Here are some tips to successfully sell your business.  Bear in mind that to sell your business successfully requires a lot of preparation, attention to detail and organization.  Most sellers badly underestimate both what they need to do and what to do if a qualified buyer comes along.

A good rule of thumb is that it takes about ten buyer inquiries to reach a potential buyer who has the qualification to buy the business.  There is not a shortage of buyers; there is a shortage of buyers who have the right industry and management experience, a good down payment and credit score and the most important ingredient of all, the motivation to move through the process to buy a business.  So if you find the right buyer, you need to have your “A” game ready so your business sells in the shortest time possible.

Here are 5 tips to help you prepare and be ready to sell your business.

1.  Assuming you know what the buyer wants

Buying a business is a unique experience; every transaction is unique.  If you meet a buyer with the right qualifications and assume you understand their needs, wants and motivations it is a bad practice as a smart buyer will not reveal their true motivations.

2.     Failing to understand the buyer’s objectives and needs

There is a big difference between assuming you know what the buyer wants and clearly understanding what the buyer wants to know from you.  The buyer has questions and needs and it will be their final decision as to whether or not this is the right business for them to buy.  If you can meet the criteria the buyer gives you…you are on your way even though the criteria may not ultimately be what the buyer says to you.  So listen and understand what the buyer wants to know and decide if it is the right time in the transaction to share it with them.

3.     Improper pre-sale planning and a lack of organization

There are so many steps to successfully sell a business.  Being organized and having all the right processes in place is a starting point to try and be successful.  This includes the legal forms and processes you want a buyer to sign such as a confidentiality agreement, buyer’s financial statement and buyer disclosure.

4.     Answering the question before the buyer asks

Be careful to understand the question and then provide the right answer.  You may be answering a different question than the buyer is asking…and that can be bad or very bad.  When you sell a business there can be great value in listening and answering as clearly and honestly as possible all the questions.  Too much information provides more questions, not enough information suggests something is being hidden.

5.     Allow the buyer to feel a sense of control

The standard practice is for all parties to try to control the process.  After all, if a deal does not eventuate each party feels they lost something even if it’s only their time.  Most deals collapse and the business does not sell because one party doesn’t understand what or why a question or process needs to happen at different points in the transaction.  Trust is one of the hardest components to create.

Selling a business requires a lot of patience, making sure it’s clear what you are selling, organization so you can respond to questions and requests for information while at the same time being alert to only answer questions at the appropriate time.

If you’d like more information on how to sell your business, you are welcome to sign up for my free monthly newsletter by clicking the following link Free monthly newsletter.  When you sign up you also get access to over 25 free documents to use when selling your business.

To sell a business with an exit plan is simply good business.  A business is a ball of energy, never sitting still but reacting and moving in different directions as the economy changes, new tools and innovations come to market, the stress and strain from competition and the ever changing demands of customers.  The challenge to succeed, feed their family, help and create happy customers and other individual motivations are what gets a business owner out of bed every morning.  It also includes the chance to do something different, learn something new, to see the rewards of hard work, to plant new ideas and watch them grow or to help someone do something they thought they may not be able to do.

If the business owner loses the hunger to learn, be the vision and leader of the business, it’s time for a change.  Because a business is so dynamic, it requires leadership.  If this doesn’t happen it will shrivel and die.  Capital, time and energy must keep moving otherwise it will slowly die and fade away.
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The life blood of what we do as human beings and the glue that keeps us all together as a society whether at a local, regional, national or indeed international level is the ability to communicate with one another.  Many times that communication breaks down and many times this leads to negative consequences.  All entrepreneurs are familiar with a Business Plan and a Sales and Marketing Plan but not everyone has heard of a Communication plan.  So what is a Communication plan?

A Communication plan is an attempt to standardize the message that goes out from the business to its customers.  It complements and dovetails with a Business Plan and Sales and Marketing Plan.  In some instances there can be an overlap but essentially it includes all written, spoken and electronic communications.
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Buying or selling a business is a complex matter.  There is no question about it.  The complexities start from the moment a buyer and seller start interacting.  These include, for example, the buyer not having any history or knowledge about the operation of the business and so have to rely entirely on the representations of the seller.  Conversely, the seller lives and breathes the business, knows its ups and downs as well as its strengths and weaknesses.  My Golden Rule when assisting with a business transaction is for each party to put their feet in the shoes of the other party.  In other words, the seller should see things from the buyer’s perspective and the buyer should see things from the seller’s perspective.
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One of the hardest aspects of being an entrepreneur is staying on top of some things you may not like to do because you either don’t enjoy them or simply aren’t good at them…or both.  Doing math back in school just wasn’t fun for me.  I enjoyed almost every other subject except anything to do with numbers as there seemed too many rules and exceptions to remember.

Most entrepreneurs do not enjoy numbers.  They are happy to delegate the task of debits and credits or journal entries or double entry book-keeping to someone who enjoys it.  Define your core competencies and what you do well and then delegate to other people who have the right skill set and aptitude to do the things they do well.  In simple business terms it is called ‘outsourcing.’
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There is a US Court of Appeals judge by the name of Judge Learned Hand and he lived from 1872 to 1961 or until he was almost 90 years old. Originally from upstate New York, Hand graduated from Harvard Law School and became a lawyer. At 37 years of age he became a judge appointed to the Federal District of Manhattan and he became well known and respected for the quality of his judgments.

