June 28, 2024 • 32 mins
Embark on a legal odyssey with the astute Mickey Fox as he dissects the complexities of business acquisitions. Whether you're an entrepreneur aiming to expand your empire or an investor looking to make a strategic play, this episode is your roadmap through the challenging terrain of buying a business. We begin by discussing how to align potential purchases with your expertise and objectives, highlighting the impact of location and competition on your decision-making process. From there, we transition into the meticulous world of due diligence, dissecting financial statements, and scrutinizing customer bases. Mickey offers his seasoned insights to ensure you're equipped to spot red flags before they become costly setbacks.
When it comes to legal intricacies, Mickey Fox doesn't hesitate to guide us through the thicket. We tackle the critical aspects of business loans and contractual obligations, weighing the risks of inheriting existing debts or legal troubles. Our conversation then pivots to the strategic considerations of asset purchases versus full business acquisitions, offering a clearer vision of the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. With Mickey's counsel, we traverse the landscape of these high-stakes decisions, emphasizing the value of rigorous early-stage assessments and the indispensable aid of expert legal advisement.
In the culmination of our discussion, the spotlight is cast on the indispensable role of a business attorney in the acquisition process. Discover the importance of selecting a legal expert who aligns with your personal ethos while bringing a treasure trove of specialized knowledge and experience to the table. Mickey underscores the delicate balance between attorney fees and the priceless advice they provide, advice that may sometimes mean recommending against a purchase. By the end of our session, you'll be armed with clarity and confidence, ready to undertake a business acquisition journey with a legal ally who can streamline your transaction toward a triumphant venture.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:13):
Ready to get the inside scoop on equity funding?
Tune in to TDJ Equity FundingInsiders podcast for an in-depth
look at what it takes to accessfinancial capital and maximize
your investments here fromexperienced professionals,
including bankers, underwriters,loan officers and industry
(00:34):
experts, as they share theirunfiltered stories and valuable
lessons on securing funds.
Jacquelyn Jackson (00:47):
Welcome Funding Insiders.
On today's podcast, we got alegal maestro in the house, none
other than the brilliantattorney Mickey Fox.
You'll be diving deep into theworld of navigating business
purchases.
Whether you are a seasonedentrepreneur or just dipping
your toes into the businesswaters, this episode is your
(01:07):
compass through the legal talkof buying and selling.
Buckle up for the insights anda sprinkle of legal wisdom as we
decode the art of businessacquisitions with Mickey Fox.
Mickey, we'd like to welcomeyou to our show.
Thank you for being here today.
Mickey Fox (01:26):
It's great to be here and I love being on your
show.
I hope everybody's watching andlearned a lot.
Jacquelyn Jackson (01:32):
Yes, definitely, we want them to do
that.
Hopefully they are listeningand watching.
Thank you so much for beingwith us.
Again, mickey has actually beenon our sessions, that's 14, 15,
and 16.
This is the episode 16.
Where we are actually talkingabout a lot of legal parts that
go to lending.
We want to recommend that youguys go back and look at the
(01:54):
previous podcast, which is 14and 15, where you can learn more
about the legal side of gettingloans, whether you purchase it
or you're doing partnerships orjust contracts in general.
This show that we're doing todayis actually about navigating
the business purchases.
You know, I am a loan brokerand as a loan broker, we have
seen a lot of things to comethrough that could be prevented
(02:17):
if people just knew.
This is why we're having thisshow with Mickey today, because
we want you all to learn theunderstanding of the business
purchase process.
Now, it's a lot to it, don'tget me wrong, it is.
It's not so much we can do on apodcast, but I wanted to make
sure that you all understandwhat is expected out of you when
you're actually going topurchase a business, what you
(02:37):
should look for and how shouldyou do it.
So the first thing I understandon a business purchase process
is that you need to understandthe steps that are involved in
the business purchase.
So our first step we have youneed to do research and planning
.
Whatever you're looking at,make sure you look into that
(02:57):
business you are purchasing.
As far as is that somethingthat will kind of match up what
you can do?
I'm talking about experience,because they're going to look at
that to see if you have thatexperience and if it's something
that you see that's going to befeasible and other profitable
for you.
So you want to do that type ofresearch as well as look at the
location, look at thecompetitions and stuff like that
as well.
(03:18):
The next thing you want to giveand I'm going to give you guys
five.
The second one we want you todo is to do diligence.
Do diligence is where you'reactually going to develop a
review on the company'sfinancials.
So we want to look at theirfinancials, we want to look at
their records.
You want to look at theircontracts, their customer based
things of that nature.
So you want to do due diligencewith that to see if it's any
(03:39):
problem.
Again, mickey is going to talkabout some more legal stuff that
may come up with all of this.
That's why we got him heretoday.
Number three negotiationevaluation.
This is where it's reallyimportant for you to get a team,
because there are some thingsyou may not know and our team
needs to include an attorney,which we have you today, and a
CPA and maybe a business advisor.
(03:59):
We recommend that you get thosebecause you're going to go
through the evaluation and youneed people, professional, that
know how to evaluate abuses foryou.
And then also, you want to workwith negotiating what the terms
are, and this is where yourattorney is going to come in at.
But again, mickey, I'll talk toyou all a little bit more about
that later on in the episode.
The fourth one you want is thefinancing and legal
(04:21):
consideration.
This is all, mickey at thispoint, so he can tell you more
about force financing andillegal considerations, such as
drafting a purchase agreement,obtaining necessary license and
permit, addressing regulatorycompliance issues, things of
that nature, because when youbuy a business, you need to know
what's the compliance that comewith that business.
(04:42):
We've been to the table wherepeople come to us and they
didn't realize certaincompliance that they needed that
the lender was asking forbecause they didn't go through a
turning when it got to company.
So it is important that youdefinitely get with an attorney
to make sure that you arepurchasing things that would
make it where one you canrefinance or you could actually
go out and get money on thecompany and things of that
(05:03):
nature.
That's where they will come into be important.
Number five is transition andintegration.
Unless you buy a company, itneeds to be clearly made or how
you're going to transition,meaning that are you going to
still be a part of the companyor you're not.
How much is the buyout and allthat type of stuff?
If it is about you know, allthat stuff is where a lot of
legal stuff come in and again,mickey, as an attorney, can kind
(05:25):
of give some ideas of someinformation toward that.
So I wanted you all to knowthose steps Now.
Even though these steps arebroad overview of business
purchasing and it is, it isimportant to approach each step
with a careful consideration andattention to the details.
Okay, so those are the five Ijust wanted to make sure
everybody had.
It is a lot more to it, butthose are the major ones and
(05:47):
it's pretty general that youkind of can go from there and
figure out for us a process ofpurchasing.
The next thing how does the roleof financing adds to that?
Well, financing adds to thepurchasing of the fact that we
provide the money.
