11 Secrets to Selling Your Business
Harvest The Profits From Your Business Sale
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Who is my Buyer?
Fishing Story No. 1
When I was young, I would go fishing with my Dad. We had fun but Dad knew nothing about fishing. When I got a little older I went fishing with my brother’s boxing coach, Bud. Bud was a short, stocky man with a brain tumor - the result of more than four hundred amateur and semi-pro fights. That probably explained most of the crazy things in his life. But Bud knew how to fish.
He told us that he would fly shotgun in small airplanes looking for unfished ponds on farms. Then he would go ask the owner if he could fish their pond. Inevitably they would tell him that there were no fish in that pond but go ahead. Bud had his special lures and eighty percent of the time he caught tons of fish. The first time I went fishing with Bud, I caught so many fish so fast it felt like I was cheating! Bud caught fish by fishing in ponds that had tons of fish because no one had fished them in years. Bud knew how to find fish and, with his special lures, he caught them.
What does this have to do with selling a business? The most important thing you have to do is to determine who and where your fish (Buyers) are. These are the people who are likely to be the most interested in your business and therefore the people who will pay you the most. Who these people are will vary with what you have to sell and what you want to accomplish. Below, we summarize the major groups and when they are likely to be the best Buyers. We address how to find them later in the book.
Remember to make your business as desirable as possible for your ‘best’ buyer. This may involve physical changes to the business over time. It may involve providing financing or training that is a little out of the norm. It certainly will involve looking at the prospective buyers of your business as you would your regular customers and make your product (the total business) as great as possible.
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About the Book
11 Secrets to Selling Your Business explains in straightforward language and helpful examples how to succeed in profitably valuing and selling your business by avoiding the many mistakes that plague business sellers. Costly mistakes often rob sellers of thousands or, worse yet, hundreds of thousands of dollars of profits when selling or merging their business. Mistakes like breaching confidentiality without agreements in place which allows a competitor to steal valuable customer lists or valuable leases on key locations. Mistakes such as negotiating a great deal without securing buyer financing causing the transaction to crash the day before settlement. Finally, a very misunderstood area, failing to negotiate earn-outs and other price kickers that could add 15% or more to your bottom line with no additional risk. You will see how to create the most valuable business possible at the time you intend to sell. You will be shown all the steps in the business sale process allowing you to structure and negotiate a transaction that will solve your concerns and produce the highest profit when selling your business.
About the Author
Gregory Caruso, CPA, Attorney & Certified Valuation Analyst, is a Principal at Harvest Associates in Baltimore and Bethesda, Maryland with over 20 years of transactional experience. He is actively engaged in business valuation, succession planning, exit strategy development, and small business merger and acquisition services. 410-637-3008 gcaruso@harvestbusiness.com or http://www.harvestbusiness.com/