What caught my attention was one of the best quotes I’ve read regarding the paying of taxes. His quote is “…over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do it right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.”
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The Small Business Administration’s 7(A) Loan Guarantee Program has recently gone through some modifications and changes. These changes include an increase in credit availability for owners of companies with purchase prices between $400,000 and $4,000,000.

The SBA 7(A) program helps small entrepreneurs start or expand their businesses with loans through bank and non-bank lending institutions. Previously the loans only allowed a maximum of $250,000 in intangibles (including goodwill) to be financed. However, under the revised rules, it is now possible to finance any amount of goodwill (even up to this program’s lending limit of $2,000,000), as long as at least 25 percent equity exists in borrower down payment and/or seller stand-by financing.

There is more good news, in that the SBA has temporarily increased its guarantee from 75 percent to 90 percent of the total loan amount, and currently waives the guarantee fee (2.6 percent of the loan amount) charged to borrowers.
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Everyone is familiar with the Christmas song, the 12 days of Christmas. Without going into every verse of the song, the carol works forwards with the first day of Christmas being a partridge in a pear tree, the second day of Christmas two turtle doves and so on. The song is full of optimism and hope that the giver and receivers of the gifts will be thankful for life, the opportunity to share and hope for the future.

From researching the origins of the song, I came across something interesting. One of the articles I read suggested that the 12 days of Christmas is not about the 12 days prior to Christmas but in fact, the 12 days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany which begins on January 06. When I thought further about this, it naturally combined with another favorite thing we do during the Holiday Season and that is to make New Year’s Resolutions.
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There are many things you need to do when planning to sell your business.  Because there are so many things to do it is easy to make mistakes.  There are also things to avoid and here’s 5 things to avoid so you successfully sell your business.

1. Talking when you shouldn’t.
This may sound obvious but when you sell a business it’s more important to listen and ask questions than continually talk to try and “sell” the business. Often there is more information in hearing the type of questions being or not being asked and the follow up comments. If you are the only one talking that means there is little interest or other negative perceptions that need to be removed so the buyer is comfortable moving forward.
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Deciding to sell a business you own and operate and love like a child is rarely easy. Business ownership includes many practical matters such as providing an income, helping customers, paying your bills on time etc but it also includes many emotions. These include being successful, honest, going above and beyond to help customers and employees to name a few. If it’s time for you to sell your business, consider the following 5 tips to help you be successful.

1. Avoid using high-pressure sales tactics.
Buying and selling a business is a unique set of circumstances. No two transactions are the same. You can never “sell” a business; the buyer has to want to “buy” for reasons that make sense to them. The law recognizes this by defining it as a willing buyer and a willing seller with neither party under any compulsion to close the transaction.
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Owning and operating a business always comes with many challenges. For different reasons the current recession seems “the worst we’ve ever experienced.”  Whether that’s true or not, this particular recession is marked by how low the economy has gone, high rates of unemployment, but I think worst of all, how it’s taken so much longer than normal to work its way through the economic system.

Perhaps it’s a good time to remember that things don’t always flow smoothly and that bouncing back “to get on with it” is part of an entrepreneur’s tool kit of things to do. Here are some things to consider that will put a little spring back into your step.
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When most business owners decide to sell and they wish to be the one to start the process, the first and obvious place to start is with a business valuation. A business valuation gives the owner a reference point as to whether the price they hope to get for the business will be reasonable and/or achievable.

Some business owners choose the selling price for the business based on what they want in order to sell. They may have a certain amount of debt they wish to retire, money they need for retirement plus an ache that makes them think there business is worth a certain amount of money. Not a good basis for trying to convince a buyer about the asking price for the business.

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The question of whether to sell your business is a difficult one. It is, no doubt, the biggest financial transaction you’ll ever make. Yet every successful business owner must face it eventually.

There are several things to consider when selling your business:

• When is the right time to sell?
  It’s important to pay attention to what’s going on within your company and industry. For a successful sale, you and your business must be ready. Your business should be properly managed and you should be able to demonstrate your company’s financial capability. If you want to sell your business by a certain date, allow sufficient time as selling a business is a complicated process that takes time.

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As a business owner, and part of the baby boomer generation, you’ve seen your share of ups and downs in the business world.

If you are considering the sale of your business there are a growing number of brokers and mergers and acquisition specialists available to offer professional assistance to help you determine the value of your business and how the market might respond.
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As baby boomers begin to hit retirement age, many who are business owners are ready to sell. It’s created a market that has many businesses for sale.

At the same time, concerns about the economy had made it tough to get financing for many potential deals. Seller financing is one option that could be the solution to get many deals done.

Seller financing involves a seller helping to finance the sale of the business by taking back a second note on the business. It differs from a traditional Small Business Administration (SBA) loan because the seller essentially extends credit to the buyer against the purchase price of the business. However, seller financing is misunderstood by many, even though it may be the best way to sell a business during a stagnant economy.
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