How to Sell a Business: 6 Steps to Make Money Selling a Business

Making the decision to sell your business can often be the hardest decision of your life. You will have put countless hours into your company and you are now at the stage where all of your hard work has paid off and you can make some money from the sale of it. Even if you are thrilled at the prospect of selling your business, it is often bittersweet as well.

One of the more important things to bear in mind is that you have to sell your business the right way. Selling your business is going to be one of the most important decisions you make, so everything needs to be perfect.

Here are six steps on how to sell a business quickly and make profitable money from your business ventures:

1. Contact a lawyer

The first step on how to sell a business is to find a good business lawyer. You’re going to need a lawyer to handle the estate planning and all other legal implications of selling your business. A lawyer will help you with two very important steps in the selling process.

First, an Agreement of Purchase and Sale must be signed. If this document has not been signed, there is no sale, and you need a lawyer to make sure that everything in the agreement is accurate and above board. The next part is that the closing documents need to be signed complete with a closing date. Without this, all of the business assets, shares and the business as a whole cannot be legally transferred to the buyer.

When choosing a lawyer, you should do your research and find one that is specialized in mergers and acquisitions. They will have many years of experience selling businesses just like yours.

2. You’ll also need an accountant

There will be significant tax implications following the sale of your business and you should plan to get ahead of all of these so that you are on the right foot in the future.

Accountants also help to support you when selling your business by giving you an accurate evaluation. They will take a very close look at the material assets, debts an liabilities to give an objective assessment of the value of your business.

3. Imagine you are the buyer

This is true of the sale of anything, but you need to think like a buyer. Think carefully about what they want and need in order to see your business as valuable and worthy of investment. The majority of buyers will be focused on a few specific things.

The evaluation needs to be accurate. Not only this but you will need to be able to supply documents that support this evaluation in full. Any buyer will also be heavily concerned with identifying the risk factors that are in play. Even if your business has been your passion project for years, a potential buyer will often be far less concerned with the amount of effort that has gone into building the business. They will be looking at this in a much more clinical accounting way as an investor.

4. Finding a buyer

The first step in selling a business is to consider the ramifications of the word getting out that the business is up for sale. There may be a concern that the reputation of the company could be harmed if the word is spread to publically. It is often not the idea that the business is being sold that is the problem, it is the uncertainty that it may be, and in the interim when the buyer has not been identified.

For this reason, it is always best to spread the word casually through a personal network and trusted network of lawyers and accountants. Industry associations and brokers can also be good conduits for this information.

5. Closing payroll accounts

If your business has employees then you need to think about closing your payroll account. This can be a complex process. It is ideal that you do your research and speak to your accountant about this in detail. This is something that you absolutely have to get right. The last thing that you want is for your loyal employees to be adversely affected by your decision to sell.

6. A positive attitude

The sale of your business will not happen overnight. You will need to do all that you can to stay positive through what seems like an endless process. At times it may seem like your life’s work is being reduced to numbers on a spreadsheet which can be a little disheartening. The trick here is to always rememebr why you are selling your business.

Once the decision is made you might have some lingering doubts. This is perfectly normal and you should not feel bad about this at all. At the start of the process, it is a good idea to write a letter to yourself outlining the reasons that you have decided to sell. When you do start to doubt the wisdom of selling, you can refer back to this letter and remind yourself why you need to move on.