began to almost believe that I was pretty damn good at all this.

What actually happened, which was a very good slap in the chops for me, was in 2008 when the Lehman Brothers and everything went pear shaped and the world went into recession, particularly in markets like the UK.

Our revenues drop and that was okay because I dealt with that before, but it exposed that we weren’t nearly as good a company as I thought we were.

Don’t get me wrong. Aquent is a magnificent company and was then and is now. But the business I had built had flaws that when you’re doing well you either choose not to see or you don’t see, such as our relationships with clients weren’t as strong as we thought, our management in some place.

I’m not saying it’s easy but if you’re in a rising market and you do solid work, your business can look very impressive. It’s how you can manage in times of strife which of course exposes a lot of people. It’s true of life as well.

Some of our staff weren’t as good as we thought. Some of our technologies weren’t as good. So it was tough times.

I would say it was humbling. I mean I was still the CEO of a very successful business. We still were profitable but we had to close some offices and I hadn’t done that for many many a year. We had to do some difficult things and we did. We righted it and away we went.

But then Aquent and myself, we agreed that some of the markets they were in didn’t fit their long term plan and some of the sectors they were in. Anyway, it allowed us the opportunity to engineer a management buyout which we did with Aquent’s full support. Don’t get me wrong. They ended up being a minority shareholder in this new company called Firebrand which was 10 offices in eight countries.

Let me tell you that is a difficult thing because on day one I was the CEO of Aquent. On day two I was the CEO of Firebrand which had no branding, no history and had 10 offices in eight country which sounds big. But let me tell you, we only had about 150 staff at our biggest.

So we were actually a small business spread across a lot of geography including countries as far different as England, France, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong and Singapore and Australia. So very diverse. Some of them don’t even speak in English.

So the challenges of building a brand and managing people across those geographies was hard when you didn’t have the resources that I used to have at Aquent, because we were now a start up I guess in a way.

However, our planning was hey the market’s gone back 40 percent. Let’s create this new company and what we might perceive to be the bottom of the market. Let’s do a great job and ride the market’s recovery was our plan.

Did it work? 50 percent it worked. It worked but I could see three years later that for me to achieve everything would be another five years. I was already in my 50’s and I thought you know what this business is great but let me sell it to somebody else who can work those five years while I go do something else. That’s what I did.

I mean I was the majority shareholder so I sold the business. That business still continues on in Australia very successfully and all staff kept their stuff and their jobs weren’t at risk. So that was quite a good exit.

Financially, it wasn’t our big dream but it was fine. And the time was right.

Joanna: And were you one of these sellers that you talk about who believed the business was worth more than you could convince the buyer of?

Greg: I was pragmatic at that time. I was wise and I had my own agenda. I was very concerned not only about the financials as much as the retention of all the staff who had come with me on that journey that I wanted to end up in the right place. So I would say by far a greater degree that that happens. So that was good.

What Experience Taught Me About Acquisitions

Joanna: There’s quite a history of M&A activity there. Obviously, through your background that we’ve just heard. What do you think has changed over time in your approach or your feelings and understandings of acquisitions from say the first acquisition or two through to where you are today?

Greg: Acquisition is like a courting relationship. It’s got to be equal. There has got to be interest from both sides. So to answer your question, I am far quicker to walk away from things that I know I can see the signs early on – tire kicking, lack of sincerity.

People are going to be a pain in the arse afterwards. There’s no point. And maybe they feel the same but that’s all good.

Whereas before it was like oh we’ve got to make this work. Let’s brush it all under the carpet. The seller is a bit of a dick but he’ll be better once we – no. If he is a dick, he is a dick. You’re not going to change that and you’ve got to work with that person and they’ve got to come into your business, interact with your staff and maybe manage your staff. I think you can run a ruler over things.

It’s much more I would say rigid but it’s more robust. I think that’s important. I think as I touched on before putting much more into the potential for misalignment and coming up with the brutal truths. You know what it’s really like, so what is your role really going to be here. Will you be on the management team? We will value your input but no you will no longer actually have the final say.

