You worked hard, possibly many long hours, and many years in building up your Business, and you decided you no longer want to run the Business and retire or pursue other interests. Now you ask yourself what do I do next. Do you want to sell the Business quickly, or can you patiently wait to sell it? You can sell your Business soon by having it priced correctly, but the bottom line on how much it is worth is how many net revenues the Business is doing and how long the buyer recovers his investment. Selling a business requires planning. First, determine the value of the Business. You can start by reviewing the books and making sure they are in order. They reflect the actual income and expense, from sales to receivables, inventories and other assets, and outstanding debt or liens. If you don't have an accountant, hire one to look over your books and make sure they are in order. Make a list of all the assets and inventory and state the value. Seek someone to evaluate the property's value if the building and land are part of the sale. You can obtain value by hiring a business appraiser or a professional to perform a broker's opinion of value, which is cheaper than doing a full-blown appraisal. Based on certain factors such as the business location, how long the business has been running, and the overall financial health, industry trends, product or service demand, and other variables, a viable ongoing business can be worth anywhere from here to up to six times its annual cash flow.
You can sell your Business to someone you already know and trust. It could be someone you are sure would be able to successfully manage the Business and not run it into the ground. Most importantly, someone who would still allow you to be a part of the Business for a short while as a consultant or an advisor. This person can be someone in your family or perhaps one or more of your employees. If someone in your family may be interested, you may want to help them by teaching them how to run the Business. If they worked with you in the Business, they might not need any training. If the family member does not have the money to purchase the property, perhaps you can take installments. You can hire a business broker's services, but he or she may charge you up to 10% in commissions. You may want to try to sell it yourself. One way is through our listing website www.newlista.com. Here you can post your Business for sale, and we will put it in front of investors seeking Business like yours. If you take the premium subscription, we can feature your Business on the top page. The ads will rotate; with others, but you will still have exposure.
After you know the value of your business, you are ready to market your property. Is the Business located in a building? Make sure that the office and rooms are cleaned and well kept. In most cases, the prospective buyer would want to do a surprise inspection and look at the operations. I recommend that you create a one-page flyer with all the detailed information about the property. Also, you can create a video using your cell phone or digital camera. If you do not know how to do this yourself, you can hire someone inexpensively on fiverr.com. Fiver.com has many freelancers that can do the flyer for you at a very reasonable price. Just give them the pictures and the detailed information, and they can put it together. Search for someone with experience, and you can look at their rating and how many projects they completed.
Choose someone with a 4.8 to 5.0 rating. Don't be afraid to ask them to show you some of their work. You don't pay them until they complete your flyer, and you are fully satisfied.
Make sure to visit the HUD.gov website and read their information about laws against discrimination. It is best to acquaint yourself with government laws when marketing your property. Ensure that your detail about the business does not affect any class or person and does not discriminate because of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, etc.
After you complete your flyer, you are ready to list your property. You can list your property for FREE at www.newlista.com. We will put your property in front of many business buyers.
In addition to adding your listing at www.newlista.com, you can also post your property on Facebook. If you have not signed up with Facebook, please do so as soon as possible. You can promote your business for sale on Facebook by clicking on the share button of your listing. On the left-hand side of your Facebook page, you will see a word that says, Groups. Click on the name Groups, then go on the top of the search page, and inside the search box, write the sentence business for sale, and sell your business. You will find many group pages where you can post your business. Make sure to join them. Once they approve your invitation, you can post your business for sale. Give as much as possible details of the business as you can. For example if your business is located in Los Angeles, then start off with the words Los Angeles business for sale or California business for sale. Another good place to market your Business is linkedin.com. Linkedin.com also has a group feature like Facebook, and you can find many groups there and post it. Also, we recommend youtube.com. You can upload a video about your business, and in the title, you will put business for sale. Make sure you set an account with youtube.com, otherwise you will not be able to upload a video. Before you upload the video, make sure you place some keywords so when someone is searching for a business, they will find it. For example, let say you own a convenience store, so on the heading place Business for Sale in "City" and "State" and then Convenience store for sale in "your city" Other places that you can try to sell your property would be Local classified ads. Search Classified advertisements in your city, craigslist.com, instagram.com, twitter.com, and pinterest.com.
Also, word of mouth is the best. Let everyone know that you are selling your business and offer a finder’s fee if you want to. Do a general search on google.com. Or other search engines for Accountants and go to their website and contact them. They may have clients that are seeking to buy a business. You can also contact business lenders. They may have clients who are seeking to buy a business as well. You can also search for a business similar to yours and ask them if they wish to purchase your Business.
Now here is the crucial part. You are negotiating the price. Always start a bit higher on your price because the buyer will ask for a discount most of the time. If the Business is top-rated and has a vast clientele or customer base, you can demand whatever you want. Just make sure the price is within reasonable means. If you get a potential buyer call, and he offers you a verbal price, do not accept it right away. Your reaction will be to be a bit hesitant and twitch. For example, when he blurts the price, say, "Wow," a couple of times. Then tell him I don't accept verbal offers. Ask them to give to you in writing in the form of a letter of intent. A letter of intent would be a non-commital way of receiving an offer without accepting it. If they tell you I will submit you a contract, tell them you would rather see the letter of intent first. Ask him to send it to you with his full contact information, including his or her cell phone. When you get the letter of intent, look over it carefully. If you don't agree with the price or anything on it, take a pen and scratch it out and change it. Scan it and email it back and follow up with the person. Make sure you give the buyer a deadline. You don't want to give him or her many weeks to make a decision. If you dread making phone calls, email them once or twice. Sometimes emails go into the spam box, or the buyer gets too many emails that it falls through the cracks. If this is the case, text him on his cell phone. Ask him if he or she received your counteroffer and if you will receive a response soon. Tell them other people are inquiring about it. The Letter of Intent is to iron out the details and come to an agreement on the firm offer. Once you agree, you are ready to go under a contract, which means go hard. The buyer may submit a sales contract, or if you offer to write up the contract yourself, it would be advisable to employ an attorney to help you write up the contract. The attorney's job is basically to protect you and make sure there are no hidden clauses that will affect the Business's sale.
This document is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute any type of legal, professional or investment advice. and may not reflect the current laws in your area and we suggest that you consult with an attorney or other professional in the field if you have doubts on what actions you should take. We do not accept responsibility for any omission, error, or inaccuracy in this document or any action taken in reliance thereon. The above websites mentioned are registered names of their respective companies.