When you’re ready to sell your business, you’ll have to have an action plan, you’ll need to know what to do and when to do it.
Knowing how to sell a business is not easy, there are legal issues involved, such as who owns the business and how to file the appropriate papers, but when you’re ready to sell your business, you need to move fast and make a decision before you lose momentum.
1. Decide what’s most important to you
When you decide what’s most important to you, you’ve already started on the path to selling a business, you know what you want to keep and what you want to let go of and have a clear idea of how much money you need to make and when you need to get there.
Remember, you don’t have to sell your business right away if you don’t want to and you can put it on the backburner and do some planning for when you’re ready.
2. Find out who owns your business
Before you can sell your business, you need to know who owns it, this is your company’s secret sauce, so you’ll have to dig really deep to find out.
You can find this information in your company’s records, by talking to people who know your business, or by hiring a professional to do an ownership analysis.
Your first task is to find the right records, your records may not be completely up-to-date, so you’ll have to dig deep to find the information you need.
You may have to call up your former employees and ask, Who owns the company now? People may not know, which is why you need to find the information out.
If you can’t find the information, you’ll have to hire a professional to look into it, this can be costly, so only do it if you have no other choice.
3. Create a plan
You’re ready to sell your business, that’s a great place to start, but now you have to create a plan.
Your plan will help you figure out what to do, when to do it, and most importantly, how to sell your business.
You may be thinking that this list is a lot to handle in one fell swoop, but it doesn’t have to be, instead of trying to do everything all at once, break it up into smaller chunks, start with the most important stuff first and work your way down to the rest.
4. Call in the pros
You’re going to have to do a lot of research, and you may even have to hire a professional to help, as you’re putting your plan together, you might want to call in the pros and contract with a business broker to help sell your business.
They can help you find buyers and handle the sale of your business, and keep you informed of developments in the buyer marketplace.
5. Close the deal
The closing of a business sale is the final step in the sale process, when you’re ready to close the deal, you’ll have to sign the relevant papers to complete the sale.
6. Move on to the next stage
When you’re ready, it’s time to move on to the next stage. You’ll have to figure out what comes next, how do you move on from selling your business? Do you open a new business? Or do you get some personal time in? What will you spend your profits on?