Maybe you need to actually say that and say that we would never just come in and just say hey. We would always be brought in and your point of view would be the same as any other manager here that if they argue a case strongly we can adjust our point of view.

But at the end of the day, when you sell your business, what a lot of people don’t realise is you no longer own your business. You can’t have my money and also make the decisions. Sometimes I say to people. So there’s that part of it.

On the other side of the fence, when you have people coming to court you to buy your business, which happens if you create a business of value, then I think I’ve learned not to be seduced by anything. When someone pays attention to you, you want more of it.

For example, I was in a board meeting the other day where an approach was made and people say oh wow we should hear this. And I said are we willing to sell? They said well, at a price we are. I said what’s that price? And they named this big number and I said do you think any company would pay that? And they said no. I said well why would we waste their time and ours getting a little bit excited. It’s just a little bit of self-satisfaction. We shouldn’t do it.

I think that bit of maturity is good. Let’s walk away. If we are seriously thinking about, well let’s go into it with that frame of mind. So I think that’s changed.

I think the other thing is I’m very clear on the factors. I think what I say to people is recruitment companies, not all companies, but recruitment companies. I can only speak about what I know are typically valued on a multiple of EBIDs and that we know.

But what the buyer is really buying is the certainty of future profits. And therefore I look at those risk factors. Right? So the business mix. It would be very unlikely that I’d ever buy a business that was all permanent recruitment which is one off revenue.

I would look at the annuity revenue. I would look very closely at the succession team. In other words, Fred and Mary are selling their business. They’re staying with us for two years. But how much of the business rely on those two? And who are the next to the second tier of management? How strong is that? Because they are the people we’re going to live with.

I would look at the rigor around just the way the business is conducted. It’s clean business structure. If it gets too hard to understand, which is really a business expense and which is paying the nanny in France, then it’s too hard sometimes.

I mean you can buy things and you do but sometimes it’s very complicated. Obviously the growth potential is looked at, the niche and specialisation. What does this business bring us apart from revenue that we could do? Have they got some special assessment techniques that are good for us? Do they have a reasonable footprint that we want? Do they have access to clients that we can then sell our other services to?

Those are all the things that you need to look at which will impact what you’re prepared to pay. But also whether you’re prepared to buy it at all. I do find people get very much romanced by the thought of adding big chunks of revenue. They don’t risk.

Joanna: Sounds to me like your experience has been over time that you’ve become perhaps less emotional about each purchase. Certainly I see in businesses that haven’t been involved in a lot of M&A deals, there’s a higher level of emotion and wanting to get the deal done quicker. But also that you’ve become far more strategic in terms of how those acquisitions, who those acquisitions will be of and how they would be made.

Greg: Yeah, I think so. I think Joanna experience, painful experience, teaches you that and I do think sometimes I annoy my younger colleagues who perceive me as being a bit of a buzzkill sometimes because I often say. Really? Do we really want an office in Adelaide? I love Adelaide but what’s the upside in our industry? And if we’re going to have an office in Adelaide, that’s a lot of investment of time and management time and training and money. Wouldn’t it be better if we just invested by hiring six more people in Sydney? And they look at me and they go he’s really a pain in the arse. He’s right. But he’s a pain in the arse. But that comes from having done that wrong so many times.

We just need to be pragmatic. You need the voice of reason because acquisitions obviously cost a lot of money. You got to ask yourself the question are we going to pay four million dollars for this business? Or let’s make it a smaller number. Are we going to pay a million dollars for this business? What else could we do with a million dollars to grow our business? I mean we could spend it on the races, but what else could we do with the million dollars?

We could hire a lot of people. We can invest in technology. Would that give us a quicker and better and safer return?

Those are the sorts of sensible questions that need to be asked. And the answer might be yes they could but we will never get into this crucial market of marketing in Melbourne and we need to do that as part of strategy. Okay, in that case, maybe a million dollars well spent as long as all the other criteria stack up.

