A Study in Success
Here is an excerpt from a Manulife article that used Gilchrist Games as a Case Study...
When a Small Business Changes Hands
There are several key challenges to consider when you transfer ownership of a small business. The benefits can be considerable if you do it with care.
When a prospective buyer arrived at Reg Gilchrist’s door years ago with an offer to purchase his company, he had little choice but to accept the proposal. Gilchrist, one of Canada’s best-known distributors of coin-operated games, shuffleboard and pool tables and vending machines, had run his Toronto-based company for more than 40 years. His son, Tom, had left a promising sales career to join the company and would have bought the business himself, but at the age of 25, couldn’t come up with a competitive offer. Nor could he pay the taxes on the company if ownership were transferred to him. So Reg Gilchrist sold his business, then helped his son start another one, called T. W. Gilchrist Vending Co.
Looking back on that period, Tom Gilchrist says it was a difficult decision for his father. If his own children decided to join the newer family business, Tom says, “I’d lay out the carpet for them.”
About one million businesses currently operate in Canada with 100 or fewer employees. Like Gilchrist, their owners have to plan now for the time when they sell their company or pass it on to their family or beneficiary. In fact, a few hours of planning now could save a lot of time and money in the future and could even make the difference between selling the business or keeping it in the family.