At some point every business owner exits their business!
At some point every business owner exits their business!Will YOU exit with equity and have your biggest pay-day ever?
Do you have a ‘business ready for sale’ checklist for your business?
(O.K. I’ll cut to the chase – I run half day workshops in Perth on getting your business in to a ‘ready for sale’ state. Click the button for details)
Don’t wait until you are forced to sell by circumstances and only get a low return for all the blood, sweat, tears and time you have invested in the business? Or worse still, close the business down.
The simple truth is that if you haven’t got all your ducks lined up in your business before you put it on the market then you are likely to be very disappointed with the outcome when trying to sell your business. And I say ‘trying’ because in the current business sales market you have to have all your ducks lined up to sell a business.
Buyers are buying businesses but they are doing much greater due diligence than they did years ago. There are a lot more businesses for sale than there are buyers. This means that buyers can be much more selective about the business they buy.
If you want your business to stand out, sell quickly and get the maximum sell price, then make sure that everything is very well prepared and ‘ready for sale’ BEFORE going to the market.
The other benefit of getting your ducks lined up is that (as I keep saying) a 
business that’s ‘ready for sale’ is well worth keeping. Build your business as if you are going to keep it forever, but could sell it tomorrow.
“So” you ask, “what are these damn ducks you keep talking about?”
The ‘ducks’ are basically a checklist of things to have ready! Areas I cover in my “Preparing a Business Ready For Sale” half day workshop, include;
- Legal entity, ownership, business names versus trading names (often out of date)
- Financials and accounting (obvious, but often a major headache at appraisal time!)
- Systems and procedures (often totally absent, out of date or incomplete)
- Customer records and databases (much of the goodwill is in this area)
- Sales and marketing – systems and records (absolutely crucial and often non-existent!)
- Suppliers (done on a handshake – may not be good enough)
- HR and employment (a mystery area to many business owners)
- Premises (can be a minefield)
- Reason for sale (may be obvious to you but a buyer will see it differently)
- Other – the business needs to be assessed through the eyes of a buyer…..
Obviously I can’t cover all of these in detail here, however I cover ‘getting your ducks lined up’ in my half day workshops. To find out about my next workshop;
Learning from the many mistakes I see business owners make in my role as a business broker puts me in a great position to help other business owners to prepare their business ‘ready for sale’ and avoid the same mistakes. My 10 years running my training and development business has prepared me to deliver that learning to business owners. Please check out my services on this website and contact me if I can be of help.
Once again, to learn about ‘getting your ducks line up’ – click the button to get details of my next half day workshop!
“Helping business owners prepare their business ‘ready for sale’ – and selling them!”
Do You Have A Business To Sell or Do You Have A Job?