I see some crazy acquisition deals. I see some crazy prices paid for business. I can almost tell them how much they’re going to lose in my industry I mean just because I know it. But I’ve also seen some very positive deals done that have enhanced the careers and the financial position of a lot of people which of course is good.

When you sell your business, what a lot of people don’t realise is you no longer own your business. - Greg Savage #TheDealRoomPodcast Click To Tweet

Let’s Take a Break

Let’s take a short break. When we get back, we’ll talk about why the excitement in M&A transactions very rarely live up to the dream. Then we close this series by carefully identifying the key things that you ought to consider in getting ready for exit – whichever type of exit you may choose.

And that’s next! This is Joanna Oakey, and you’re listening to The Deal Room – a podcast brought to you by Aspect Legal.

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Welcome Back

Welcome back! Earlier, we heard Greg’s story – how he engineered a management buy out and the insights that came with that experience. We also talked about the changes Greg has adopted over time in his approach in doing acquisitions based on lessons learned and gathered from having done and seen it happen many times over.

Now, let’s jump back into our conversation with Greg and talk about some tough observations he has made about the realities in the M&A space. Then we wrap things up by running through the key elements that you ought to consider in getting ready for exit – whichever type of exit you may choose.

“Due Diligence Will Kill You”

Joanna: I saw this comment by you “Due diligence will kill you,” which made me laugh. I thought that was quite funny. But maybe if you could talk to us a little bit about what you meant by that, that due diligence will kill you. Obviously, you’ve had some fun experiences with due diligence.

Greg: Well what I meant by that is if you’ve got all sorts of, was being funny structures running through your business, if you bullshitted the buyer out of your margins and your client breath and the number of assignments and revenue you got from, it will all come out in the due diligence.

In my industry, which is dominated by people who are very good at selling, I like to say yes you sell but (and of course you sell the future and the growth and everything else and yourself), but there is no point in sort of exaggerating the reality. Because if they do a proper due diligence. And I’m not talking about a financial due diligence only. I’m not talking about going through the PNL and all that. I am talking about that but I’m also talking about what I do with due diligence of a recruitment company that I’m going to buy. I’m looking at the top 50 clients, every transaction, what the actual fees were.

So I really know the quality of the business. If somebody does a good due diligence and you’ve been gilding the lily, they will find out and the thing will fall over. I’ve seen that happen multiple times.

“Most Transactions Disappoint All Parties”

Joanna: You also comment that “The brutal truth is that most transactions disappoint all parties.” I think we get a flavour of why you say that from some of the experiences you’ve shared, but it seems like a fairly tough comment.

It sounds like you’ve obviously seen a much larger number of transactions disappoint parties than have fully succeeded. But what do you mean by that? Can you drive into why they disappoint the parties?

Greg: I’ll tell you in a minute. But I also just want to make this point to you. My expertise is in the recruitment industry, I also got many investments like most people in the share market. I keep an eye on what all these companies are doing. And let me tell you, the majority of their acquisitions are fuck ups. It is not easy. Didn’t NIV lose most of their business by making an acquisition in the UK?

In almost any company riddled with historical examples so I’m not some doomsayer who is negative about acquisitions. I’m just the guy who’s been around long enough to know that the excitement very rarely lives up to the dream.

When you ask me, what do I mean? I mean that the stakeholders, there are typically three, four or five stakeholders in a transaction like this. There’s the buyer. There’s a seller. There’s the staff. There’s the candidates and there’s the clients. Let me leave candidates and clients out. If you like I can replace them with one word, customers for any business.

So the buyer often is disappointed by how much they have to spend how much management time it takes to integrate that acquisition. They are often disappointed by the effort, the collaboration and the ethic of the sellers and they are often disappointed (even if those things are okay) by the predicted revenues. And they are often disappointed about the so-called economies that are going to be made with an acquisition. You know we’re going to save money by putting these two businesses together so that’s where the disappointments come on that side.

