Since 2005, we have a history of helping others achieve what they didn’t think they could. We do this by not telling you what you want to hear, but often helping you understand what you need to hear. We are a reality check, validating what you think you know, and identifying what you need to do next.
CoPilot supports business leaders who are on a mission to help others. As your business and mission begin to grow, both in staff, revenue, and market size, CoPilot brings proven processes and measurements.
The reality is that most mission-driven businesses barely survive. You started it to get away from ‘bad capitalism’, yet running a business with a mission is almost the same. CoPilot knows this. Think of it this way, we bring all the good parts of capitalism, without ‘the greed part’. We convert your improvements into impact.
You may not have a COO nor even need one full-time. CoPilot does what is in our name, we help do and see the things that maybe you can’t. We ensure a level of detail that gives you the confidence to know you are on the right path.
We shortcut your roadmap to success, getting to your goals faster, with less cost, and less pain.
Our value is having you control your destiny but you always know we are there to guide you, doing the work alongside you and your team. To enable you through direct involvement, but mitigate the risks of doing something metaphorically dangerous by yourself.
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”Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr
”You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.
Alvin TofflerAmerican writer, futurist, and businessman
Our Services
CoPilot is right there with you, whether you are tuning up, looking to sell your business, or buying another business. We will define the approach, find, filter, and act as the extension of your plan. We know the process, the pitfalls, and how to mitigate your risks. This is the time to do it right, validating assumptions, documenting details now, saving a failed deal or worse, failed business later.
- We align M&A activity with dating; finding the right company, spending time to get to know them, and then coming together to create something better than you were before. It is the essence of M&A, but is often forgotten.
- Due Diligence is about asking smart questions and verifying the answers. Validating the answers with data is due diligence. Asking wrong questions and trusting the answers is called risk.
- We are experts at finding and filtering good targets based on criteria; flexible enough to not miss diamonds in the rough, and disciplined to not waste anyone’s time.
- We plan the merger integration from the beginning. The deal is not done when the deal gets signed. It is just the beginning. This is where you get the results you need.
Stabilize, Optimize and Tune Up
CoPilot helps you do an internal evaluation and identifies those things going well and those things you need to fix, with a specific action to get it done. All of which drives your valuation higher, speeds the process and mitigates problems; the trifecta of good deal making.
We act as your advisor as if we are buying your company. We look at your sales, marketing, operations, financials, and human resources. We drive profit to you and prepare you for SEC-level due diligence.
Selling Your Business
Your Past Defines your Future Value.
When someone buys your company, the reason is for it to make money. Having your business demonstrate that it has made money, implies that the market is real, and you know how to serve it through marketing, sales, operations, and customer service.
Have a Future Plan
Having a plan, derived from your experience in the past and your vision for the future, demonstrates that the historical performance can be sustained and maybe even improved. Not having a plan, implies that the business is dependent upon you to run it. Your plan should include how you will grow your existing customer base, reduce attrition, drive increased deal size and open more and more doors to new markets and customers.
Future Cash Flow
Cash is the output of running your business, how it is being used and how it will be used to invest in yourself; commonly called operating expense (OpEx) and expected fixed-asset investment, (CapEx). The sustainment of existing cash flow and specific forecasts what is needed to do that, and forecasts in costs to grow it. Don’t overlook the importance of the variables that will drive changes in your OpEx/CapEx; They are deal killers.
Who Runs it and How it Runs
The team you have running the business, generating the revenue, using expenses, and investing in the future will either increase the value or not. If the business needs you, the risk to the future increases, if it doesn’t, the value of your business increases. You may have built it, but if the business depends on you, the future is risky. You should be working on the business not in it.
Buying a Business
Define an Acquisition Plan
Growing a company via acquisition must be evaluated against using the same resource (time & money) to grow it organically. Both have their pros and cons, or maybe a dual strategy makes sense. Creating a plan to grow what you already do (scale) or adding services/products to your offering you don’t currently provide (scope).
Find, Filter and Approach
Prospects will come from internal and external sources. Having a specific process and pre-defined roles to evaluate them sets the ‘tone’ for the rest of the relationship. A smooth, professional approach, creating simplicity out of the perception of complexity will establish you and your company as a serious buyer, even if it’s your first time.
Due Diligence
At this point, you have a formal agreement, in the form of an NDA and LOI. It’s an exciting time. Due Diligence is critical to validating assumptions, asking the right questions, defining the strengths and weaknesses. It is the buyer’s opportunity to completely understand what they are buying. There is no other opportunity to do this; You can never be thorough enough to both identify the value and set the acquisition up for success post-deal.
Architect the Proposal
No proposal gets created without knowing the value of the company. In addition to due diligence data, external market factors and recent comparable transactions drive the valuation. Get an external source to do it, they have more data than you, and now is the time to get your legal docs created. The proposal is just the starting point to define what the buyer is willing to pay and it starts the negotiation process.
Document, Negotiate, Close
It’s necessary to be formal at this stage. It’s also important to keep the deal simple. Be focused on being detailed in your research, valuation, deal terms, integration plans, not on building a ‘deal of the century’ that is going to be confusing and fail. This is the stage that should be easier, don’t make it harder.
Integrate, Integrate, Integrate
Integrating processes and systems is hard, but not the most important. Bringing together leaders from two companies into an organization, defining roles and goals, and having a unified, collaborative culture will make or break any deal, regardless of how the previous steps have gone, this is where a deal fails or succeeds. Success is defined by the results, not by the signatures on deal documents.
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”Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it
Peter LynchBusinessman and stock investor
”I have never cared what something costs; I care what it's worth.
Ari EmanuelTalent Agent
”The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket
Frank McKinney HubbardCartoonist, Humorist and Journalist
”Explain the value and justify the cost - People don’t mind paying; they just don’t like to overpay.
Chris MurraySelling with EASE
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Schedule an Appointment
This calendar is synced with a primary consultant. Find a day and time that works for you and schedule an appointment to talk to us directly. We’ll send you the calendar invite along with a link to meet up virtually. No cost to you.