Before you go off and throw your company in the market to try and sell it, there are some things that you should do first.
Rushing your company’s sale will only result in a confusing sales process, less profitable sale, and the risk of not selling the company at all! If you are new to this sales situation, take a look at some of the tips.
Get Organized
First things first… organize your company! This means getting all of your financial documentation, legal papers, and everything else organized so that you won’t need to waste time later trying to find them. These are going to be used not only to show the buyer, but to get a proper valuation as well, so this isn’t a step you can skip.
You should also make sure that any branch of your company that could potentially lose effectiveness due to the sale is properly handled. Whether it be employees, your processes or procedures, or anything else that only works while the company is under your control. You don’t want a potential buyer to check out how you run things, only to disappoint them because your company isn’t running as efficiently as possible.
Get An Accurate Valuation
Valuations are a major part in the sale of a business. They provide an incredible amount of information that is required by most buyers. You have to make sure that when you go looking for a third party to do the valuation for you, that they are experienced and knowledgeable about what they are doing. Getting an incorrect valuation can really sideswipe a potential deal. Then you will need to get it redone all over again. So instead, just ensure that you hire professionals to do the work.
Figure Out A Sales Strategy
While we all wish we could just pop our businesses on the market and see it sell for an incredible amount of money, it doesn’t work like that. Unfortunately, there are other businesses for sale that are probably very similar to yours.
So you need to come up with a strategy that will catch the attention of potential buyers and keep them interested over your competition. There are plenty of sales strategies out there, and a lot of them all depend on what industry you are in. Just make sure to take some time and come up with a great strategy to sell the company for the amount you want.
Understand The Current Market
This goes hand in hand with figuring out a sales strategy. You will need to do some research on other companies for sale and sales that have happened in the past. If you see that there are many other businesses for sale for much less than you want to sell yours, you will need to come up with a great way to make your business look appealing for people to be interested in it.
On the other hand, if you have a smaller business and see that other similar businesses are going for much more than you anticipated, then you can price your company a little lower to catch the attention of the people looking to get a good deal. Bottom line is, do your research to come up with a good sales strategy.
Provide Proof That Your Company Is Easily Manageable
The last tip we are going to go over is ensure that the buyer will be able to manage the company and keep it profitable. If you have multiple departments, employees, etc… then you need to be able to show your potential buyers that they all are able to handle their jobs and keep the company profitable.
A big mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make is that they don’t account for what will happen to the company if they are no longer there. If they have played a major part in making the company successful, then they need to find replacements so that the company will continue to grow, or at the very least provide the buyer with detailed instructions on what they did to run the business.
By doing these few things prior to selling your company, you will have a much better sales process and will be able to get the money that you have been working so hard to earn. The more preparation you put into the sale, the more effective it will be.