For the vendor, they’re often disappointed because the earn out is painful. They’re often disappointed because they don’t make as much as they thought they would. They are often disappointed because the buyer doesn’t deliver on all their promises. They’re often disappointed because their role isn’t as exciting as they thought it would be. They’re often disappointed because they’ve now lost control of and having run their own business for 20 years that they forgot how important it was for them to be the boss.

For the staff it can be tremendously disappointing because they are wedded to an employer. When the transaction takes place they have a new employer and that means there might be differences in the way they’re paid. There might be differences in culture. There might be differences in roles. They might have some of their colleagues let go. Plenty of things can go wrong.

And for the customer, well often service levels can drop because of the distraction of an acquisition.

Now each and every one of those things has the other side of the coin where it can go great. And there are many examples of people’s careers that have taken over where where one and one has made three as I’ve said before and everyone’s been happy and I’ve been involved in quite a number of those.

But I stand by my statement that the cruel reality is most acquisitions do not deliver on what people hoped.

Joanna: I guess then the message then for organisations who are looking at this concept of acquisition as a growth strategy is to get less emotional about it and sit down and work through each of these areas that you’ve talked about to head off issues before they arise.

Greg: Very much so. Acquisition is a very legitimate growth strategy. Don’t get me wrong.

I’m on the board of 12 recruitment companies. I reckon four of them we’re evaluating acquisitions right now. So this is in play. Don’t get me wrong.

But I think if you think oh we turn over 40 million. This is one business adding 10 million that’s going to give us 50 million. Let’s do it. I would say that there’s a lot of other things as I’ve touched on today that you need to evaluate to make sure that you don’t get to 10 million in revenue pay too much and cause yourself so much pain that you will be regretting it.

The cruel reality is most acquisitions do not deliver on what people hope. - Greg Savage #TheDealRoomPodcast Click To Tweet

Getting Ready for Exit

Joanna: A lot of what we’ve been talking about today revolves around the buyers. But perhaps maybe if we could round this out now by also just giving a quick snapshot for businesses out there who are looking to create an effective exit plan.

They’re looking at a sale or some sort of exit in the next five years or so. What would you recommend to them in terms of getting their business ready and in terms of what the best options are that they should be considering?

Greg: Well I think there’s a great many things they need to do. First of all they need to make sure that all the shareholders are aligned and you cannot make an assumption about that.

So let’s go and have an away day, get an outside facilitator if there are two, three, four shareholders or major shareholders and make sure everyone’s on the same page. That is the first thing.

And then that leads on to start to consider why we are planning an exit? Are we planning an exit because we want lots of money and we want to go live in the south of France or is it really an exit which facilitates further growth?

So an exit, as I said, which is people call listing your company and EBIDs. It’s not an exit. You’re not going anywhere. You might have a bit more money but you’re not going anywhere for quite some time because your job is to grow that business.

I think that’s where I would start. And then I would start to look at the things that make you sale ready. They are strong profits obviously. The more profitable business the more it’s worth. A very clear and defined strategy that a buyer can come in and you can say “Yes, as profit, we made a million dollars last year and eight hundred the year before. Here is our budget for the next three years. Here’s our plan. Here’s our strategy. Here is the money we’re going to make.” People are buying the future even though they’re paying on the past.

Proof of the ability to execute on a strategy is going to increase the value of the business. Clean financials or get them cleaned up. There are plenty of people who run businesses who don’t really understand the finance side and they don’t even look at their PNLs and they’re not even up to date with their balance sheets and cash flows. All that stuff. I get that. Stop paying the nanny through the business and all those sorts of things.

I would be building a second tier of management because that’s what people would be looking for. Then I think what you’ve got to do is maybe start to think about who a potential buyer would be.

That’s a very interesting conversation. Our business the one I mentioned earlier which is now 120 million and quite profitable. Well the irony of that business is yes it’s bigger more attractive, more profitable but the number of people who could buy it has diminished dramatically.

