Issac Qureshi is a UK based expert Deal Maker and a successful Tax professional. We recently Interviewed him to know more about his services and how organisations can make acquisition and merger process smoother.
Issac, Thanks for talking with us. Talking a bit about your entrepreneurial journey, please share some essential qualities which entrepreneurs should have in order to have business success.
Thanks for having me. Well, there are a number of qualities any entrepreneur needs to have in order to achieve success, but I think the main ones are persistence, passion, a strong work ethic, and being very open-minded. I know these key traits have certainly helped me on my own entrepreneurial journey over the years. The key is to ensure you are doing what you REALLY want to do!
Even after doing a SWOT analysis, many acquisitions fail. It could be due to lack of operational due diligence or because of not benchmarking the target acquisitions against the performance of thepeers. What according to you are the key reasons for acquisition failures?
Acquisitions fail for a number of reasons, and there are certainly too many to go through here right now. But for me, one of the major reasons why I see a number of acquisitions fail is through losing the focus on the desired objectives. By this, I mean that sometimes through the process, you forget why you actually wanted to acquisition in the first place! Never lose focus of the WHY and ensure it fits into your overall plans and strategies.
As a Merger and acquisition specialist, what key points should professionals keep in their minds before starting any merger or acquisition deal?
The most successful merger or acquisition has full buy-in from all parties. This includes not only the owners and stockholders, but the employees and customers. All parties need to understand the vision of the merged companies and see the upside.
Even though there hasn’t been a better time to raise capital, many Startups struggle to raise their first series of funding. What capital options should Startups look for in their early rounds of funding?
I would always say that at the start of any venture use your own money! This helps others appreciate that you have a truly vested interest in the growth of the business. After that, I would look to close family and friends as they will always be your best supporters! After this then you are entering into the world of more structured finance such as loans, seed funding, angel funding, etc.
Please share with our readers how do you streamline the entire acquisition or capital raising process for your clients.
We continuously ensure we follow a process-driven approach. Each and every acquisition deal has to go through an initial 5 step process and if the acquisition target passes these steps, we then have again a further 5 steps to follow. This methodology ensures every deal is evaluated exactly the same and helps remove any emotional attachment but more importantly, follows the rules and strategy that has helped us be successful in the past.
Any suggestions you would like to give to businesses who want to expand right now but have fears related to the ongoing pandemic.
As they always say “every cloud has a silver lining” – although we are in the midst of a pandemic, as with recessions, it is the entrepreneurs who see this as a period of opportunity who will become successful in the future. Hunt that opportunity!