But in order for the money tobe provided, you have to have
things in place to set up thatthey're going to be willing to
(06:08):
give you the money to purchasethe business, meaning checking
them out, making sure you do allthe due diligence on them, but
also do due diligence onyourself, Okay, to make sure
there's not going to be any redflags or something that may stop
you from actually purchasing abusiness.
So what we're coming in at,those things need to be taken
care of in order for us to giveyou a funding.
And that's where Mick is goingto come in on the legal side to
(06:29):
talk about how his part playswhen it comes to purchasing a
business or what some things youneed to look at.
Now I do want to say this thatwe're only giving this as
educational purposes for youguys, because we do have a
turning on the show, but we wantto give a disclaimer that he's
actually just giving someeducation information If you
guys want to seek him anattorney to talk to, then
(06:52):
definitely you can reach out andcontact him, because his
information is available too onour show.
It's also in the show notes aswell.
Okay, so we do want to do that.
So, mickey, I'm now going toturn it over to you, because now
we're going to go to the partof the show that's dealing with
you, which is the legal aspectsof the business loans.
So again, welcome, welcome,thank you for being back.
If you would, let's start offwith the legal aspects of
(07:15):
business loans period.
Let's start that conversationhow that works.
Mickey Fox (07:19):
The legal aspects of business loans.
Well, I look.
First and foremost, what you'redoing is you're going to do a
contract with your lender.
That means that you're going topromise to pay your lender
certain amounts, certaininterest rates and upon certain
conditions if they give youcertain amounts of money.
Right, Also in the agreementyou're going to be telling them
(07:40):
that well, as far as your assetsgo, or maybe your ARs, your
accounts receivables, thingslike that that you're not going
to get rid of those withouttheir permission.
You really have to look at thedocumentation to see how this
loan is, to see how this loan issecuritized, to determine what
you can and you cannot do onceyou have the loan.
(08:01):
But before you get to the loan,before you actually sign on the
double line, you want to havesomebody explain to you what
that means to you and how itmight affect your business
before you get into it.
I've seen people get into loansand then be so frozen up with
all their assets they reallycouldn't do anything and it kept
them from being nimble enoughto do businesses that needed to
(08:25):
do it.
So that's the easy part here.
I know that Jackie said alittle bit about you know, when
you're buying a business youwant to have your agreement in
place and all that.
You want to understand whatyou're buying.
When you first start thinkingyou want to buy something, come
talk to me.
(08:46):
Doing due diligence is a it canbe a very long process, but if
you're going to buy a business,you got to make sure that
business can support what thatperson's telling you is going to
support.
And they might say, look, youknow we're doing revenue of you
know 1.5 million a year.
And well, maybe they are, butthey're only, they're only
(09:09):
netting out you know 25,000 ayear.
Well, that's not veryproductive for you.
That may not be a good business.
Right, you're going to want tolook at their accounts
receivable and their contract.
Let's say they're a landscaper,they're going to have contracts
out there for their, theirbusiness.
You want to be able to look atthose contracts and see how
solid they look so that you cankind of figure out is that
(09:31):
really going to be an ongoingsource of revenue for you or are
you going to renegotiate thosecontracts?
When you look at the AR andthose executive contracts,
that's part of what's going tosustain whether somebody's going
to lend you money for thebusiness.
So you know, for instance, whenyou come into Jackie, she's
going to look at that.
She's going to say, well, youknow, his, his ARs are all you
(09:54):
know, plus 90, plus 180 orwhatever.
We can't really lend on thatbecause those death relief
aren't good.
They're not coming in.
And let's say this at thispoint if you don't mind.
Jacquelyn Jackson (10:05):
Let's mention when you what you're saying,
that AR, these are accountreceivable and account
receivables is the money youshould be getting and, like you
just said, if it's 90 days out,you know that means the bank has
to wait for 90 days, so thatmay not be something.
So I want to explain that topeople with.
That was okay.
Mickey Fox (10:22):
Yeah, so usually in an accounts receivable if if
something's past 60 days, ifit's past 90 days, you start
thinking that person's just notgoing to pay you Right, and so
that's not really an asset youhave to.
I think the word Jackie we useis maybe factor that asset and
say, well, okay, it's, it'smaybe worth 20% of its actual
(10:42):
value.
And what that means is, youknow, can you really collect it?
Some companies you know you cancollect from other folks maybe
not.
You know you can get a judgment.
In my wall is full of judgments.
You know I can plaster, plastermy wall, my wallpaper out of
that just cannot be collectedbecause people don't have any
money.
So you can get a judgment, itjust cannot be collected because
(11:04):
people don't have any money.
So you want to, at the verybeginning stages of acquiring
business, sit down and talk witha team I do a lot of business
advising to.
I can tell people things likewhether this is going to be a
good addition to their businessor whether they're getting too
far afield, such as going todivide their interest up and
(11:27):
they won't be able to maybemaximize both of those
businesses the way they're goingto do it.
It's incredibly important to, atthe very early stages of the
game, figure out what the debtsof that business are, if that
business has a lot of debt orit's got pending lawsuits, or if
there are contracts that arelikely to go into lawsuit.
(11:48):
Let's say it's a contractorthat built a house and you know,
of course, the new homeowner isnever happy with the house.
There's always something wrongwith it and what are the chances
that that homeowner is going tosue?
Well, that's a potentialliability when you buy that
business.
So sometimes we do assetpurchases rather than actual
(12:08):
business purchases, and that'ssomething I can help you kind of
discover to get through theprocess.
Jacquelyn Jackson (12:16):
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Outtro (13:11):
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Jacquelyn Jackson (13:42):
So when you say assets purchase I think you
and I talked on this so what'sthe difference of purchasing the
business or just purchasing anasset?
Because you was talking aboutthe different types of purchase
they can do.
Can you explain that?
Mickey Fox (13:54):
When you purchase a business, you're going to
purchase the entire businessentity.
So that's everything suit thenuts, right.
That's their limited liabilitycompany paperwork, that's their
car, their building, theiraccounts receivables, their bank
accounts, their intellectualproperty, their website, your
(14:15):
email, that kind of stuff.
But you're also, when you buythat entity, you're also buying
into the exposure to liability.
So you're going to be themember of the organization or
you're going to be the solestockholder of the organization
and you've got some exposurethere.
(14:37):
It may be that what you want todo is just buy the assets out
that.
Maybe you only want theforklifts that work.
Maybe you only want theaccounts receivable that are 30
to 60 days or something likethat.
You may only want the lawnmowers or the newer lawn mowers.
(14:58):
You may not want to drag theemployees along because you
really don't like the employees.
There are a lot of differentthings floating out there that
you may not.
You know, if you're involved inthe negotiation of business, a
lot of times you get caught upwith that number and you're not
thinking about the smallerthings, about those potential
(15:20):
liabilities that are out there.
