So, you are looking to finally sell your business for a massive payday that you have been waiting such a long time for. Well congratulations on making it this far! The fight isn’t over yet, as the sales process can be quite tricky if you have never done something like it previously. The best thing you can do before trying to sell the business is to get fully prepared for what is about to happen. To help you get prepared, we are going to take a look at the most important steps to take.
Get A Business Valuation
The first and most important thing to do is to get your business valuated. You need to know a realistic amount to expect from potential buyers. Getting a professional valuation means that you will know how much you might profit from the sale, your business’s market position, its strengths, the overall financial situation, and any weaknesses it might have. The information provided from a valuation can really help you understand where your company is and where it will head in the future. You can also use it as proof to potential buyers if they try and ask you to sell for a price much lower.
Get Your Financial And Other Important Documents In Order
Having all of your business’s documents organized from the start will really make this step extremely easy. Unfortunately, not all of us keep everything as organized as we should, so now it’s time to find everything and make them readily available. All of your financial documents, taxes, proof of ownership, etc. Everything that a potential buyer would want to see should be ready and up to date.
Prepare To Make A Good First Impression
First impressions are everything when trying to sell a business, so make sure that potential buyers become interested right away. There are plenty of businesses for sale, so make yours stand out and you will have a much easier time finding interested buyers. Unfortunately, a lot of the serious people who buy multiple businesses won’t give you a second look if they are turned off from it right from the start, so don’t let that happen.
Organize All Of Your Legal Paperwork
This step could technically be a part of the previous section about getting all of you documents in order, but when it comes to legal paperwork, it deserves its own section. Missing legal documents or not having them readily available is a big reason that a business deal might end up failing. It comes off as very unprofessional and makes buyers think twice about the sale when there are issues concerning the legal aspect of a business. Licensing agreements, incorporation papers, permits, leases, contract etc are all considered to be legal documents.
Disengage From The Business
The last thing we are going to cover is for you to disengage from the company. You need to prove to buyers that your business can be run and still be profitable without you there. You should slowly step away from your position in the company and let other people do your work for you. You want to make sure not to rush this process though because you don’t want to see any drops is sales or conversion rates. Just make sure to hire or assign someone that is able to handle your work load, then show the buyers that the company is still profitable without you being a part of it. If you still plan to be involved with the business once the sale happens, then this step might not be necessary.
So there you have it, as basic guide on how to prepare to sell your business. Once you have completed all of these steps, you can start looking for buyers and hopefully will sell for the amount you were looking for.