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9 strategies to successfully sell your business

Guest post by: Andrew Rogerson

Article Overview: To successfully sell your business, there are 9 important areas to consider before selling. They range from creating a team to support and help, goals to achieve, tax responsibilities, income necessary, different legal matters to consider, etc.

9 strategies to successfully sell your business

Selling a business comes with a huge number of variables. The following consider 9 important areas you need to work through if you want to successfully exit the business you own.

1. Do I need to create and use a team?

• Putting together an exit strategy and then executing it is a team sport.

• Don't try and do it on your own.

• Members of your team to consider include:

Accountant or tax agent

Personal financial planner

Psychologist or Business Coach

Insurance expert

Attorney

Business Broker

Worried about the cost? Get it right and it won't be a cost but an investment.

2. Determine your goals and objectives before moving forward.

• Be patient with yourself

• Be patient with those around you.

• How long did it take you to get here and now you are here - what's the rush?

• Taking action before you determine your goals and objectives can waste time, waste money, lets things that can't be undone and/or cause unintended damage.

• Once you determine your goals and objectives - take action. 3. What are the tax consequences of selling the business?

• Are these tax consequences manageable or not?

• Talk to a tax agent to understand the implications and what strategies can be used to minimize taxes.

4. How much income do you need to maintain your lifestyle?

• Talk to a personal financial planner to make sure you can achieve your goals. If you can, what are you waiting for?

5. Does the fear of spending the rest of your days playing with your grand kids keep you awake at night?

• Talk to a psychologist or business coach to plan your future. Get that degree you always said you wanted to get, learn to fly or scuba dive or be a mentor or join a board or become an advisor or coach a new business owner or master public speaking or leap...then look.

6. What would happen to the business owner if there was a medical or worse, fatal incident?

• Talk to an insurance specialist and put coverage in place that protects the business owner and any immediate family that need to be taken care of.

7. Are legal matters up to date and decided?

• Talk to an attorney to make sure all legal matters are fully understood and addressed. Family trusts, wills, powers of attorney etc require refreshing... just in case.

8. Is there a natural heir to the business or is selling the business or finding a new owner required?

• Talk to a Business Broker to explore the above.

Is there a natural owner to take over and run the business?

If the business has more than one owner, what should be discussed and implemented with any ownership changes?

Can this be done to minimize disruption?

If not, what's the end game and is professional help needed?

What is the date to complete all the changes?

How much is the business worth?

9. Establish a deadline and take action

• Now there is a clear plan it's time for action.

• Create an advisory team to execute the plan and hold your team accountable; especially yourself.

• Consider a leader to execute the plan - yes - delegate

• Conduct exit planning meetings to review schedules, assigned tasks and new information and ideas.

The success of an exit strategy for a business owner starts with the business owner. If the above are discussed, executed and aligned, the rest will take care of itself.

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Article Tags: Andrew Rogerson, business, Business broker Sacramento, business escrow, business for sale, business plan, due diligence, exit plan, franchise, franchise for sale, Murphy Business and Financial Sacramento, Sacramento business broker, Sacramento business ownership, sell a business, Sell a business, succession planning



Related Forum Posts
Re: Your weapon for success - Yes this is a great list to success , My plan is always to provide service to customers, give ideas, market my business, coming up with more strategies to improve the business, expanding business, developing new marketing strategies, searching new market place for business etc. Following such things will really help you to succeed.
Selling my business.... - I am looking to sell my business. It is a profitable business but I want to get out because I am burnt out after 7 years(since I was 17)......... I am almost ready to sell(making the proper preparations)..But I'm unsure about my lease with the landlord. He doesnt seem to want to resign.. I am worried about how marketable my business is with only 2.5 years on the lease... When I sell my business, does my landlord have to resign with whoever my buyer is? Thanks in advance... G.
Finding a technical person to work with - Hi Barbara, I would suggest tapping your network to see who knows who. It's amazing how small the world is. Your situation reminds me of many entrepreneurs who are afraid to go for venture capital because they feel the venture capitalists will take the idea and use it themselves or with another company. It takes a team to build a successful company and most engineers are just that - engineers. To make the business fly they would need to have their own vision as well as the experience of being a mother with infant / toddlers with strollers and the knowhow to successfully sell and market a product. This is a highly unlikely scenario and chances are if that person existed your product would already be on the market. I've always found that be telling people what I'm up to I've received far more help than harm.
Re: Marketing strategy - I'm assuming by your question, you would like the cinemas to sell your product. One of the best marketing strategies is the use of sampling. Here's how you might go about doing it with cinemas... Rent a list of local cinema managers in your area and mail them a sample of your product (along with a sales letter). Follow up with a call to set up an appointment to discuss your idea with them.
Re: Domains - Hey David, Why do you want to sell your domains? You can give them on lease for a couple of years. The reason why I suggest you this is that the two sites you want to sell can do business for you. You are already into SEO and hence you can run a website. You may have personal reasons for selling them off, like you are too occupied with other work, but still, why to slay the goose that gives golden eggs? It just needs a few minutes of your precious time. However, if you have made up your mind, try to find out some organization into ipods and make a deal. Alternatively, use the site for Blogging (it looks like a blog at the first go), do some Adsense and earn revenue. Ups and downs are a part of business and you should not plan to sell off when things don't go your way. Be a fighter. Good Luck.


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