A good one is, you know,especially when you have men and
women working together is apotential exposure to sexual
harassment lawsuits and thingslike that.
You have no way of knowing whatrelationships were there before
you buy the business, sosometimes it's better just to
buy the assets that are business.
Jacquelyn Jackson (15:40):
Okay, but that's where you would come in
as an attorney.
If I come to you to look at abusiness I'm trying to purchase,
can you help me figure out?
Should I buy it as a business,all of it, or should we just buy
assets?
Could you help with that parttoo?
Mickey Fox (15:55):
That's exactly what I would do, and part of that you
discover in the due diligenceprocess as you're trying to
gather this information right.
You can't always be absolutelysure you're getting everything
Okay, but there are ways whenyou suspect that there might be
something out there.
There are ways to build thatinto your purchase agreement so
(16:17):
that you have maybe some holdback or something, maybe an earn
out what am I calling an earnout to protect you a little bit
against that exposure and thatliability that you wouldn't pay
right away.
It might be paid a year out ortwo years out.
Sometimes you may not know thebusiness perfectly and you want
(16:38):
to retain the owner as anemployee for a few months.
You can do that too.
So it's not uncommon for me tosee purchase agreements that
have together with thememployment agreements and you
definitely want to turn you towork that out.
So there's just a whole host ofthings that when you start
(17:00):
negotiating that you want to get.
I just had an individual inyesterday who wants to sell his
business and he doesn't reallyknow what to put in the contract
.
He doesn't really know whathe's got available to sell and
how to maximize the value of hisbusiness.
So those are some of the thingsthat we can do together and
(17:23):
work with your CPAs and your taxguy.
There can be tax implicationsto a lot of things, especially
in a sale, but sometimes in apurchase.
Jacquelyn Jackson (17:33):
Right.
It would be that Now I can tellyou from us doing our closing,
where we had people purchasingbusinesses and attorneys
actually came in.
You were a part, the lender hadan attorney, and then my client
had an attorney, and I saw thenhow important you guys were,
because that attorney for him,my client, protects him, and I'm
(17:53):
not saying the other one want,but the understanding that they
work for the lenders.
And so what I liked about thatI found out and that's why we
wanted you on this show too isthat it's really important that
we have a relationship withattorney when we actually think
about even, like you said,purchasing a business, come see
you before, so pay that money tohave that first consultation on
(18:13):
attorney, just so you all canat least go over it.
I mean, do you not think that'sa good idea that we start out
just coming to you to have thatfirst initial meeting, because
I'm thinking about doing abusiness?
Should I come to you then, orwhen?
Mickey Fox (18:24):
It's cheap insurance If you think about it.
If you're going to pay 100, 150million, million, five, whatever
a business, a small cost of anhour or two at attorney's time
to just make sure that you knowwhat problems might be out there
or what things you might belooking for is certainly worth
(18:47):
the cost Right as a matter offact, there are things you can
insure against in a businesstransaction.
You can actually get aninsurance policy to cover some
things.
But you know, a lot of times Ithink people think that well, I
need an attorney just for thedocument.
But once you get to that pointof writing the document, a lot
(19:08):
of times the negotiation ispretty much complete.
It's hard to go back on a sortof an agreement where you say I
will pay you this amount forthis and what you have in your
minds on the buyer side and theseller side is probably two
different things, and that'spart of the attorney's job is to
(19:28):
help you have that conversationwith the person you're doing
business with to understand morefully what it is you mean and
what they mean.
Outtro (19:37):
Right.
Mickey Fox (19:38):
Because we don't want surprises at the settlement
table.
I've seen that happen before,where you get to the settlement
tunnel and say wait, wait, wait,wait, wait.
That was supposed to be there,Isn't that part of it?
No, well, that's not what's atdraft.
Jacquelyn Jackson (19:50):
Right.
Mickey Fox (19:52):
So it's really hard then at that point to go back
and say, well, I'm not payingthat for this company because
this is not what I thought I wasbuying.
But people think, okay, well,I'll have somebody at the
settlement itself.
We can help with that too.
I will tell you that in thelast few days of transactions
(20:15):
there are documents going backand forth and a lot of changes
get made and different versionsof different documents get lost.
I've seen situations wherewe're down at the actual closing
where the document you have anddocuments they have I've got
some very, sometimes significantdifferences and it's good to
(20:38):
have the attorneys there so youcan work it out right there.
So that's just a few of thethings that you can say
Post-closing.
It's always good at least havean attorney help you get all the
documentation right.
So if you buy an LLC, forinstance, you need to update
your LLC agreement, you need toupdate your resolution, you need
(20:59):
to ratify certain things likethe contract, the sale itself.
You need to update thesecurities date.
There's just a ton of thingsyou may need to do.
If you have business licensesthis is the compliance side that
I think Jackie was talkingabout You'll need to update
those licenses and, matter offact, before you even get to
that point, you want to makesure those licenses can transfer
(21:20):
.
Jacquelyn Jackson (21:20):
Oh yeah, that's true.
Mickey Fox (21:22):
Especially like if you're buying a bar or something
like that, you want to makesure that you're gonna have that
alcohol license, because if youdon't have the alcohol license,
then all you have is a sodashop.
Jacquelyn Jackson (21:33):
Right.
So you, it sounds like to methat you can give us a due
diligence list to start with, ifwe're starting with our
business, if we're looking atpurchasing a certain business,
which I think is smart, and Ithink it's the time of us doing
business where we did it off ourhips and just you know, based
on what somebody tell us and allthat stuff.
Those days are gone.
We have to have.
(21:53):
If you want to grow and besuccessful, you have to have
professional people in place tohelp your business grow.
You can't just do it byyourself, because it's not going
to grow and then, like you said, it's a struggle.
And then, when it come to thelending side because I
understand money, having abusiness loan helps the company
grow right.
So if you don't have that, oryou're not qualified to get it,
(22:14):
you know, because you're not setup right or your contracts are
not right, or you purchased abusiness, or about the purchase
of business that that the bankis not going to take.
Now this is the thing peopleneed to understand.
I need you all to listen to mereal good.
What Mickey knows as attorney,the lender already knows.
Okay, so he, having attorney,is bringing you what you need in
(22:35):
order for your loans to gothrough without so much of a
hitch.
You know what I'm saying.
That's what's so importantabout having an attorney to come
in in the beginning of youpurchasing this business,
because you're going to come tome, to us, as a loan or a lender
at the end but, like he said,you've already.
If you haven't done what you'resupposed to do, the damage is
already done.
So that's where he's coming inat, and I think that's great.
(22:58):
Do you agree what I'm saying?
Pretty much, mickey, as well.
Mickey Fox (23:01):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean, there's nothing likegetting to the closing table and
finding out that somebody's acertificate of, of incorporation
or whatever, has been suspendedbecause they haven't filed
their, you know their franchisetax Right right.
