HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY SELL YOUR BUSINESS

HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY SELL YOUR BUSINESS

You began your business years ago to create a certain lifestyle for you and your family. You have achieved all of your objectives in your business, it is now time for the next chapter of your life, without your business.

Now that you have made the decision to sell your business, what do you do next? You and your business are so entwined with each other that it can be hard to separate you from your business.

We have done some of the research for you, on the Australian Business Government site, it has an in-depth list of the steps you should take.

We have established our top 3 steps you need to action to successfully sell your business.

1. What is it that you are actually selling?

-   Is it all of the assets, the business name and the goodwill?

-   Is it just the registered business name that you want to sell, and you are going to dissipate the every day workings of the business?

-   Does your business own a property that you would sell with the business, like a shopfront of a factory?

-   Are you wanting to just sell the Intellectual Property of the business (customers, suppliers, customer contact details)?

-  Are you wanting to sell absolutely everything that is involved with the business?

2. How much is your business worth?

Now that you have decided what you are going to sell with your business, you need to decide how much it is worth. You can analyse several variables to understand the value.

-   Researching similar businesses that have sold

-   Calculate how much your business owns compared to what it owes (don’t forget to include items as intellectual property and goodwill)

3. Choosing to employ a business broker or other professionals to help sell your business

-   Business brokers, accountants and lawyers can all help to navigate the legalities and financial implications of selling 

There is a lot to think about when you are going through the motions of selling your business. The hardest part is having to be objective towards the process, as you have put your blood, sweat and tears into building up your business and sacrificing many things to ensure your customers are always happy and your work always exceeds the expectations. The value of the business may not always reflect the energy and effort that you have injected into it. However, at the end of the day if you are able to walk away with selling your business and feeling positive about the future then it has all been worthwhile.

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