Whether you’re ready to retire and live a life of leisure or have discovered that running a business isn’t for you, selling it can be difficult. Along with finding buyers who can pay the price you’re asking, there are rules for selling businesses. However, there are things you can do that will make it easier to sell your company.
Work with a Broker
A business broker has the expertise you need to find buyers for your business. They may have a list of contacts who buy businesses as investments. As well as having contacts, brokers can take care of all the responsibilities that go along with selling a business, such as negotiating contracts or the price and answering questions from buyers.
Brokers get paid by making a commission on the sale, which is usually about 7% to 10% of the sale price. Business brokers save their clients a lot of time by finding buyers and taking care of the details that they may not have time to do themselves.
Sell it Yourself
If you don’t want to pay a commission to a broker, then you can try to sell the business yourself. However, if you choose to sell it yourself, then you will be responsible for everything, which includes:
- Advertising the business
- Answering enquiries from potential buyers
- Negotiating the price
- Getting financial information from the buyers
- Checking their backgrounds
To help ensure that you will not be taken advantage of, you should hire an accountant and a solicitor with experience in selling businesses. The accountant can crunch the numbers for you to determine a good price for your company. Then, as you negotiate the price with a potential buyer, the accountant can advise you about the minimum price that you can take to prevent losing money.
A solicitor can help with negotiating, writing contracts, and finding out information about the potential buyers for your business. They can help ensure that you are not being swindled by someone who doesn’t have the money or credit history to finance the purchase of your business.
Sell it Online
A good place to look for buyers is to advertise on a website that specialises in selling a business online. Although you will pay a fee for the advertisement, it is a quick way to find buyers for your company. To ensure that you will make the maximum amount of money from the sale, look for websites that charge reasonable fees and do not make a commission from the sale.
With millions of people on the Internet, selling your business online is faster than most other conventional ways of advertising and finding interested buyers. Whether you own a coffee shop, an automotive repair business, or a construction company, you can sell the business online.
