Selling your business is not as easy as it sounds, but luckily there are a few tips which can help you through the process and make the whole sales process go a lot smoother whilst also ensuring that you make the maximum amount of profit possible by avoiding paying high commissions or fees to a business broker. Most people who are looking to sell a business end up hiring a broker because they think this is really the only way to ensure the business sells, but this is simply no longer true. If you want to sell your business and save on the selling costs, all you need to do is follow these simple tips and you should quickly be able to sell your business and maximize your profits.
Make Sure You Have Profit / Loss Reports Ready
No matter how you choose to sell your business, the first step is to prepare profits and losses reports for at least the last five years. Simply put, no one will even consider buying your business without first looking through your books, and one of the things that they will be most interested in is your profit and loss reports. After all, any potential buyer will need to know the health of your business and whether it is making or losing money. So before you take any other steps, you need to make sure that your books are completely in order and you have all of the reports ready to show any potential buyers.
Ensure You Have a Business Plan & Modest Sales Forecasts
Another important thing that a potential buyer will want to see is your business plan. If you do not have a detailed business plan, you will want to consider making one. Even though the potential buyers may not end up following your business plan, they will at least want to see that you have one. If not, it will be impossible for them to see how the business has been run and what the potential for future profit is.
You should also prepare a sales forecast to show just how you think the business will make money in the future. Still, it is important not to overestimate your potential future profits, as most potential buyers will see right through this, and it will most likely put them off buying your business.
List Your Business Online To Save On Broker Commissions
Once you have all of your reports prepared, you should then consider listing your business for sale online on one of the many for sale by owner websites. These websites allow you to create your own personalized listing and save a huge amount of money on broker fees and commissions. Setting up a listing on these sites is incredibly easy, and actually quite cheap when compared to broker fees. It also allows you the freedom to be in direct contact with all of the potential buyers, so you can try to convince them personally of the reasons why they should buy your business.
Business based FSBO websites have a very high success rate and are the best way to sell your business online and make the maximum amount of profit. As long as you are honest with the information you provide about your business, the entire process should go quite quickly and smoothly.