Selling your business is a major decision. Check out these helpful tips to sell your business in NJ, NY, CT, DE, PA:
1. Deciding to Sell Your Business
Before entering the process of selling your company, the first thing on a business sale checklist is to decide whether or not to sell your company. Many factors go into this decision. In some cases, there is a compelling reason to sell, such as health issues, or you just don’t like the work anymore. Or perhaps you want to spend more time with family and friends. In other cases, the decision is much more complex. Some things to consider are:
- Are you financially prepared to sell your company?
- Are you emotionally ready to sell?
- Do you have a buyer in mind, such as your children or employees?
- What will you do after your sell your business?
- Do you have an idea of the value of your business?
After you carefully consider all of the relevant factors and you feel that it is time to explore the possibility of selling your company, you can move on to other items in the business for sale checklist.
2. Talk With a Business Broker
You can do some research in selecting the right business brokers like Business Brokers Plus. We have good reviews and extensive experience selling all types of businesses. Contact us today to learn about our process.
3. Get Your Financial Documents in Order
We will be able to give you a ballpark figure of how much your business will sell for once we have the chance to review your financial documents. You’ll need to provide the last three years of tax returns and/or profit and loss statements, as well as a current year-to-date profit and loss statement.
4. List Your Businesses Strengths and Weaknesses
Put together a list of why your business is unique, including:
- How do you compare to your competitors?
- What types of customers do you have?
- Skills and responsibilities of your employees.
- The challenges that you have.
- How can a new owner improve on what you have done?
- Does any customer make up a large percentage of your revenue?
- Contracts and written commitments of your business.
5. Keep Your Sale Confidential
We will protect the confidentiality of your business’s sale by marketing it in ways that don’t reveal the identity of your business until after a potential buyer has signed a confidentiality agreement and provided information on their qualifications.
6. Find the Right Lawyer
Be sure that the lawyer you choose has experience with selling businesses. Your lawyer will work with them to negotiate the purchase and sale agreement. This will be based on the terms of the offer letter that were negotiated but will have more details, including the transaction’s legal aspects. Both the buyer’s and seller’s attorneys will have their own checklists for the business sale transaction, and any differences of opinions will need to be worked out. We help to keep the deal moving forward when the attorney’s hit any roadblocks.
9. Finalize the Sale
10. Prepare The Buyer for Success