Right, it's not that it's a hugeproblem.
It just takes time to get donebecause you got to deal with,
(23:22):
you know, the the tax side ofthings and they got to deal with
Secretary's Day.
So it's those little thingsthat can save you an awful lot
of time, right, and when youhave time you can get them done
less expensively.
When you have no time, italways costs a lot of money and
that's not something that I wantsomebody to have to do.
Don't spend a lot of money.
Take it easy, take it slow, getall your ducks in a row and
(23:48):
draw upon the, the wisdomexperience of people like Jackie
or me or a really goodaccountant, to help you kind of
plan the steps that you need totake to get where you can be
before you get to that closingor before you actually get to
the underwriting stage.
Jacquelyn Jackson (24:05):
Right, right, and so I agree with that.
So we need to do that.
So basically and I want to say,this part that you had
mentioned about is taking solong on the lending side, when
it comes to purchasing abusiness, they're going to
require financials and if you'reto giving them this quarter
financials and then you have alot of stuff that's not where
it's supposed to be and it'staking weeks and weeks and
(24:27):
months longer.
Your financials.
You gave the first quarter.
Now you're going to have togive some new financials.
Okay, so what we're saying hereis that by putting him in place
and having the accounting andreally the attorney seeing him
before you purchase a business,like you said, it's like
insurance.
It's cheap insurance it willsave you down the line.
If even if it's not time,because your quarter of what you
(24:50):
can show that you made thefirst quarter, you may have less
the second quarter, you can'tafford to actually have them
come, pull the second quarter up.
So that's why it's importantthat you want to get your stuff
set in place where everythingcan move smoothly and move with
times.
So what I want to say last, notwell, yeah, last would be more
(25:10):
if you would, mickey, when itcomes to choosing the type of
attorney to actually do this.
Can you give us some ideas ofwhat we need to look for when we
are buying a business?
What do we look for?
Mickey Fox (25:20):
an attorney- well, first of all, it's going to be
somebody that you like in a way,and I don't mean that
necessarily that you you want tohang out with them and drink
beer with them, but I meansomebody that you feel like you
can relate to.
That person should afford yourespect.
You know you're a businessperson.
You've been, you've been doingthe work, you've been putting in
(25:41):
the hours, you've gotten to thepoint where you need to get
funding for some reason or other.
The second thing you want tolook at is not so much whether
the attorney's driving you know,a two-tone, rusting great train
or car you know, or whetherthey're dressed in fancy clothes
(26:01):
or whether they have a fancyoffice, but whether that
attorney exudes a kind ofconfidence in in what they're
doing so that you can believethey know what's going on.
The other thing is is you cankind of tell from an attorney's
service offerings whether theykind of specialize in that field
(26:23):
and I don't mean to use theterm specialized, but if that's,
if that's the kind of work theydo, specialization is very
particular to the Texas bar.
They've got certain tests youcan take and things like that.
You can get us what we call aspecialization thing.
But is that the area in whichthey function?
(26:43):
Do they know what's going on?
There is this part of regularpart of their business.
And I think another thing youwant to ask is whether they ever
litigate these kind of matters.
And the reason I say that isI've learned more about doing
business transactions throughlitigating them than I ever did
(27:06):
through a book.
And when you litigate thingsyou have to research a lot of
issues.
You come to understand whatjudges are looking for, what
juries are looking for, and youalso understand what works and
what doesn't work, what wouldlead to litigation.
The idea is to avoid it.
So if we can front load thelitigation avoidance and then we
(27:28):
can do that, we'll do that.
And also, you know, feel freeto ask them.
You know what happens when dealsgo bad.
You know how do you, as aattorney held you, help the
client get out of bad deals.
Is there a way to do that?
What kind of services do theyoffer post transaction?
(27:49):
What kind of plan can they putin place?
Generally people tend to lookat cost.
You know they say, well, howmuch you charge and you can kind
of tell at that point whethersomething's going to go with it
or not, but one of the thingsyou're going to remember is, if
you get a really good attorney,they may charge a little more
(28:10):
per hour, but they can get itdone much more quickly, so that
actually saves you money andtime is important, it's one of
the most important part.
So, like I said, you want tohave somebody who you feel
confident in, somebody who youthink really does understand
what they're doing and do theyunderstand your business?
There are certain lines ofbusiness I won't mess with
(28:32):
because I don't know anythingabout them, but I can tell you
you know a whole lot aboutconstruction business.
I can tell you a whole lotabout doctors, practices and
things like that.
That kind of stuff I deal withregularly and so I kind of know
what to look out for.
And again, that saves you time.
Jacquelyn Jackson (28:54):
So basically, what you're saying is that we
need to get someone that'salready kind of doing what you
need to have done rightBasically when it comes to
attorney there's no sense inpaying the attorney's alarm on
your dime.
Because that bill me for that,wouldn't it?
Mickey Fox (29:08):
Oh yes, ma'am, I certainly would, and I
understand.
Jacquelyn Jackson (29:13):
Okay, well, I appreciate it.
Is it anything that you'd liketo tell us, our listeners, any
last minute words or call ofactions you'd like to give?
Mickey Fox (29:22):
Well, I think the smartest thing in the world is
to find folks that you'reworking with who have a good
network of people to draw fromexperts and folks who are
particularized in their field.
It doesn't do you any good asan attorney, or even as a client
(29:44):
, to be that single point thatis supposed to know everything,
because there's just no way youcan.
And remember that things changeall the time.
The law changes all the timeand it's part of my job to kind
of stay up on the changing lawsas they happen and recently a
(30:05):
lot of laws have been changed.
But I think maybe the biggestthing is to remember what you do
, remember what you're trying toaccomplish and make sure that
this financial decision thatyou're making is going to suit
you.
Don't overextend yourself,don't grab it just because it's
(30:28):
there and a really good attorneywill sometimes tell you no.
Jacquelyn Jackson (30:36):
That is so wonderful.
That is great.
Well, mr Mickey, first of all,I enjoy every time we talk and I
appreciate you so much takingout your busy day, because I
know you're so busy to come andtalk to our listeners and we
really do appreciate that.
Thank you so much for comingand, of course, down probably
the rest of you would probablyhave you coming back for sure,
definitely, thank you.
Thank you so much for being apart of our show.
Mickey Fox (30:58):
You're so welcome, Ms Jackie.
I love you.
I love being on your show.
Jacquelyn Jackson (31:02):
Well, I know, and you're good, good, so this
is going to wrap it up.
So what we want to say is thewrap on today's podcast Insiders
is, after unrevealing thecomplexity of businesses,
purchases with the legal, mickeyFox, here's the key takeaways.
In the excuse me in thefriendly dance of buying a
(31:25):
business, legal clarity is yourbest partner, from due diligence
to contracts.
Mickey emphasized theimportance of having a legal
master by your side to walkthrough the process seamlessly.
