Advice for Selling a Business

In fact they are stating that due to the high volume of the sales there is a potential for many issues to arise.

Ian Hodgkinson of the law firm Mace and Jones recently spoke out about the issues. He stated that business owners need to pay attention to sales and ensure that they are not getting involved in a disaster sale. Poor preparation is part of what is affecting these business owners. He stated it is very critical to prepare your business in advance of the sale. Hodgkinson also said it is not best to sell a business without the accounts, premises, staffing, and property. It sends the wrong impression to the buyers.

Unfortunately many of the business sales in the last few years have been done with the owner selling their business on their own without proper representation. It is not a good idea to enter into any agreement without proper support.

Other issues that have arisen have been the misjudging of the marketing or failing to realistically assess a business. Many businesses are overpriced. An overpriced business can actually eliminate the wrong type of buyers. Ian Hodgkinson has provided a few tips that can make it easier for business owners to sell.

A few of the tips mentioned by Mace and Jones are below for your information:

• It is imperative that any business keep their financial documents up to date whether they are selling or not. However, it is extremely imperative that you have your accounts in order when you go to sell.
• Often the buyers expect the seller to help them out in purchasing the business. So it is a good idea to be prepared to do the financing on your own. In other words be prepared for an offer of partial payments over a period of time or allowing the business revenues to be paid out to you until the sale is complete. A failure to agree to this situation could have the sale falling through especially in this economy.
• Never do the deal yourself. We mentioned this above, but it is one of the most important things. You need to have at least a solicitor to help with the deal and at most a transfer business agent.
• It is important to keep the business sale quiet. Do not have meetings at the office with potential buyers unless it is closed. You do not want to scare your employees. They know with a sale they could lose their jobs. Instead tell the employees, even customers and suppliers when the time is right
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• Lastly you need the business to show a strong background so choose the best time to sell, which is when sales are up.