24/03/2010 by info.

I was talking to an entrepreneur yesterday who told me that his goal for starting a business was to simply sell it. Which is a little bit different from the goals of the vast majority of the people who start a business, most people simply want to establish an income.

This entrepreneurs strategy is to start is business chipping away at a market leaders market share in a niche market and to act as an irritant to his competitor so that sooner or later they will pay him to get him out of the market. They will buy his business, and they will pay handsomely. The strategy seemed to work as he had sold a few businesses and was a millionaire.

What perhaps most people do not realise is that often it is a larger business and competitor that is the prime candidate for buying your business.

If selling to a competitor is the strategy you think is best for your business, it’s preferable to engage the services of a professional business transfer agent, who has experience in assessing the interest and motives of these competitors.

They may obtain client lists, be able to gauge your financial strength, or your motives for selling, you could be giving them information that may harm your business.

So you might want to start thinking about which company may wish to buy your business or in thinking about your business strategy is there any way that you could become an irritant to your competitor so that they pay you effectively to disappear?

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16/03/2010 by info.

The best time to sell your business is when your business is doing well. But this is exactly when most business owners have the hardest time letting go of their business.

Your dream is to build a successful and profitable business, so to you it might seem illogical to walk away. If things are going so well, you might ask, why should I sell when I am making good money?

The reason is that this is the exact time when you are likely to receive offers in excess of its value.

For the best restaurant in town, best public house, or electrical contractor it is more likely that more than one buyer would show interest, and increased demand equals an increased price.

When the business starts to slow down and turnover reduces you would be unlikely to achieve that figure it will be some time before it regains its previous value if ever. If there is only one buyer who is likely to buy your business the fact is that they can name their price.

Too many times business owners wait too long before trying to realise their hard work, don’t let it happen to you.

There are great opportunities to successfully sell a business right now and maximize your investment.

Even if your sales are currently flat, don’t misread that as a bad sign. If your business is holding its own–or if sales are slightly up consider it good news in this economy.

There is a market for your good business.

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01/03/2010 by info.

So you want to exit your business and you want the highest possible price for it. The bad news is that you have messed up on the best way of achieving a high price, that is via planning your exit strategy, it would now take a few years of changing the way you conduct business to achieve that price.

So what do you do?

One option is to instruct honest agents such as BCMS Corporate who can achieve times more than a seller would by instructing a “normal” business agent, but they will probably want an upfront before they can help you. They effectively spend time grooming your business. Or my agency Horizon Business Agents but I will be honest with my assessment of your chances of obtaining your high price.

Can’t make that investment or dont want to instruct Horizon Business Agents, then the decision is easy, you instruct the agent who tells you that they can achieve the highest price for you and accept their terms.

There are plenty of examples of business transfer agents who have become seemingly very successful out of achieving higher prices than their competitors because they claim that they are different in the way they will market your business.

RTA business consultants are one of those, however after many complaints and investigations they have been exposed. The Federation of Small Businesses are listing their services as a possible scam and warning their members against using them. They, overvalue to fool business owners into signing a sole selling rights contract, take money upfront, and demand an exit fee. They then wait for that client to sell via other methods and then sue in the courts for their commission. Ex clients have now set up a website to help and warn other business owners against using their services.

Recently Horizon Business Agents failed to gain a client in London because a Corporate Finance Business claimed to the client that they could achieve a much higher price for their business.

The fact is that greed amongst business owners is feeding this beast, when it comes to selling your business an entrepreneurs common sense deserts them. Comments are made in retrospect such as “I didn’t actually think my business WAS worth that amount of money however if they tell me that it is who am I to disagree.”

In building the general rule is measure twice cut once. Our advice when selling your business is, give the agent enough time to sell your business and think twice, sign on the dotted line once, and don’t fall for the agent who simply claims they can achieve a higher price for you as you may be feeding the scammer.

Posted in Selling Your Business, Business transfer agents | No Comments »