So, expiring business models,remember, when navigating the
purchase terrain, having anattorney in your corner isn't
(31:47):
just a choice, it's legally andit's a legal dance that leads to
success.
We want to thank you all forcoming out and for our listeners
.
If you like what you heard, ifyou like what you heard and
would like to stay informedabout getting money for your
business, then listen to TDJequity funding Insiders podcast
(32:07):
on all major podcast platforms.
If you would also like to bepart of our funding Insiders
community, where we're givingout documentation and
information about lendingprocess and more, subscribe to
www at TDJequity LLCnetbackslash podcast until next
time.
Thank you, and you all takecare.
Intro (32:48):
Insidersnet.
Until next time, take care.
Ready to get the inside scoop on equity funding?
Tune in to TDJ Equity FundingInsiders podcast for an in-depth
look at what it takes to accessfinancial capital and maximize
your investments here fromexperienced professionals,
including bankers, underwriters,loan officers and industry
(00:34):
experts, as they share theirunfiltered stories and valuable
lessons on securing funds.
Jacquelyn Jackson (00:47):
Welcome Funding Insiders.
On today's podcast, we got alegal maestro in the house, none
other than the brilliantattorney Mickey Fox.
You'll be diving deep into theworld of navigating business
purchases.
Whether you are a seasonedentrepreneur or just dipping
your toes into the businesswaters, this episode is your
(01:07):
compass through the legal talkof buying and selling.
Buckle up for the insights anda sprinkle of legal wisdom as we
decode the art of businessacquisitions with Mickey Fox.
Mickey, we'd like to welcomeyou to our show.
Thank you for being here today.
Mickey Fox (01:26):
It's great to be here and I love being on your
show.
I hope everybody's watching andlearned a lot.
Jacquelyn Jackson (01:32):
Yes, definitely, we want them to do
that.
Hopefully they are listeningand watching.
Thank you so much for beingwith us.
Again, mickey has actually beenon our sessions, that's 14, 15,
and 16.
This is the episode 16.
Where we are actually talkingabout a lot of legal parts that
go to lending.
We want to recommend that youguys go back and look at the
(01:54):
previous podcast, which is 14and 15, where you can learn more
about the legal side of gettingloans, whether you purchase it
or you're doing partnerships orjust contracts in general.
This show that we're doing todayis actually about navigating
the business purchases.
You know, I am a loan brokerand as a loan broker, we have
seen a lot of things to comethrough that could be prevented
(02:17):
if people just knew.
This is why we're having thisshow with Mickey today, because
we want you all to learn theunderstanding of the business
purchase process.
Now, it's a lot to it, don'tget me wrong, it is.
It's not so much we can do on apodcast, but I wanted to make
sure that you all understandwhat is expected out of you when
you're actually going topurchase a business, what you
(02:37):
should look for and how shouldyou do it.
So the first thing I understandon a business purchase process
is that you need to understandthe steps that are involved in
the business purchase.
So our first step we have youneed to do research and planning
.
Whatever you're looking at,make sure you look into that
(02:57):
business you are purchasing.
As far as is that somethingthat will kind of match up what
you can do?
I'm talking about experience,because they're going to look at
that to see if you have thatexperience and if it's something
that you see that's going to befeasible and other profitable
for you.
So you want to do that type ofresearch as well as look at the
location, look at thecompetitions and stuff like that
as well.
(03:18):
The next thing you want to giveand I'm going to give you guys
five.
The second one we want you todo is to do diligence.
Do diligence is where you'reactually going to develop a
review on the company'sfinancials.
So we want to look at theirfinancials, we want to look at
their records.
You want to look at theircontracts, their customer based
things of that nature.
So you want to do due diligencewith that to see if it's any
(03:39):
problem.
Again, mickey is going to talkabout some more legal stuff that
may come up with all of this.
That's why we got him heretoday.
Number three negotiationevaluation.
This is where it's reallyimportant for you to get a team,
because there are some thingsyou may not know and our team
needs to include an attorney,which we have you today, and a
CPA and maybe a business advisor.
(03:59):
We recommend that you get thosebecause you're going to go
through the evaluation and youneed people, professional, that
know how to evaluate abuses foryou.
And then also, you want to workwith negotiating what the terms
are, and this is where yourattorney is going to come in at.
But again, mickey, I'll talk toyou all a little bit more about
that later on in the episode.
The fourth one you want is thefinancing and legal
(04:21):
consideration.
This is all, mickey at thispoint, so he can tell you more
about force financing andillegal considerations, such as
drafting a purchase agreement,obtaining necessary license and
permit, addressing regulatorycompliance issues, things of
that nature, because when youbuy a business, you need to know
what's the compliance that comewith that business.
(04:42):
We've been to the table wherepeople come to us and they
didn't realize certaincompliance that they needed that
the lender was asking forbecause they didn't go through a
turning when it got to company.
So it is important that youdefinitely get with an attorney
to make sure that you arepurchasing things that would
make it where one you canrefinance or you could actually
go out and get money on thecompany and things of that
(05:03):
nature.
That's where they will come into be important.
Number five is transition andintegration.
Unless you buy a company, itneeds to be clearly made or how
you're going to transition,meaning that are you going to
still be a part of the companyor you're not.
How much is the buyout and allthat type of stuff?
If it is about you know, allthat stuff is where a lot of
legal stuff come in and again,mickey, as an attorney, can kind
(05:25):
of give some ideas of someinformation toward that.
So I wanted you all to knowthose steps Now.
Even though these steps arebroad overview of business
purchasing and it is, it isimportant to approach each step
with a careful consideration andattention to the details.
Okay, so those are the five Ijust wanted to make sure
everybody had.
It is a lot more to it, butthose are the major ones and
(05:47):
it's pretty general that youkind of can go from there and
figure out for us a process ofpurchasing.
The next thing how does the roleof financing adds to that?
Well, financing adds to thepurchasing of the fact that we
provide the money.
But in order for the money tobe provided, you have to have
things in place to set up thatthey're going to be willing to
(06:08):
give you the money to purchasethe business, meaning checking
them out, making sure you do allthe due diligence on them, but
also do due diligence onyourself, Okay, to make sure
there's not going to be any redflags or something that may stop
you from actually purchasing abusiness.
So what we're coming in at,those things need to be taken
care of in order for us to giveyou a funding.
And that's where Mick is goingto come in on the legal side to
(06:29):
talk about how his part playswhen it comes to purchasing a
business or what some things youneed to look at.
Now I do want to say this thatwe're only giving this as
educational purposes for youguys, because we do have a
turning on the show, but we wantto give a disclaimer that he's
actually just giving someeducation information If you
guys want to seek him anattorney to talk to, then
(06:52):
definitely you can reach out andcontact him, because his
information is available too onour show.
It's also in the show notes aswell.