In the Australian recruitment market, who’s going to go and buy a business making 5 million dollars and a multiple of five. Okay that’s 25 million. Who’s got that?

Yes, there are people but if you’re a business making 500 there’s many many more buyers. So who is the buyer? Is it is it an Australian listed company? Are they multinationals from the outside who might want to use your company as a as a foothold in our market. Private equity is even taking an interest. IPO is to be considered.

Then I would encourage people to cut the emotion and be pragmatic. And a good way to do this is to say Okay I say my business is worth 10 million then I’d say flip it. Say you’re on the outside, would you pay to make 10 million for your business knowing what you know would you pay? Why would you buy your company?

And more importantly, why would you not buy your company? Ask that question and give an honest answer and say you know what I wouldn’t buy my own company because really all the relationships are in the hands of the vendor, not with the staff then I would say, fix it. Those are the things I would do.

Focus on what the buyers are going to see, not what you see from the seller point of view.

When you look at selling your house, it’s the most beautiful house on the street. If you view it from the buyer point of view, you go you know what it’s on a busy corner and doesn’t have a garage. These are these are things that are going to reduce the buyer’s interests and then I’ll build sustainability.

As I said people are buying future revenues and in my industry which is all people, it’s not manufacturing, it’s about you got to look at your weakest link and realise that people will calculate a price according to your weakest link.

And so what are the points of failure? How much annuity revenue have you got? What’s your digital footprint from a marketing point of view? Are we invested in that? Systems and processes.

People talk about the phrase product-isation, which means creating the pumping out of a product in a consistent way. Well in a service business, you’ve got to servitise your business where the processes are documented.

If I plug in new people they’ll very quickly fit in. You don’t want a business that’s got 12 staff and each one of those staff does it a different way. It’s having that defined and documented operations that people want a real proven induction and training and supported with good technology and in my area that’s an ATS which is an Applicant Tracking System and a CRM Customer Relationship Management System. All of which companies would have under other names and that needs to be cleaned. Can we market our business digitally and socially? By social I mean social media.

If you try to squeeze too much out of your price, you really need to leave something on the table for the buyer. So by that I mean the price is reasonable but there’s a clear growth strategy and there’s upside for the buyer. That is going to make it. You’ve got to make it easy for the buyer to see a golden future.

Joanna: It’s interesting you say that because I’ve spoken to a number of businesses that are buying recently and this is exactly what they say they look for companies where they can see extra value that they can add you know they don’t want to see that it’s tapped out for value you know that it’s grown as much as it can.

Greg: That’s exactly right. As I said several times, one and one equals three. The one is the seller has got all these good things. The other one is the buyer can bring these good things and between the two, it’s a catalyst for bigger and better things.
Like that example of people to people in Melbourne. It’s a great example of where one and one and one with three parties to that didn’t make three I reckon it has made about nine.

People are buying the future even though they're paying on the past. - Greg Savage #TheDealRoomPodcast Click To Tweet

The Savage Truth

Joanna: Well look, thank you so much Greg. It has been such a fabulous overview of your experiences in many facets of this M&A environment.

If our listeners would like to find out more about you, I know you’ve got a really great blog which I highly recommend. So if any of our listeners are interested to hear more about you, they can follow your blog by heading over to your website.

Greg: I would say to any of your listeners if you have listened to this and thought I’d be a good guy to act as your advisor in a sale or a buy, I am not. I am just telling that story. I know there are better people than me.

I have a website it’s gregsavage.com.au. I put out a blog called The Savage Truth, which is by the way the best name for a blog in the history of blog – The Savage Truth.

It’s mainly about recruitment but it’s also about leadership. It’s about social media. It’s about ethics often within a framework of recruitment. And so that might be interesting for people or you can follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. It’s all there on the blog.

I’d be very happy to have more connections in that area but I’m not an M&A expert. What I told you today is everything I know.

Joanna: Well you sound like you’ve got a wealth of experience there whether you call yourself an expert in the area or not.

