Where to Sell a Business

The purchase of ready-made operating companies is an effective solution for quick entry into promising markets and for the competent use of new trends, not to mention the huge savings in time and effort to create an organization and build all processes from scratch.

Selling a business is an opportunity to get real money in a short time to develop a more priority area, to solve family or personal financial difficulties, and for many other purposes.

To sell a ready-made business profitably, you need to pay attention to many points. We will talk about how and where to sell a small business on the Internet in this article.

Selling through a broker vs on your own

It is very difficult to sell a business on your own, and at such moments entrepreneurs think about it: “Who can sell my business?”. A business broker can come to the rescue. A business broker is a specialist whose main activity is mediation in the purchase and sale of various companies, as well as commercial real estate. Appealing to him allows you to get a number of the following advantages:

– Vast experience in the market, the availability of special skills and knowledge to guarantee the client the maximum benefit from the sale or purchase of a business;

– The broker always knows where to sell your business because he has an established customer base. This allows you not to spend a lot of time searching for a buyer or a ready-made company, immediately offer the client several options that suit him according to all possible criteria;

– Reliability, maximum reduction of possible risks. Everyone understands that in our country is not always possible to obtain reliable information about the business from its owner. A qualified broker will verify the information, identify any discrepancies in financial data, as well as existing debts or legal problems;

– Full confidentiality. The paradox of selling a business is that you need to look for a buyer secretly from everyone – competitors, employees, partners, and suppliers. This can only be done by a competent business broker who does not disclose the data received from the client;

– Saving time. Turning to a real professional, you will save yourself the need to negotiate with a huge number of business owners or buyers – the business broker will take care of all this. In addition, he will select those options that perfectly meet your requirements.

If you are confident in your abilities, you can try to sell yourself. But if you suddenly stop feeling confident, for example – do not know whether you have correctly estimated the value, or can`t find where to advertise a business for sale then it is better to contact a broker. Moreover, you can incorrectly estimate the value, for example – 1 million, and the broker can sell it for 5 million. In this case, even taking into account the percentage, it is more profitable to sell through a broker because only he can sell the business correctly.

How to find the best place to sell a business online

It`s difficult to name the best place to sell a business. To sell a company, you need either connections or intermediaries and preferably both. You can try to find a buyer through friends or a franchise website Website Closers or offer your company to competitors who want to expand their business.

In this case, you should take care of confidentiality: a competitor can learn about the state of the company and all your “chips”, and then refuse to buy. You should also be careful with acquaintances – rumors about the sale will damage the reputation of the company. An open sale of the business can cause great harm, it will cause anxiety to staff, suppliers, and creditors. Ill-considered actions can lead to labor conflicts, lower sales prices, and even business collapse.

Sometimes ads for the sale of the company are placed on specialized forums, where there is an opportunity to sell a business online. You also can list a business for sale on the marketplaces. 

A short guide to selling a business: Four important steps

1. Put your affairs in order. It doesn’t matter why you decide to sell your business, but few people want to pay money to clean up the problems for you. If you can’t solve the problems, you will most likely have to sell the business very cheaply. If you want to conduct the transaction quickly, then first study the state of affairs. In particular, there must be no current lawsuits.

2. Registration of business assets. For an objective assessment of the business before the sale, you need to properly register the assets. If there is real estate, patents, and other property, all this should be included in your business to increase its capitalization.

3. Prepare a product description.  This is marketing preparation. You need to make photos or a presentation that represents your business. Describe it by clear criteria: turnover, cost-income, profit, and payback period. And also make a unique selling proposition, which can include: advantages, how you differ from competitors, and why you are sure that everything will work without you. Also indicate why you decided to sell it.

4. Negotiations. Prepare for them in advance, and think over scripts for calls and meetings. Write down new objections, because most of them will be repeated. It is important to analyze them and think about how to work out next time.

Conclusions

At first, glance, selling a ready-made business is quite simple. In reality, this is an incredibly long process, in which it is important not to concede in price and sell it as profitably as possible.

Therefore, you should not save on the services of lawyers, brokers, and other experts, because such transactions are rare, so it is better to be safe once again to avoid losing money or the entire business.