Okay, so we do want to do that.
So, mickey, I'm now going toturn it over to you, because now
we're going to go to the partof the show that's dealing with
you, which is the legal aspectsof the business loans.
So again, welcome, welcome,thank you for being back.
If you would, let's start offwith the legal aspects of
(07:15):
business loans period.
Let's start that conversationhow that works.
Mickey Fox (07:19):
The legal aspects of business loans.
Well, I look.
First and foremost, what you'redoing is you're going to do a
contract with your lender.
That means that you're going topromise to pay your lender
certain amounts, certaininterest rates and upon certain
conditions if they give youcertain amounts of money.
Right, Also in the agreementyou're going to be telling them
(07:40):
that well, as far as your assetsgo, or maybe your ARs, your
accounts receivables, thingslike that that you're not going
to get rid of those withouttheir permission.
You really have to look at thedocumentation to see how this
loan is, to see how this loan issecuritized, to determine what
you can and you cannot do onceyou have the loan.
(08:01):
But before you get to the loan,before you actually sign on the
double line, you want to havesomebody explain to you what
that means to you and how itmight affect your business
before you get into it.
I've seen people get into loansand then be so frozen up with
all their assets they reallycouldn't do anything and it kept
them from being nimble enoughto do businesses that needed to
(08:25):
do it.
So that's the easy part here.
I know that Jackie said alittle bit about you know, when
you're buying a business youwant to have your agreement in
place and all that.
You want to understand whatyou're buying.
When you first start thinkingyou want to buy something, come
talk to me.
(08:46):
Doing due diligence is a it canbe a very long process, but if
you're going to buy a business,you got to make sure that
business can support what thatperson's telling you is going to
support.
And they might say, look, youknow we're doing revenue of you
know 1.5 million a year.
And well, maybe they are, butthey're only, they're only
(09:09):
netting out you know 25,000 ayear.
Well, that's not veryproductive for you.
That may not be a good business.
Right, you're going to want tolook at their accounts
receivable and their contract.
Let's say they're a landscaper,they're going to have contracts
out there for their, theirbusiness.
You want to be able to look atthose contracts and see how
solid they look so that you cankind of figure out is that
(09:31):
really going to be an ongoingsource of revenue for you or are
you going to renegotiate thosecontracts?
When you look at the AR andthose executive contracts,
that's part of what's going tosustain whether somebody's going
to lend you money for thebusiness.
So you know, for instance, whenyou come into Jackie, she's
going to look at that.
She's going to say, well, youknow, his, his ARs are all you
(09:54):
know, plus 90, plus 180 orwhatever.
We can't really lend on thatbecause those death relief
aren't good.
They're not coming in.
And let's say this at thispoint if you don't mind.
Jacquelyn Jackson (10:05):
Let's mention when you what you're saying,
that AR, these are accountreceivable and account
receivables is the money youshould be getting and, like you
just said, if it's 90 days out,you know that means the bank has
to wait for 90 days, so thatmay not be something.
So I want to explain that topeople with.
That was okay.
Mickey Fox (10:22):
Yeah, so usually in an accounts receivable if if
something's past 60 days, ifit's past 90 days, you start
thinking that person's just notgoing to pay you Right, and so
that's not really an asset youhave to.
I think the word Jackie we useis maybe factor that asset and
say, well, okay, it's, it'smaybe worth 20% of its actual
(10:42):
value.
And what that means is, youknow, can you really collect it?
Some companies you know you cancollect from other folks maybe
not.
You know you can get a judgment.
In my wall is full of judgments.
You know I can plaster, plastermy wall, my wallpaper out of
that just cannot be collectedbecause people don't have any
money.
So you can get a judgment, itjust cannot be collected because
(11:04):
people don't have any money.
So you want to, at the verybeginning stages of acquiring
business, sit down and talk witha team I do a lot of business
advising to.
I can tell people things likewhether this is going to be a
good addition to their businessor whether they're getting too
far afield, such as going todivide their interest up and
(11:27):
they won't be able to maybemaximize both of those
businesses the way they're goingto do it.
It's incredibly important to, atthe very early stages of the
game, figure out what the debtsof that business are, if that
business has a lot of debt orit's got pending lawsuits, or if
there are contracts that arelikely to go into lawsuit.
(11:48):
Let's say it's a contractorthat built a house and you know,
of course, the new homeowner isnever happy with the house.
There's always something wrongwith it and what are the chances
that that homeowner is going tosue?
Well, that's a potentialliability when you buy that
business.
So sometimes we do assetpurchases rather than actual
(12:08):
business purchases, and that'ssomething I can help you kind of
discover to get through theprocess.
Jacquelyn Jackson (12:16):
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(12:37):
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Outtro (13:11):
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Our team of seasonedstrategists provides expert
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We develop customized solutionsthat align with your unique
(13:31):
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Connect with us today andharness the power of strategic
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Jacquelyn Jackson (13:42):
So when you say assets purchase I think you
and I talked on this so what'sthe difference of purchasing the
business or just purchasing anasset?
Because you was talking aboutthe different types of purchase
they can do.
Can you explain that?
Mickey Fox (13:54):
When you purchase a business, you're going to
purchase the entire businessentity.
So that's everything suit thenuts, right.
That's their limited liabilitycompany paperwork, that's their
car, their building, theiraccounts receivables, their bank
accounts, their intellectualproperty, their website, your
(14:15):
email, that kind of stuff.
But you're also, when you buythat entity, you're also buying
into the exposure to liability.
So you're going to be themember of the organization or
you're going to be the solestockholder of the organization
and you've got some exposurethere.
(14:37):
It may be that what you want todo is just buy the assets out
that.
Maybe you only want theforklifts that work.
Maybe you only want theaccounts receivable that are 30
to 60 days or something likethat.
You may only want the lawnmowers or the newer lawn mowers.
(14:58):
You may not want to drag theemployees along because you
really don't like the employees.
There are a lot of differentthings floating out there that
you may not.
You know, if you're involved inthe negotiation of business, a
lot of times you get caught upwith that number and you're not
thinking about the smallerthings, about those potential
(15:20):
liabilities that are out there.
A good one is, you know,especially when you have men and
women working together is apotential exposure to sexual
harassment lawsuits and thingslike that.
You have no way of knowing whatrelationships were there before
you buy the business, sosometimes it's better just to
buy the assets that are business.
Jacquelyn Jackson (15:40):
Okay, but that's where you would come in
as an attorney.
If I come to you to look at abusiness I'm trying to purchase,
can you help me figure out?
Should I buy it as a business,all of it, or should we just buy
assets?
Could you help with that parttoo?
Mickey Fox (15:55):
That's exactly what I would do, and part of that you
discover in the due diligenceprocess as you're trying to
gather this information right.
You can't always be absolutelysure you're getting everything
Okay, but there are ways whenyou suspect that there might be
something out there.
