5 Important Tips To Sell Your Business/Company

Businessmen or entrepreneurs know that we have fought and spent many hours for our business to be successful.

As we are aware of what it took us to get it up and running, the decision to sell it is a complicated step. Before selling your business or company, make sure you have the finances of your business organized and clear, according to the general accounting plan.

If you are thinking of selling your business but do not know where to start, here we explain the fundamental points that you must do, to start receiving offers.

1. To sell your business or company, you must have the accounting up to date

In order to make the sale of your company a reality, you will have to make sure that your accounting is up to date and clear. This will be a fundamental part to demonstrate to the interested parties the real evolution of your business.

If buyers don’t have data to analyze, they will hardly be able to make you an offer.

If you want to sell your business, you must be clear that you are going to have potential buyers analyzing the finances of your company. In case the person interested in buying your company does not have much knowledge about finance, he will surely ask and go to an expert to advise him.

Talk to your manager to prepare visible financial statements to show to the interested parties.

You will have to show at least the financial statements of the last several years, as well as the corresponding tax returns for that period.

2. How to sell a company with an external advisor

There are some quick and easy ways to determine the value of your business. However, the calculation that is made does not mean that it is the best.

For example, a simple calculation would be to multiply the cash flow generated by your company between three and six times.

A finance expert can help you get a tighter value from your business.

Agree on a price with a professional of this type to help you determine a fair price range that fits the real value of your company.

They can make an estimate based on sales, income, invoices pending collection and payment, inventory, debts with credit institutions.

With the valuation made by an expert, you will have solid arguments to defend the sale price of your company before potential buyers.

3. Beware of fake business buyers

Not everyone interested in buying companies will do so in good faith.

People know that when a company is for sale, it is willing to give up a lot of confidential and private information.

Much of this information is sure to be very useful for your competitors and they could take advantage of this situation to only steal data from you.

If at the beginning of the process with a potential buyer, you are very communicative and give all the information at once, you may be making the mistake of giving information to your competition.

Every time you have a person interested in buying your business, find out who they are, and if they are really interested in buying.

Be discreet and bold to analyze the person and detect if there is really a purchase intention.

You have a way of protecting the data that you provide to the interested parties, and that is through a confidentiality agreement.

These contracts prevent both buyers and sellers from using confidential information incorrectly or abusively.

4. Try to improve the sales of your company

The way to make a company beautiful is by showing that the evolution of sales remains constant or even has a growing trend. This way you will have good objective arguments to show to the interested parties.

Try to do your best to increase the sales of your business before and during the sales process. This is the best way to make your company beautiful and attractive.

5. Avoid emotions

Although it may seem easy, selling your company is a task that sometimes costs a lot. After all the work it has taken you to get your business up and running, retiring at any cost can be a significant emotional challenge.

It is even harder if you are selling your business to the competition. You feel like you’ve won the game, and you can feel like a loser.

Do not let these feelings invade you, you have to remain firm in your decisions and stick with the positive of the sale.

Control emotions as much as possible so that you can make objective and practical decisions.