The Process of Selling Your Business
Generally, the process of selling a business always follows similar steps; however, depending on your specific situation, there may be some additional steps or steps that you can skip. The common process includes the following steps:
- The sale of your business is planned.
- A business appraisal is performed.
- Your business is put up for sale.
- A marketing campaign for your business is designed and implemented.
- Your business is advertised to a large audience of potential buyers.
- Interested potential buyers contact your business broker.
- Buyers are pre-screened.
- Screened buyers are presented with information about your company.
- Negotiations occur between you and your buyer.
- A deal is reached.
- Funding is secured.
- Contracts are drafted and signed.
- The sale is closed.
- All contractual obligations are completed.
- The process is completed and your business is officially sold.
While the actual process that you go through may vary slightly, this is the general procedure that our business brokers will follow in facilitating the sale of your business.
Facilitating the Sale
At the Visalia, California, office of Morgan & Westfield, our business brokers provide services that are designed to facilitate the successful completion of each step in this process. Specific services that our business brokers offer include:
- Exit Planning Services
- Business Appraisals
- Creation of Offering Documents
- Creation and Implementation of a Customized Marketing Campaign
- Buyer Screening
- Negotiation Facilitation
- Administration of the Closing Process
- Continuous Support
Tips for a Successful Business Sale
Another service that we offer to help you with selling your business is professional advice. Our business brokers want to make sure that everything goes smoothly for you, so we make it a point to provide you with advice whenever possible. Some of these insider tips that our past clients have found particularly helpful include:
- To reduce your stress and responsibilities, prepare your business’s financial records before you put the business up for sale.
- Require anyone involved in the sale to sign a confidentiality agreement.
- Tell almost no one that your business is being sold until a deal has been reached. This will protect your privacy and your company’s value.
- Be prepared to sign a non-compete agreement when your business is sold.
- Be prepared to negotiate with potential buyers, and never take negotiations personally. Many initial offers are considerably lower than the business owners’ asking price. However, through negotiation, more favorable deals can still be reached.
- Be accommodating to potential buyers; this will make them more comfortable and make negotiations easier.
- Set an asking price that is reasonable for your market. Businesses being sold in more rural regions cannot be priced as if they are being sold in a large city. Pricing yourself out of the market will make selling your business extremely difficult.
- Understand your tax liabilities and how selling your business will impact these obligations.
- Understand your lease agreement and be sure that it can be transferred to the new owner.
- Always sell your business with the assistance of a qualified business broker. By giving proper and timely advice, business brokers can help you negotiate a higher price, prevent mistakes, connect you with other industry professionals, expedite the process, do most of the technical work for you and ease the entire process.
Business Brokers of Visalia, California
When you decide to sell your business with the assistance of a professional business broker, it is important that you work with a local broker. Local business brokers have local connections and market knowledge, both of which can prove invaluable. At the Visalia, California, office of Morgan & Westfield, we work exclusively with local business owners in this region of California.
We have established relationships with many local professionals, including lawyers, accountants, tax professionals, and bankers. These are long-standing relationships that have been built through our more than 100 years of combined experience in this region. These relationships and the local knowledge that we have gained over this time allow our business brokers to facilitate hundreds of business sales each year. We have been particularly successful at facilitating business sales in the local communities of:
Visalia, Goshen, Farmersville, Ivanhoe, Exeter, Lindsay, Tonyville, Woodville, Plainview, Strathmore, Zante, Porterville, Tipton, Tulare, Corcoran, Guernsey, Lemoore, Armona, Grangeville, Hanford, Lucerne, Hardwick, Elderwood, Yettem, Monson, London, Traver, Wildflower, Laton, Kingsburg, Wineland, Monmouth, Fowler, Lemon Cove, Three Rivers, Del Rey, Dinuba, Stratford and Westhaven.
Our business brokers are proud of the success that we have had locally, and we look forward to expanding on our past successes in the future. If you are considering selling a business in one of these communities or a neighboring community, and you want to work with a team of experienced business brokers, contact the Visalia, California, office of Morgan & Westfield today.