There are ways to build thatinto your purchase agreement so
(16:17):
that you have maybe some holdback or something, maybe an earn
out what am I calling an earnout to protect you a little bit
against that exposure and thatliability that you wouldn't pay
right away.
It might be paid a year out ortwo years out.
Sometimes you may not know thebusiness perfectly and you want
(16:38):
to retain the owner as anemployee for a few months.
You can do that too.
So it's not uncommon for me tosee purchase agreements that
have together with thememployment agreements and you
definitely want to turn you towork that out.
So there's just a whole host ofthings that when you start
(17:00):
negotiating that you want to get.
I just had an individual inyesterday who wants to sell his
business and he doesn't reallyknow what to put in the contract
.
He doesn't really know whathe's got available to sell and
how to maximize the value of hisbusiness.
So those are some of the thingsthat we can do together and
(17:23):
work with your CPAs and your taxguy.
There can be tax implicationsto a lot of things, especially
in a sale, but sometimes in apurchase.
Jacquelyn Jackson (17:33):
Right.
It would be that Now I can tellyou from us doing our closing,
where we had people purchasingbusinesses and attorneys
actually came in.
You were a part, the lender hadan attorney, and then my client
had an attorney, and I saw thenhow important you guys were,
because that attorney for him,my client, protects him, and I'm
(17:53):
not saying the other one want,but the understanding that they
work for the lenders.
And so what I liked about thatI found out and that's why we
wanted you on this show too isthat it's really important that
we have a relationship withattorney when we actually think
about even, like you said,purchasing a business, come see
you before, so pay that money tohave that first consultation on
(18:13):
attorney, just so you all canat least go over it.
I mean, do you not think that'sa good idea that we start out
just coming to you to have thatfirst initial meeting, because
I'm thinking about doing abusiness?
Should I come to you then, orwhen?
Mickey Fox (18:24):
It's cheap insurance If you think about it.
If you're going to pay 100, 150million, million, five, whatever
a business, a small cost of anhour or two at attorney's time
to just make sure that you knowwhat problems might be out there
or what things you might belooking for is certainly worth
(18:47):
the cost Right as a matter offact, there are things you can
insure against in a businesstransaction.
You can actually get aninsurance policy to cover some
things.
But you know, a lot of times Ithink people think that well, I
need an attorney just for thedocument.
But once you get to that pointof writing the document, a lot
(19:08):
of times the negotiation ispretty much complete.
It's hard to go back on a sortof an agreement where you say I
will pay you this amount forthis and what you have in your
minds on the buyer side and theseller side is probably two
different things, and that'spart of the attorney's job is to
(19:28):
help you have that conversationwith the person you're doing
business with to understand morefully what it is you mean and
what they mean.
Outtro (19:37):
Right.
Mickey Fox (19:38):
Because we don't want surprises at the settlement
table.
I've seen that happen before,where you get to the settlement
tunnel and say wait, wait, wait,wait, wait.
That was supposed to be there,Isn't that part of it?
No, well, that's not what's atdraft.
Jacquelyn Jackson (19:50):
Right.
Mickey Fox (19:52):
So it's really hard then at that point to go back
and say, well, I'm not payingthat for this company because
this is not what I thought I wasbuying.
But people think, okay, well,I'll have somebody at the
settlement itself.
We can help with that too.
I will tell you that in thelast few days of transactions
(20:15):
there are documents going backand forth and a lot of changes
get made and different versionsof different documents get lost.
I've seen situations wherewe're down at the actual closing
where the document you have anddocuments they have I've got
some very, sometimes significantdifferences and it's good to
(20:38):
have the attorneys there so youcan work it out right there.
So that's just a few of thethings that you can say
Post-closing.
It's always good at least havean attorney help you get all the
documentation right.
So if you buy an LLC, forinstance, you need to update
your LLC agreement, you need toupdate your resolution, you need
(20:59):
to ratify certain things likethe contract, the sale itself.
You need to update thesecurities date.
There's just a ton of thingsyou may need to do.
If you have business licensesthis is the compliance side that
I think Jackie was talkingabout You'll need to update
those licenses and, matter offact, before you even get to
that point, you want to makesure those licenses can transfer
(21:20):
.
Jacquelyn Jackson (21:20):
Oh yeah, that's true.
Mickey Fox (21:22):
Especially like if you're buying a bar or something
like that, you want to makesure that you're gonna have that
alcohol license, because if youdon't have the alcohol license,
then all you have is a sodashop.
Jacquelyn Jackson (21:33):
Right.
So you, it sounds like to methat you can give us a due
diligence list to start with, ifwe're starting with our
business, if we're looking atpurchasing a certain business,
which I think is smart, and Ithink it's the time of us doing
business where we did it off ourhips and just you know, based
on what somebody tell us and allthat stuff.
Those days are gone.
We have to have.
(21:53):
If you want to grow and besuccessful, you have to have
professional people in place tohelp your business grow.
You can't just do it byyourself, because it's not going
to grow and then, like you said, it's a struggle.
And then, when it come to thelending side because I
understand money, having abusiness loan helps the company
grow right.
So if you don't have that, oryou're not qualified to get it,
(22:14):
you know, because you're not setup right or your contracts are
not right, or you purchased abusiness, or about the purchase
of business that that the bankis not going to take.
Now this is the thing peopleneed to understand.
I need you all to listen to mereal good.
What Mickey knows as attorney,the lender already knows.
Okay, so he, having attorney,is bringing you what you need in
(22:35):
order for your loans to gothrough without so much of a
hitch.
You know what I'm saying.
That's what's so importantabout having an attorney to come
in in the beginning of youpurchasing this business,
because you're going to come tome, to us, as a loan or a lender
at the end but, like he said,you've already.
If you haven't done what you'resupposed to do, the damage is
already done.
So that's where he's coming inat, and I think that's great.
(22:58):
Do you agree what I'm saying?
Pretty much, mickey, as well.
Mickey Fox (23:01):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean, there's nothing likegetting to the closing table and
finding out that somebody's acertificate of, of incorporation
or whatever, has been suspendedbecause they haven't filed
their, you know their franchisetax Right right.
Right, it's not that it's a hugeproblem.
It just takes time to get donebecause you got to deal with,
(23:22):
you know, the the tax side ofthings and they got to deal with
Secretary's Day.
So it's those little thingsthat can save you an awful lot
of time, right, and when youhave time you can get them done
less expensively.
When you have no time, italways costs a lot of money and
that's not something that I wantsomebody to have to do.
Don't spend a lot of money.
Take it easy, take it slow, getall your ducks in a row and
(23:48):
draw upon the, the wisdomexperience of people like Jackie
or me or a really goodaccountant, to help you kind of
plan the steps that you need totake to get where you can be
before you get to that closingor before you actually get to
the underwriting stage.
