Selling your business may be harder than starting a business. There may be employees to release, office spaces to lease and sale and equipment to let go of. That shared, there are times when selling a business is a better choice than continuing to fight to keep a company going.
These instances include continuing to operate a business in an industry that’s dying or dealing with an acquisition. You might be able to fight and keep your small business from being bought by a large corporation, a company like Google, Disney or General Motors. However, if a large corporation values a piece of your business, avoiding getting acquired could prove tiring and eventually fruitless. In these cases, you might have to sell.
Should you decide that selling your business is the best move, you’re going to need to set aside enough time to create a sales agreement. Areas to cover in a sales agreement include background information on your company (i.e. annual revenues, losses, outstanding loans) and the total amount of assets that are a part of the deal.
Furthermore, the amount of inventory that will be included in the sale, non-compete clauses, broker fees and seller and buyer representations and warranties are other areas to cover when creating a sales agreement. All together, there are about a dozen areas to focus on after you decide to sell a business through Transworld.
Of course, there are legal ramifications tied to these and other processes you undergo while selling your business. Totaled, the legal, organizational and administrative work involved in selling your business could wear on you, physically, emotionally and psychologically. As one entrepreneur shares in the New York Times, “It is not uncommon to see tears, yelling and tantrums on the sell side of a deal.” He continues, “The buyer, who brings almost no emotional baggage to the table, rarely exhibits such behavior.”
You could read books and get feedback from other entrepreneurs who’ve already sold businesses to gain insight on what the experience is truly like. However, similar to other life experiences, the only way to what it will feel like for you to sell a business is to actually do it. What you can expect is for your emotions to rise, especially as you start negotiating parts of the deal with buyers.
By working with qualified and ethical business advisors, you could reduce the emotional turmoil you feel while selling an enterprise. These ethical advisors will let you know about top selling strategies. For example, advisors might work with you to conduct a comprehensive analysis on your company. Other steps they might do for you include helping you structure your business, network the sale, advertise your business to potential buyers and organize the information flow from you to potential buyers.
Good business advisors will also walk you through evaluating and valuing your company. As they strive to create competition for your business, the numbers of potential buyers you get can increase. It won’t remove all the emotional ties and struggle you experience as you move forward with the sell. But, it can help make the entire process smoother and more rewarding.
Written by Wanda Smith