Selling Your Business

At some point every entrepreneur needs to consider Exit from his company.

And with this thought, for almost every one of these SME company owners there comes anxiety, cramps in the pit of your stomach alongside the worries.

Worries about:

• Whether or not the company should be sold, simply closed down, or passed to someone else
• How to go about it
• Who are the people to advise on such matters?
• How to get the best sale price
• How to attract buyers
• And who are the potential buyers?
• What happens to the staff?
• What are the pitfalls, and the risks ?
• Suppose bogus buyers steal your ideas
• What can be done to develop the company so that it becomes an attractive proposition to buyers?
• Implication of dealings with everyday contracts, leases, purchases, customer sales

Failure to plan ahead will lead to lack of buyers, staff problems, higher taxation, contract penalties, lower Sale Price, and extreme personal stress.

The global downturn in business has led to a decline in all company disposals, mergers and acquisitions and trade generally. So it is while the markets are slow that canny company owners will set about moulding their business ready for the inevitable upturn.

For the adventurous people who have recently entered business with a ‘New Start Up’, the thoughts of personal Exit should also be given consideration. Indeed ‘Start Up’ investors will have already asked the question, ‘When and how do you plan to Exit?’

Most Investment houses look to a 5 to 7 year plan before they begin to itch for their own Exit.

Now is the time that entrepreneurs should be bravely making Exit plans. These should be strategies that will bear fruit as the recession bottoms out and we return to healthy trading times. Indeed it is this very forward looking concept that will assist in bringing the world into thriving business activity once again.

By L B Buckingham author of Prepare to Sell Your Company. Visit www.prepare-to-sell-your-company.co.uk