We are in the 11th hour of purchasing a small business. Throughout the due diligence process the seller has been hyper-paranoid about his employees (whom are in their 60s and 70s) catching wind of the sale, so we have had to access the property only after business hours. Even after the Purchase Agreement has been signed he is STILL very squirrely about his employees finding out. (1) is this normal? (2) any obvious red flags?
Note: seller is hands-off and remote. Employees operate the day-to-day.
It’s not unusual, but I would personally view it as a red flag if the owner truly is remote and hands off.
I’ve been on both sides of smb acquisition and the employees aren’t stupid. Once a deal is in the final stages (funding proven, other due diligence completed, including discussions with vendors) I loop the key team members in, including what their bonus opportunities are.
There’s a good chance that you lose them the first day or shortly after if you haven’t met them before hand. If your proceed, you need to be ok with this.
With their age, it sounds like retirement could be in the near future regardless