When it comes to selling a business so many business owners seem to lose sight of the real purpose of what they are out to achieve. Let me draw an analogy for you. When it comes to selling your house, what are the he things you have at the forefront of your mind? Let us take the house sale.  What you want to do is to sell it for as much as you can reasonably expect and doing so as effectively as you possibly can. What do you do? Most people will first of all get a good idea of what the house is worth. Not many of us pick a number out of the air simply because it is a nice round figure or because that is what we just want. We do a bit of market research, we talk to real estate agents and property valuers and we check out what else is for sale at what price AND most importantly what is being offered. We see what prices people are asking for and the condition of the house, fixtures and the surrounding property. These are just some of the things that contribute towards the VALUE of the house. As we all know two exactly the same design houses can obtain distinctly different valuations (and sale price) based on the value added features and conditions.  So why should you approach selling you business with any less rigour and diligence?  For some unexplainable reason, most business owners are not prepared for selling their businesses even though this is something they know they want to do in the next few years. As with selling your house, you need to prepare yourself for selling the business and then you need to prepare the business. This is not an exercise that should be viewed lightly – after all your business is probably worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars at the very least. If you really want to add significant value to the bottom line then there are a number of things that you can do and should consider well before putting your business on the market. Of course there are some businesses that are well organised and systemised, they have paid close attention to positioning their business in the market and are well placed to list a business that is marketable. When you do decide that you wish to sell your business, you can easily follow a plan of approach that will empower you to make the decision for the right reasons at the best time.

• Plan ahead, don’t leave it till the last minute – develop your business exit plan
• Define your own objectives for selling the business and the goals that you wish to achieve upon that sale being realised – how much do you need to sell the business for
• Get a business appraisal and valuation now, this will help you determine whether selling the business now as it stands is the best option or whether you should work on the business to better position it and add value
• Determine  whether you will be able to achieve your objectives and if not what initiatives do you need to put in place in order to achieve the objectives
• If selling the business down in the future is indeed the right decision, decide on those strategies that can improve your business in readiness for sale

In view of market fluctuations and economic conditions, selling sooner rather than later may be your best choice. On the other hand this may not meet your personal objectives and in holding onto the business you may be able to spend some time and money working towards your exit plan that will reap significant improvement to the value of your business. If we go back to our analogy of selling your house – I ask you, would you not at least give the house a good spruce up, washing down the walls, cleaning up the garden, fixing those broken taps, tiles and roof-tiles? If you aren’t passionate about your business putting everything you can into making it the best it can be then any potential buyer will view the business potential with an equal level of disinterest.  It is your future, you may have to live on those funds for quite some time and after all – this business is you, everything you have worked so hard for, for such a long time. You owe it to yourself to get the best value you can.

If you would like to know more about planning your business sale or developing a business exit plan then contact Greg Tomkins at Superb Coaching or visit our web site at www.superbcoaching.com.au