Selling your business isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. After all, your business is usually your livelihood. It would have been your passion when you first started it. If you’ve realized that the passion has started to waver, you might be wondering whether this is a good time to sell your business. Make sure you know the following 6 things before you sell:
Buyers Aren’t Going To Give You More For Your Business Potential
Many business owners believe that they’ll get far more for their business because it has potential. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Your business isn’t going to sell based on your perceived potential of it. If you don’t have a proven revenue stream then it won’t have any value at all in the eyes of potential buyers. Your business needs to have been successful already before you sell, and you need numbers and stats to pack it up.
Buyers Want Profits
Buyers won’t be as impressed with your revenue figures as they will be with your profits. The numbers might sound impressive, but the profits are the only thing that truly matter to those who have a serious interest in buying your business.
Buyers Want Verifiable Financial Claims
If you’re going to claim you have revenue or make profits from a source, then you must have proof of this to be taken seriously by buyers. You should be prepared to show things like invoices and bank statements that can back up your claims. Don’t ask yourself how can I sell my business if you’re not willing to do this. You need to back up what you’re saying.
Avoid Living In The Past
Anybody looking into buying your business will be interested in your recent results, not how successful you were when you first started out. Recent, meaning the last 12 months or so. This will help them to figure out how sustainable and viable the business could be in the near future.
Don’t Wait Until Your Business Is On the Decline
Why do so many entrepreneurs wait until their business is on the decline to sell it? You should be doing the opposite. You need to know when you’re at your peak. If you’re a true entrepreneur, you’ll identify that as the best time to sell. If you think that you’re making good money and you have no reason to sell, then you’re thinking too much like a business owner.
You Should Be Negotiating The Deal, Rather Than The Price
Business owners who focus on the purchase price alone will always lose when it comes to negotiations. If you ignore things like the structure of the deal, the tax treatments, and similar things, you’ll end up leaving money on the table.
Remember, the faster you respond, the more transparent you set out to be, and the more you disclose to potential buyers, the more comfortable they will be. This makes the more likely to put in an offer. You will automatically reduce your own risk and close the deal.
