Let’s talk about: Preparation

Getting your business ready for sale, is an interesting term… the best advice is for you to step back from the day to day operations of what it is you DO in the business and look at it from a buyer’s perspective.

Does the business look vibrant from outside looking in, is the website and social media up to date or does it let you down?

And now for the most important part of Preparation: are the accounts up to date and have they been prepared ready for sale.

Is your accountant aware you wish to sell the business and can therefore create a set of “normalised” accounts.. ie not reading like a taxation avoidance mini-series but more a business that makes a net profit and a clear remuneration for the owner or owners.

Are there systems and manuals available should the owner take a holiday or have a health scare that takes them away from operations for a period of time.

Quite simply the cleaner a business looks and reads makes for a simpler, quicker sale, the fewer hurdles a buyer needs to jump, the more inclined they are to engage.

The Due Diligence part of the sale is when a serious buyer has the intention of becoming the owner and starts visualising themselves being that owner and establishing ways to improve operations whilst establishing how to maximise potential for your business. This should not be a time when a buyer “discovers” or unearths negative points or hidden gremlins around either the accounts or the ownership of your business, this tends to create questions, which in turn creates doubt which inevitably causes a delay while figuring out how serious the problem is.. or , of course, makes the deal fall over.

So, the better prepared your business is, the quicker the sale and the better price you’ll get for the business.