Keep your business ‘ready for sale’ and have options! When you are ready to sell and confident that your business is going to realise the dollar value you want, then we will introduce you to people to find a buyer and negotiate a deal.
It is not like selling a house where you generally want EVERYONE to know you are selling. When selling a business the owner normally wants to keep it very confidential and not alert staff, suppliers clients or competitors that the business is for sale. So how do you market it and keep it confidential?
My strong advice is to use a good business broker and be happy to pay the commission.
Here are just a few reasons to use a good business broker;
- Seller doesn’t know how to properly value a business
- Seller unable to find potential buyers
- Seller doesn’t know the contractual and legal processes
- If the seller is an owner operator they are probably too busy working in the business to spend the amount of time required to make a sale
- Seller doesn’t know how to present the business in the best way to make it attractive for a buyer
- Seller is not comfortable negotiating with potential buyers
- Dealing with potential buyers, some of whom are not really serious, can take up a lot of time and create stress
- Seller doesn’t know how to evaluate offers or structure an agreement
- Seller is unable to create competition between potential buyers
- The buyers often feel more comfortable dealing with an experienced broker
- Maintaining confidentiality of the sale with staff, clients, suppliers and the competition can be difficult if the owner does his own selling
Beware though of the ‘pseudo brokers’ out there who charge you large up front fees ($6,000 and upwards) to advertise your business in a glossy ‘international’ magazine or web site. Their marketing says that they have access to a large pool of overseas migrants who are just hanging out to buy a business like yours.
See my post on this web site – SELLER BEWARE! Often these people are not brokers at all and they just want your advertising dollars. Often they are owned by media and advertising businesses.
Get a good local broker. See SERVICES or CONTACT US if you want help with the sale process or to find the right broker.
