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FROM THE FOUNDER
There are nine reasons why selling your firm to the right buyer can strengthen opportunities, stability, and growth for your people. Selling your business isn’t a cop-out
I n this business – the AEC business – there are still many firm principals who believe that selling their business to an external buyer is a cop-out. They believe that anything other than an internal sale is somehow the wrong thing to do for their people.
There is no doubt that pop culture portrays the management of every company that buys another company as stupid, evil, and bad. Watch ANY movie or TV show where a business is sold – or read any novel with a business sale as part of the plot – and I challenge you to find a single example where it was a positive event. So how can you blame people who haven’t had any experience buying or selling businesses for thinking it would be bad for their employees? That said, I disagree with this conventional wisdom. I think that many times a firm sale could be the BEST thing you can do for your people, not the worst. Here are nine reasons why I think so: 1. The buyer may make your business more successful than you have, and that may create
opportunities for your employees to earn more money. In general, larger companies pay better salaries for any specific role than smaller ones do (for the same role). And in general, higher profits result in bigger bonuses. 2. Your employees may have new job opportunities in different parts or places of the buying company’s business. They could have offices in other locations. They could have disciplines or specialty service areas that your business doesn’t have. All of these things could create more options for your people. 3. Your employees may have better employment benefits than they currently have. Bigger companies usually have better benefits. More
Mark Zweig
See MARK ZWEIG , page 6
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 10, 2025, ISSUE 1609
ELEVATE THE INDUSTRY®
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