Selling a Business
Selling a Business By-Owner?
More than 300 people signed up for this TeleSeminar. You can hear it free, below.
Pros and Cons of Selling a Business By-Owner.
(The agenda and the link to the audio recording is on the bottom of this webpage.)
I’m Ted Leverette, The Original Business Buyer Advocate ®.
- What I know about sellers and selling small and midsize companies will inform you.
- It might surprise you.
- It may offend people who don’t want sellers to know what I’m going to reveal (and suggest) from this webpage.
- I’m not a business broker; never been one; don’t want to be one. Besides advising buyers, I and my colleagues help owners of small and midsize businesses prepare for the sale of their company.
- I don’t care if you sell by-owner or list with a broker. My job is to help you better-understand your alternatives.
Trust me right now: It’s not going to be exactly what you think it will be!
You might not get this insight anywhere else. Expect straight talk, no hidden agenda, free of conflict-of-interest and full of street-smarts.
- Well done!
Nancy Fallon-Houle, Velocity Law, LLC - Thanks, that was 40 minutes well spent.
John Knight MIoD, Business Broker & Certified Value Builder Advisor
Selling a company by-owner is so important that a long time ago I coined (and trademarked) an acronym: BIZFIZBO ®. (You guessed it: business-for-sale by-owner.)
The best business brokers are essential for safe and profitable ownership transfers for some kinds of companies and in some kinds of circumstances. This webpage can connect you to info that explains this.
How do I know these things? It’s because of the 500 years collective dealmaking experience of me and my colleagues plus what we’ve learned from the 298 business advisors and brokers we’ve trained. We learn from each other; we share war stories; we lament when we see dumb deals.
Business sellers either exit their way or the way their buyer prefers.
Which, of course, as a (mostly) buyer-advisor, I hope will benefit buyers.
So, fair warning (and a helpful tip) for sellers and their representatives:
“Negotiations are a part of everyday life. Successful negotiations demand a clear understanding of one’s opponent. Perspective-taking involves understanding and anticipating an opponent’s interests, thoughts, and likely behaviors. Perspective takers are able to step outside the constraints of their own immediate, biased frames of reference.” Read more.
Savvy owners think about what will be necessary to sell their business. The earlier the better. The most informed owners read my two books (see below) so their exit plan is more realistic.
Here are two of my resources that 600+ business brokers use to refine their knowledge of the other side of their dealmaking tables, so they can deliver even more astute service on the buy/sell playing field.
Before you hire a business broker or exit planner,
or before you deploy their recommendations . . .
Sign up for our Business Seller Training. Doing so will equip you with insight and tools that are not available from any other kind of advisor. We’ll tell you more about your alternatives, what you must know before and after putting your business on the market, and perhaps most importantly what you need to know and do now for after the sale of your company.
This training will make it easier for your business broker and/or exit planner to help you achieve the result you want. And if you want to try selling by-owner you absolutely need this training; there are just too many mistakes you don’t know you don’t know about and most of them will increase your risk and adversely affect the sale of your company.
Learn how to sell your business the right way, in a live, one-on-one Zoom, with a Business Buyer Advocate ®.
Why learn from a Business Buyer Advocate?
Because if you don’t know how buyers will perceive you and your company and what they intend to do to you during due diligence and dealmaking, you are in for a big surprise.
Some of the questions Ted Leverette answers:
- What’s the big picture for selling a company by-owner?
- What kinds of businesses are typically sold by-owner?
- What are some of the other reasons companies sell by-owner?
- How can I protect the confidentiality of my business while trying to sell it?
- What about money? (The buyer’s, of course!)
- What kinds of problems in the company for sale are buyers trying to detect?
- What do buyers really want?
- What do buyers need to know about companies for sale by-owner?
- How can I quickly qualify a buyer?
- What’s the biggest risk for owners who want to do-it-themselves?
- What’s the biggest misconception concerning businesses for sale by-owner?
- Is there a secret sauce for successfully selling a company? (Yes.)
- What about business brokers?
- What can I do to sell quickly and on the best terms?
- How important to buyers are the sellers’ offering prospectus or company profile?
- How can I create buyer competition to more quickly sell and sell on better terms?
- What can I do to increase the chances that buyers will consider my asking price to be fair?
- What should I be thinking about before thinking about selling my company?
- How can I know if now is the right time to sell?
- What about the difference between asking prices and selling prices?
- What the best way to get my asking price?
- How can I avoid the pitfalls of selling my company?
- What’s a sure way to drive away the best buyers?
- How can I “shop” competing businesses for sale?
- Should I “shop” brokers to find the right one?
- Should I try to sell by-owner or list with a broker?
- Can you explain the typical selling experience?
- What is the process to sell a business?
- How can I explain the personal expenses I ran through my business?
- What kinds of specialists should be on the sellers’ advisory team?
- What should I do next?
- What should I do after that?
Listen & Learn Podcast ™
Pros and Cons of Selling a Business By-Owner (40 min.)
See from the perspective of buyers:
How to Prepare Yourself and Find the Right Business to Buy
- This book reveals how the best-prepared buyers interact with sellers and their advisors. Sellers are flying blind if they don’t know this, naively entering the dealmaking playing field. Smart sellers adapt their marketing plan to be more attractive to the best kinds of buyers. Ignorant sellers waste time, money and aggravation interacting with lookiloos and insincere or ill-prepared “buyers.”
How to Buy the Right Business the Right Way—Dos, Don’ts & Profit Strategies
- This dealmaking book shows sellers what to expect when they interact with buyers during due diligence, financing, valuation, negotiation and post-closing. (Hopefully your advisors are fully informed about this, too.)
Sign up below to receive email notifications of my upcoming podcasts and Our sweet spot are deals ranging from one to five million dollars in sale/purchase price.
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Email Ted J. Leverette, The Original Business Buyer Advocate ® Since the 1970s.
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