Selling Your Business

With all the attention paid to starting up businesses, maintaining them, and growing them, selling businesses should not be the forgotten son. In fact, this is the final goal for many entrepreneurs.

There are many services available via the Internet that will help you sell your business. But their approach is basically to evaluate what you have to offer, and then broker it to potential buyers.

However, is your business ready to be sold? And if so, do you have a presentation worked out to answer a buyer's questions? Does your ad attract the right buyers? Are you advertising in the right places? Are you financing the sale properly? Is your business correctly valued? Are you asking the right price?

There are sources that help get your presentation in order for prospective partners or new owners.

Business Valuation Model
A web-based program that prompts you for revenue, variable costs and fixed costs. The result is a 3-year sales forecast in Optimistic, Expected and Pessimistic variations. Such data can help you attribute a value to the business that you are selling.

Sell Your Business
A downloadable online manual designed to help you get the most for your business. Written by Mal Emery, who has bought, developed and sold 14 businesses (so far). Several companion manuals delve into market strategies, online sales and similar topics.

Business Plans
Selling your business is exactly like starting your business; starting it for someone else. With a proper business plan in order, the prospective buyer will be able to see every aspect of the business spelled out for them. Additionally, your business plan can be used by your buyer to help raise capital. Several business plan software titles are listed here.