Successfully Selling Your Business in 2020
It’s the end of a new year and the start of a new decade, and that may mean you are considering a change. If that change includes selling your business in California, there are some steps you need to take before you are ready to sell.
Every business owner will exit their business at some point, and it will be a large financial transaction, perhaps one of the most impactful of your life. That is why it’s so important to plan for it and make sure your business is ready before you contact a Certified Business Broker and put it on the market.
Here are some things to think about heading into next year:
- How’s your business health? Are you growing?
- What is the state of your industry? Is it healthy and poised for growth? Do you need to make changes to be a part of that growth?
- How do you feel about your business? Are you still enthusiastic and invested or are you suffering from burnout?
- What is your business worth? Will selling it now allow you to move on to whatever is next for you?
When you look at each of these things, it will help you determine how and when to sell your business. Let’s take a closer look.
Business Health and Selling your Business
Is your business growing year over year? Even if you are staying stable, you are really going backward. A growing business is one that both keeps you enthusiastic about it and attracts the interest of buyers when it is time to sell.
If your business is not growing, you may want to look at why. Evaluate your processes, your technology and how up to date your equipment is, your employees and their morale, and your marketing strategy. Any one of these can put the brakes on growth.
The State of Your Industry
If there is one thing that is certain in business, that is change. Things like Big Data, emerging technology, more mobile searches, and online shopping habits are impacting nearly every business and industry out there. Yours is no exception.
What matters is what you do with this information. Keeping up can make all the difference to your business health. If your industry is one of those that is threatened by new technology, you may have to shift gears or make significant changes to your business plan in order to still be relevant and viable.
The time when you have to make this shift can be a good time to sell to someone who approaches your business with fresh eyes and a new set of ideas, allowing you to move on to whatever life has for you next.
Your Personal Feelings about Selling Your Business
Just as important as your business health is your own mental health. How do you feel about your business and how things are going? Are you still enthusiastic and engaged, or is that enthusiasm waning and moving toward burnout?
Another thing to consider is those around you. How do your friends and family feel about your business? Is it consuming too much of your time? Are you running your business or is it running you?
If you are not feeling as good about running your business as you once did, it might be time to move on and sell. This is especially true if you are nearing retirement age. You want to exit your business when you can still do the things you want to do during that retirement and before any kind of life circumstances or disaster forces you to sell when the timing is not ideal.
The Value of Your Business
Of course, one of the first and most important things to know is how much your business is worth. This is because if you will not make enough of a profit selling your business to move on to the next step in your life, you may need to wait to sell or come up with a new exit strategy.
Many businesses look at the value of their business every single year, just to get a check of where they are. Others do this less often, but it is good to know what the market for your business is when you are ready to sell or even earlier in your exit strategy planning.
Here at Rogerson Business Services, we offer a FREE program called Seven Steps to Valuing Your Business, a program designed to let you know what you can expect when you’re at the point where you need a certified business valuation and to give you a general idea of what your business is worth.
If that seems too complex, or you just want someone to do the work for you, contact us about the different kinds of business valuations we do, and which one is right for you.
Is 2020 the year when you will sell your business? Are you ready? Do you need a business valuation to get started? If you are a business owner in California, contact us here at Rogerson Business Services. We’d love to be your Certified Business Broker.