Jacquelyn Jackson (24:05):
Right, right, and so I agree with that.
So we need to do that.
So basically and I want to say,this part that you had
mentioned about is taking solong on the lending side, when
it comes to purchasing abusiness, they're going to
require financials and if you'reto giving them this quarter
financials and then you have alot of stuff that's not where
it's supposed to be and it'staking weeks and weeks and
(24:27):
months longer.
Your financials.
You gave the first quarter.
Now you're going to have togive some new financials.
Okay, so what we're saying hereis that by putting him in place
and having the accounting andreally the attorney seeing him
before you purchase a business,like you said, it's like
insurance.
It's cheap insurance it willsave you down the line.
If even if it's not time,because your quarter of what you
(24:50):
can show that you made thefirst quarter, you may have less
the second quarter, you can'tafford to actually have them
come, pull the second quarter up.
So that's why it's importantthat you want to get your stuff
set in place where everythingcan move smoothly and move with
times.
So what I want to say last, notwell, yeah, last would be more
(25:10):
if you would, mickey, when itcomes to choosing the type of
attorney to actually do this.
Can you give us some ideas ofwhat we need to look for when we
are buying a business?
What do we look for?
Mickey Fox (25:20):
an attorney- well, first of all, it's going to be
somebody that you like in a way,and I don't mean that
necessarily that you you want tohang out with them and drink
beer with them, but I meansomebody that you feel like you
can relate to.
That person should afford yourespect.
You know you're a businessperson.
You've been, you've been doingthe work, you've been putting in
(25:41):
the hours, you've gotten to thepoint where you need to get
funding for some reason or other.
The second thing you want tolook at is not so much whether
the attorney's driving you know,a two-tone, rusting great train
or car you know, or whetherthey're dressed in fancy clothes
(26:01):
or whether they have a fancyoffice, but whether that
attorney exudes a kind ofconfidence in in what they're
doing so that you can believethey know what's going on.
The other thing is is you cankind of tell from an attorney's
service offerings whether theykind of specialize in that field
(26:23):
and I don't mean to use theterm specialized, but if that's,
if that's the kind of work theydo, specialization is very
particular to the Texas bar.
They've got certain tests youcan take and things like that.
You can get us what we call aspecialization thing.
But is that the area in whichthey function?
(26:43):
Do they know what's going on?
There is this part of regularpart of their business.
And I think another thing youwant to ask is whether they ever
litigate these kind of matters.
And the reason I say that isI've learned more about doing
business transactions throughlitigating them than I ever did
(27:06):
through a book.
And when you litigate thingsyou have to research a lot of
issues.
You come to understand whatjudges are looking for, what
juries are looking for, and youalso understand what works and
what doesn't work, what wouldlead to litigation.
The idea is to avoid it.
So if we can front load thelitigation avoidance and then we
(27:28):
can do that, we'll do that.
And also, you know, feel freeto ask them.
You know what happens when dealsgo bad.
You know how do you, as aattorney held you, help the
client get out of bad deals.
Is there a way to do that?
What kind of services do theyoffer post transaction?
(27:49):
What kind of plan can they putin place?
Generally people tend to lookat cost.
You know they say, well, howmuch you charge and you can kind
of tell at that point whethersomething's going to go with it
or not, but one of the thingsyou're going to remember is, if
you get a really good attorney,they may charge a little more
(28:10):
per hour, but they can get itdone much more quickly, so that
actually saves you money andtime is important, it's one of
the most important part.
So, like I said, you want tohave somebody who you feel
confident in, somebody who youthink really does understand
what they're doing and do theyunderstand your business?
There are certain lines ofbusiness I won't mess with
(28:32):
because I don't know anythingabout them, but I can tell you
you know a whole lot aboutconstruction business.
I can tell you a whole lotabout doctors, practices and
things like that.
That kind of stuff I deal withregularly and so I kind of know
what to look out for.
And again, that saves you time.
Jacquelyn Jackson (28:54):
So basically, what you're saying is that we
need to get someone that'salready kind of doing what you
need to have done rightBasically when it comes to
attorney there's no sense inpaying the attorney's alarm on
your dime.
Because that bill me for that,wouldn't it?
Mickey Fox (29:08):
Oh yes, ma'am, I certainly would, and I
understand.
Jacquelyn Jackson (29:13):
Okay, well, I appreciate it.
Is it anything that you'd liketo tell us, our listeners, any
last minute words or call ofactions you'd like to give?
Mickey Fox (29:22):
Well, I think the smartest thing in the world is
to find folks that you'reworking with who have a good
network of people to draw fromexperts and folks who are
particularized in their field.
It doesn't do you any good asan attorney, or even as a client
(29:44):
, to be that single point thatis supposed to know everything,
because there's just no way youcan.
And remember that things changeall the time.
The law changes all the timeand it's part of my job to kind
of stay up on the changing lawsas they happen and recently a
(30:05):
lot of laws have been changed.
But I think maybe the biggestthing is to remember what you do
, remember what you're trying toaccomplish and make sure that
this financial decision thatyou're making is going to suit
you.
Don't overextend yourself,don't grab it just because it's
(30:28):
there and a really good attorneywill sometimes tell you no.
Jacquelyn Jackson (30:36):
That is so wonderful.
That is great.
Well, mr Mickey, first of all,I enjoy every time we talk and I
appreciate you so much takingout your busy day, because I
know you're so busy to come andtalk to our listeners and we
really do appreciate that.
Thank you so much for comingand, of course, down probably
the rest of you would probablyhave you coming back for sure,
definitely, thank you.
Thank you so much for being apart of our show.
Mickey Fox (30:58):
You're so welcome, Ms Jackie.
I love you.
I love being on your show.
Jacquelyn Jackson (31:02):
Well, I know, and you're good, good, so this
is going to wrap it up.
So what we want to say is thewrap on today's podcast Insiders
is, after unrevealing thecomplexity of businesses,
purchases with the legal, mickeyFox, here's the key takeaways.
In the excuse me in thefriendly dance of buying a
(31:25):
business, legal clarity is yourbest partner, from due diligence
to contracts.
Mickey emphasized theimportance of having a legal
master by your side to walkthrough the process seamlessly.
So, expiring business models,remember, when navigating the
purchase terrain, having anattorney in your corner isn't
(31:47):
just a choice, it's legally andit's a legal dance that leads to
success.
We want to thank you all forcoming out and for our listeners
.
If you like what you heard, ifyou like what you heard and
would like to stay informedabout getting money for your
business, then listen to TDJequity funding Insiders podcast
(32:07):
on all major podcast platforms.
If you would also like to bepart of our funding Insiders
community, where we're givingout documentation and
information about lendingprocess and more, subscribe to
www at TDJequity LLCnetbackslash podcast until next
time.
Thank you, and you all takecare.
Intro (32:48):
Insidersnet.
Until next time, take care.
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