I just want to mention to any of our accountants listening, we actually had an interesting quick discussion before we launched into this podcast recording about the work that you do with accountants. So you’re talking next week I think you said it is in New Zealand.

Greg: Well, I’m an owner of one of the biggest accounting recruitment firms in Australia and I’m a shareholder in the biggest one in New Zealand. So that brings me into contact with a lot of accountants and that has transpired with me being invited to speak to the ICAs of New Zealand in Auckland. It’s actually next month.

I’m sure there’ll be a page on this on their website. I think it’s Price Waterhouse, one of their members has released a document and research on the future of work around A.I. and how is it going to affect work particularly in accounting which by the way let me tell you is very ripe for disruption by technology.

And so the debate and the discussion is what skills will accountants need to have going forward and how will we manage people in a more collaborative type environment. I’m the keynote speaker and I’ll be thinking of something to say by the time I’m there trust me.

Joanna: So do you talk about anything on your blog that our accountant listeners might find of interest or is this especially for your keynote events?

Greg: Well the leadership and people management topics which you can by the way you can search for that on the site in a drop down menu and they’ll all come up, that would be relevant for accountants as much as anybody else on God’s green earth.

In fact that could be more relevant for accountants who in the main put more emphasis on technical skills than they do on people skills. And that’s come from 40 years of experience.

I’m not intending to insult anybody. If I was intending to insult anybody, it would be much harsher than that.

I’m simply saying that management and leadership, staff retention and motivation of people particularly in an environment where people are working more remotely. They’re working more with technology. They are working any brand of significant change where their jobs are going to be evolved and technology takes big chunks of it, that is going to be held together by strong management, a strong leadership I should say, not management, strong leadership. We can all improve in that area and accountants are certainly amongst that group.

Joanna: Well look. Thank you so much Greg. Thanks for your time. I’ve taken far more time than I probably promised I would.

Greg: Far more and I’ll be sending you a gigantic.

Joanna: I couldn’t stop. It was too interesting and you’ve shared so many really interesting insights from being at the coalface. I think that’s what makes this such a really interesting discussion, hearing the experience at the coalface.

So thank you so much for your time. I’m very appreciative of it.

Greg: Well, jokes aside I’m grateful and appreciate you thinking of me for your podcast. I hope it’s been useful and I certainly hope that anyone who listens to this might pick up some bits and pieces because I’ll be honest with you I would love to have heard this podcast 30 years ago. It would have saved me a lot of pain to be honest with you because it’s all learned through making most of what I’m telling you is through mistakes I’ve made of which there is a very lengthy catalogue.

Joanna: I think anyone listening to this who is in any way involved in the industry couldn’t help but leave the side of this podcast with some really useful insights from what you’ve been talking about. So I really do deeply thank you.

Greg: Thank you.

Wrap Up

Joanna: Well that’s it for our two part series with Greg savage and as always thanks for listening in. I hope you found it really useful and informative just like I did.

If you would like more information about this topic head over to our website at thedealroompodcast.com where you’ll be able to download a transcript of this podcast episode if you’d like to read it in more detail. There you’ll also find details of how to contact Greg Savage if you’d like to and you’ll also find details of how to contact our lawyers at Aspect Legal if you or your clients would like a free consultation to discuss any legal aspects of sales or acquisitions.

Now on our show notes and on our episode webpage, you will also find a way to download our free ebooks if you’re interested in reading up on the legal considerations in preparing for the sale of a business or if you would like to read about the legal considerations in buying a business. We have two great ebooks available depending on what side of the fence you’re coming from.

• The Top 7 Legal Considerations in Preparing for the Sale of a Business

• Buying a Business – A Guide to Closing the Deal

And of course we also offer the option of co-branding, if you’d like a copy of either of these documents customised for you to use with your clients by having your brand attached to it. If you’d like to do that, just get in touch with us via our contacts section on our webpage at aspectlegal.com.au.

So once again thanks for listening in. We hope to see you next Tuesday for our next episode of the Deal Room Podcast brought to you by Aspect Legal.