Selling your business can be a life-changing experience. Whether you’re ready to move on to a new venture, passing the baton to key staff or planning for retirement, preparing your business for sale is just as important as the transaction itself.
The essential ingredient for success is having the right team that will help you lay a solid foundation to ensure a seamless and successful sale. We understand the importance of this pivotal moment in your entrepreneurial journey, and we prioritise ensuring you close your ultimate deal. Here are 4 key steps in making that happen:
Step 1: Amplify Your Business Value:
Consider what sets your business apart from the competition – whether it’s your unique brand, loyal customer base, innovative products, relationships with key suppliers, loyal customers and star personnel. Showcase your financial performance, growth potential, and any intellectual property that adds distinctive edge to your offering. By making your business shine, you’ll attract serious buyers ready willing to pay a premium for your business.
Step 2: The Pre-Sale Prep:
Before you dive headfirst into the transaction, it’s essential to get your house in order. This means reviewing your financial records, ensuring you’re up to date with your tax, super and employee payments and entitlements, and tidying up your balance sheet. It is critical that you seek strategic accounting advice before you tap a broker or agent on the shoulder. Ensure you are structured in a way that enables you to exit in the most efficient manner.
Step 3: Ensure your Documentation is Locked in:
When it comes to selling your business, having solid agreements in place means you can confidently present your business to buyers. Contracts, supplier arrangements, permits, intellectual property registrations and licenses should be up to date. Ensure your confidentiality agreements, business premises leases and any other legal documents that record key business relationships are current, consistent, and able to be transferred to a purchaser without issue. We like to call this ‘reverse due diligence’. Step into the shoes of a purchaser and ensure the business you are presenting is something that you would buy.
Step 4: Closing the Deal:
Have strategic, collaborative, and experienced advisors on your team, who will ensure the transaction is managed efficiently and kept on track. After all the hard work and negotiation, but before you break out the champagne, make sure all the final details are in harmony. This includes ensuring you deliver on your obligations under your contract and ensuring a seamless transition for both your employees and your customers.
You’re not just selling a business; you’re passing the baton to someone new and embarking on a new chapter of your own.
Our mission is to ensure that transition is a resounding success.