Which side of the table are you on?
The questions are not the same depending on whether you are selling or buying. One article holds for both, though: it explains why a small business changes hands differently from a large one.
Why you don’t sell a small business the way you sell a large one
A small business depends on its owner in a way a large company never does. That is what makes handing it over so particular, and what standard valuation methods overlook.
What is due diligence?
The audit the buyer carries out before signing: its four strands, who should run it, what happens if something turns up, and why the seller has every interest in preparing it in advance.
You are selling
Preparing your exit
Retirement, a change of life, or simply wanting your investment back. The chances of success rise sharply if you take the time to prepare the company so that it sells on the best terms.
- Can every small business be sold, even the smallest? A company breaking even, an owner who cannot be replaced, a loss-making business, a one-person outfit: four situations and what each means for finding a buyer.
- