If you are looking to acquire a public relations firm, you should begin your search approximately 12 months before you want to close the deal. This lead time allows for the extensive valuation process, financial due diligence, and transition planning required to successfully merge two agency cultures and client rosters. PR Firm Mergers & Acquisitions…
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Category: Business Advice
How to Communicate Effectively When You Sell Your PR Agency
Public relations agencies are in the business of communications, yet communicating their own acquisition can be challenging because it is new and unchartered territory. At Gould+Partners, we guide our PR agency clients through every step of the M&A process, including how to communicate effectively with staff and clients during a PR merger to build trust…
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Benefits of Benchmarking Audits for PR Firms
Since 1987, Gould+Partners has been conducting surveys and compiling and analyzing extensive data for the public relations industry, which we share with the public, free of charge, in our annual benchmarking reports. These reports provide valuable insights for PR firms, and serve as an indispensable tool by which to measure themselves. However, interpreting these reports…
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Overcoming an Impasse in M&A Transactions
In an M&A transaction, the ultimate goal should be to resolve any impasse that arises through an approach to negotiate based on the interests of the buyer and seller. You should always be willing to negotiate. You must be willing to sit down with your adversary—preferably face to face—and attempt to make a deal that…
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Solid Financial Management Adds to the Value of Your Agency
What is the easiest pathway to maximize value? The answer is simple. Get to the mark of 20 percent operating profit. One proven method for understanding and effectively managing a PR business is using financial benchmarks. Knowing the key ratios and their benchmarks gives management the tools to fine-tune financial operations in order to increase…
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Compensation: Clients Who Fit the Bill
Healthy client relations are the lifeblood for PR agencies. Every client is unique, of course, with disparate needs, and PR agency owners often must take pains to provide those services, as well as a trust-based relationship. When it comes to effectively serving clients, one size doesn’t fit all. The same holds true for agency billing….
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Looking Back 20 Years on June 1, 2021 and The Impact on PR firm M&A Transactions
It was June 1, 2001. Google was just a pup and Facebook and Twitter hadn’t been born yet. Advertisers were still purchasing print media. As far as creative services firms were concerned buyers had a clear delineation between marketing and PR shops. June 1, 2001 was also when I sold my CPA firm and started…
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Psychological Buy-in Critical for Exit Strategy
Amid the dramatic and ongoing changes within the marketing communications industries is the accelerating rate of M&A transactions within the PR field. PR firm owners, including heads of boutiques, smaller shops and mid-size firms, are giving more serious consideration to selling. Many of these owners are products of the baby-boom generation and would like to…
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5 Questions to Ask When Considering Selling Your PR Firm
If you have decided that it’s time to take that first step in your planned exit strategy of selling the firm, you may have questions regarding what your next steps should be. The next steps you should think through as you move to sell your public relations agency are: 1. Do you know your true…
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Bigger is Better – But Not “Too Big”
We have been consistently advising PR Agencies to grow their top line for maximizing value, as long as they maintain bottom line consistency, targeting 20+ percent. But there is a footnote to this advice. Being “too big” may actually decrease the payback. The sweet spot for PR firms has been the $10-$25 million net revenue…
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The Value of Human Capital
The term “Human Capital” is offensive to some. They see it as treating people as material objects. I hope to build a greater appreciation that the character, competence and commitment of a firm’s professional talent has a major impact on its valuation in an M&A situation. That acknowledgement, together with other recommendations, are intended to…
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Cybersecurity and Telecommuting in PR, Alone and Together
Cybersecurity and telecommuting are two separate lanes for PR firm owners to manage. But they’re certainly not independent of one another. As the so-called dark web rears its ugly head, PR agency owners and C-level executives are increasingly responsible for protecting their digital and online assets soup to nuts. At the same time, owners must…
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