We’re closing in on the holidays and that might leave you thinking about whether you want to head into and complete another year as the primary owner and operator of your business.
We’re closing in on the holidays and that might leave you thinking about whether you want to head into and complete another year as the primary owner and operator of your business.
It’s not just about the time of year you’re in now- selling a business takes months to pull together. That’s assuming you already have the organized financials and a relationship set up with a talented business broker.
It can take anywhere from 8-12 months to bring a company’s sale all the way to the closing documents and it could be longer if you hit snags in the negotiation process.
The truth is that you must be looking far ahead in order to determine the business sale time that’s most appropriate for you. It’s not as easy as feeling like you want out immediately due to the amount of work that goes into preparing your company for sale. You’ll want to forecast out the ideal time you’d like to step out of the business in full and then work backwards from there.
The major phases of selling your business include the preparation, the marketing of the company for sale, selection and qualification of the right buyer, and the closing process. Depending on a few factors, each of these stages can take up to three months.
If you’ve got a business broker working with you at the outset, this process might go more quickly, especially if you’ve already done some of the legwork to prepare the company for sale.
A great time to begin marketing the business is in the fall, when people are back to work from summer and before they get busy in the holiday rush. During the summer is a difficult time to try to start the closing phase since some people involved in the deal might be out on vacation, slowing down the process and leading to obstacles with communication.
For these reasons, the most common time to consider selling your business and dipping your toe into those waters is the early summer. This sets you up to navigate around busy summers and winter holidays without too much of a slowdown in the process.
Where many deals fall apart is in negotiations. Qualification of the right buyer is key for feeling confident about the sale going through. The more you can be ready on your end with the financials and paperwork organized behind the scenes, the easier it will be for your business broker to market the company for sale to the proper network of qualified buyers.
Once your broker is involved, you can continue to keep in contact as the sale opportunities evolve. Your broker can help you navigate tricky questions and problems during the negotiation phase and will know what it takes to keep the sale process on the right timeline.
You can see how choosing a business broker can make a big difference in how quickly your company is sold to the right buyer. An experienced broker can make this process easier for you and help you sell your company no matter the time of year.