Selling your business is a tricky proposition. It is a process that is complicated by a variety of factors ranging from personal emotions and ego to marketplace trends and the economic conditions. Some businesses sell quickly, others take over a year and some don’t sell at all.
The bottom line is this – if you’re counting on your business to provide you with a comfortable retirement you better have a couple routes for it to take to get you there. Having been a business owner myself, and having worked closely with owners wanting to sell their companies, I can tell you that most business owners give little or no serious thought to how they will exit their company and most have no idea what their company is actually worth in the marketplace. I see too many businesses fizzle and fade away due to a lack of a well thought out exit strategy.
Three steps you can take today to help ensure a positive exit are:
- Learn the true market value of your company.
- Affiliate yourself with a business broker who has their finger on the pulse of the marketplace to keep you up to date on trends.
- Create three detailed road maps for your exit.
The failure to plan is a plan to fail.