Glossary
The words you hear when preparing to sell a business in Quebec, defined simply.
- Succession (relève)
- The person or group that takes over from the owner at the head of a business: a family member, employees or an outside buyer. A business "has no successor" when nobody is ready to take over.
- Business transfer (transmission)
- The passing of a business's ownership and leadership from one owner to another, by sale, gift or gradual transfer.
- Owner independence
- A business's ability to operate, keep its clients and make decisions without the person who built it. Buyers pay more for an independent business, because the risk of losing revenue after the owner leaves is lower.
- Baseline value
- At Augmented Transitions, what the business is worth at the start of the engagement, as is. It's set from the financial statements using recognized methods, and is the starting point for measuring the uplift.
- Uplift
- The difference between the sale price and the baseline value. It is the value the preparation work created.
- EBITDA
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It's the most common profitability measure used to value a small business: the price is often expressed as a multiple of normalized EBITDA.
- Earn-out
- Part of the sale price paid later, only if the business hits certain results after the sale. The more a business depends on its owner, the larger the conditional share a buyer asks for.
- Exempt market dealer (EMD)
- A dealer registered with the Autorité des marchés financiers that can support a sale of shares to eligible buyers. When a business is sold through a share sale, we work with a registered dealer of this kind.
Do it with a pro
You can do it all yourself. With us, it gets done faster, and better.
We and our regional partner implement each step directly in your business, while you keep running it.
Book your free audit
No commitment. No cost. 45 minutes.
Focus regions: Eastern Townships (Estrie) · Montérégie · Centre-du-Québec · Mauricie · Quebec City region (Capitale-Nationale) · Montreal · Laval · Laurentians (Laurentides). 1 regional partner.