What are Buyers Looking For

Over 40% of lab owners plan to retire within the next decade. With retirement on the horizon for so many, selling a laboratory is going to become an increasingly competitive situation. In this buyer’s market, operating a well-run, profitable lab, maximizing its value and standing out from your peers is going to be essential if your exit strategy is to sell your laboratory. Here are some key features buyers are looking at when considering a laboratory acquisition:

* Solid client base. Statistically, even if all goes smoothly, a buyer can lose 10 to 20% of your accounts so he’s going to be looking carefully at your customers: the strength of your relationships, amount of turnover, their location, overlap between your two markets, proximity to retirement age, etc.

And remember the 80/20 rule: generally 80% of a lab’s business comes from 20% of its clients. As a seller, the more you can increase the percentage of clients from...