Negativity amongst Owners of Businesses For Sale

“There’s no point in trying to sell my business at the moment is there?” This is the message that I have had from more than one of my clients.

They think that as the economy is going into recession and credit is difficult to obtain that their are no business buyers ready to buy a business.

Recently I had interest in a Sandwich Bar I am instructed to sell, after the viewing the prospective buyer had told me that the seller was thinking twice about whether he actually wanted to sell as he may not be able to afford to retire as he might not be able to sell his house and relocate as he was planning to do. He is 70 years old by the way.

All business owners in the UK who are offering their business for sale have to obtain an Energy Performance Certificate by 4 January 2009.

What you will find is that a good proportion of the current businesses on the market will be withdrawn due to the fact that the business owner is not prepared to make this investment, or because they think that it will not sell in the current market.

What does this mean?

Well firstly it shows that some business owners perhaps were not really serious about selling their business in the first place, but were willing to list their business at a higher price with agents who didn’t ask for an investment from them, and if someone was interested then they will sell at above market price. My guess is that these businesses will be withdrawn from the market as they will actually have to put up a stake upfront in their gamble.

Others will reply that their is no point in trying to sell, trying to double guess whether a buyer will emerge in the next few months.

This will leave positive business owners committed to selling their business who because they were not negative and have been willing to make an investment will be one of a smaller amount of businesses for sale and will be more likely to sell.

Assume there is a buyer wanting to by a Sandwich Bar in London. (There are buyers out there, cash buyers), who currently has a choice of say 10 Sandwich Bar for sale in the area he is looking. After 4 January perhaps there will be only 5 Sandwich Bars for sale. Each seller rather than having a 10% chance of selling now has a 20% chance of selling.

So if you offer your business for sale now you perhaps are more likely to sell rather than less likely to sell.

If you are interested in selling your business contact us.

Horizon business Agents

This entry was posted on 31/10/2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Selling Your Business, The Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.