John Denton on Getting Businesses Ready For Sale

A business that's 'ready for sale' is well worth keeping!

Do You Have A Business, A Practice Or A Hobby?

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Business Owners: Are You Building Something To Sell?

Or do you have practice or a hobby?

Many people tell me that they have a business and want to sell. In reality after asking some pointed questions, it often turns out that they have a practice or are simply “self employed”.

So what’s the difference? Putting it simply, a practice is based around an expert (practitioner / tradesperson) and a business is based upon systems! A business can be though of as a commercial, profitable enterprise that runs without the business owner having to be there. A business can be sold but a practice can’t.

So do you have a business to sell or a practice / hobby? The acid test is “Can you go away for three months holiday and the business still runs without you?” Many business owners build their business around them and make themselves indispensable. This means that not only is the business ‘unsaleable’ but also that the owner cannot take holidays or have a life as well as a business. Typically the business owner is always “on call” for the business either to customer demands or staff if there are any. It doesn’t need to be like this.

Contact me for help to turn your practice or business into a saleable asset – a business that you can sell at the best price, quickly and easily, any time you want to.

I work with business owners on a one on one mentoring arrangement or in business owner mentoring groups that I have been facilitating since 2008. For more on what I do you can go to THE BUSINESS GROWTH PROCESS

If you would like to just have an informal chat then please BOOK A TIME TO CHAT

Why Have A Well Crafted Sales Process

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IncreasingsalesMany years ago when I was a service engineer with a major international computer company, I had a mate who I thought was a “natural” salesman. This was based upon the success I saw him having picking up attractive young ladies. He seemed to find it easy when the rest of us struggled. I believed that great salesmen were born, NOT made!

Obviously he was very good at selling himself and I assumed he was born with “the gift”. Eventually I discovered his secret. He tricked me in to going out with him one evening to be his ‘wingman’. It turned out that he had a WELL CRAFTED SALES PROCESS for picking up members of the opposite sex.

When I transitioned from engineering in to sales, I struggled for a while and then I remembered my mate. With some training and a good sales manager I crafted a very successful sales process for our products and my target market, and went on to win the annual company sales award for the next five years.

Understanding the need for a well thought out sales process was my first (but not my last) major turning point in my sales career.

Now, as a result of frequent request from my business owner mentoring group clients, I have put together a half day seminar on creating your own “well crafted sales process”. NOW, I believe that great salespeople CAN be made and that you don’t have to be a ‘born salesman’.

I call my seminar ‘How To Win More Deals More Often‘.

If you do this right, then you will significantly improve sales success and make sales in less time and with less stress! (I can’t guarantee you will be able to attract more members of the opposite sex. But, hey! You never know!)

Click here for my “Win More Deals More Often” seminar schedule & registration

Seller Beware on Selling Your Business

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Buyer bewareDon’t Blow Your Money When Trying To Sell A Business!

This will be a short post as I want to get it to you quickly. I have advised clients about this in the past but following a recent marketing campaign by a firm claiming to be business brokers, I thought I should re-post this message.

Basically, there are a few large corporations out there making claims to be business brokers and selling businesses via very expensive glossy advertising in magazines. Sometimes the company involved claiming to sell businesses has interests in the media publication involved.

Their Main Interest Is To Sell You Advertising – Not Sell A Business

Before you engage anyone to sell your business, check out the following;

  1. Are they registered business brokers complying with Australian Government regulations?
  2. Do they know and operate in your local market? That is, do they have an office in the state and people on the ground?
  3. Did you get a written appraisal of your business or did you just ‘agree a price’?
  4. Can they give you names of business owners for whom they have sold businesses?

Just make sure you do your due diligence on anyone before you list with them and find out how they will go about selling your business, not just placing an expensive advertisement in a magazine. For detail about how the ACCC and the NSW Government view these people READ THIS! It includes a sample of a recent marketing campaign and an Australian Institute of Business Brokers press release.

On a slightly different topic – also beware ‘online business evaluations’. Many of these are based in the USA and in any case are very basic and unlikely to reflect true local market values in your area.

To get the low down on valuing a business and preparing it for sale, attend one of my half day workshops. DETAILS HERE

Until next time – keep those numbers going up!

John Denton

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