Business Owners Guide

Is it time to sell? Selling your business is a major decision! You have devoted your time, money, and energy into building, running, and operating your business. It may well represent your life’s work. If you have already decided that now is the right time to sell, you want the very best professional guidance you can get. This is when working in tandem with our professional business brokers can make the difference between just getting rid of the business and selling it for a great price!

Following are some of the most common topics and questions frequently brought up by sellers. If you have any questions that we have not covered, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Are You Ready to Exit?

If you’ve gone this far, then selling your business has aroused enough curiosity that you are taking the first step. You don’t have to make a commitment at this point; you are just getting informed about what is necessary to successfully sell your business. This section should answer a lot of your questions and help you through the maze of the process itself.

Question 1

The first question almost every seller asks is: “What is my business worth?” Quite frankly, if we were selling our business, that is the first thing we would want to know. However, we’re going to put this very important issue off for a bit and cover some of the things you need to know before you get to that point. Before you ask that question, you have to be ready to sell for what the market is willing to pay. If money is the only reason you want to sell, then you’re not really ready to sell.

Question 2

The second question you have to consider is: “Do you really want to sell this business?” If you’re really serious and have a solid reason (or reasons) why you want to sell, it will most likely happen. You can increase your chances of selling if you can answer yes to the second part of this question: “Do you have reasonable expectations?” A yes answer to these two questions means you are serious about selling.

The First Steps

Okay, let’s assume that you have decided to at least take the first few steps to actually selling your business. Before you even think about placing your business for sale, there are some things you should do first.The first thing we will need is information about your business. We have a complete checklist of items you will need to get together. Call us today to get started!

Who are the Buyers?

Buyers buy businesses for many of the same reasons that sellers sell businesses. It is important that the buyer is as serious as the seller when it comes time to purchase a business. If the buyer is not serious, the sale will never close. Here are just a few of the reasons that buyers buy businesses:

Laid-off, fired, being transferred (or about to be any of these)
Early retirement (forced or not)
Job dissatisfaction
Desire for more control over their lives
Desire to do his or her own thing

You Can Help!

Appearances Do Count

The time to replace that old worn-out piece of equipment is before you decide to sell. Don’t assume that a new owner will want to do it or that the price will be slightly lower because you haven’t replaced it. The time to “spiff up” the business is now, even if you aren’t selling. it’s just plain good for business, and you never know when the time to sell will occur.

Everything Has Value

There are other things that add value to your business. We look at your business very carefully so you don’t overlook those items that make your business more attractive to the buyer.

Eliminate the Surprises

Long before you put your business on the market, eliminate the surprises! Review every facet of the business and remedy any problems that could appear during the sale process. No one likes surprises – most of all potential buyers. Whether legal, accounting, environmental, or anything else – solve it now.

We look forward to working with you in finding a suitable buyer for your business. You, as the seller, are an interal part of our total marketing program.

It might also be helpful if you took a good look at your business from the perspective of a buyer. Try to put yourself in the place of a prospective purchaser of the business. What would you do to make it more attractive or more saleable? We know you have lots of questions, call us! It’s only by working together that we’ll get the best results.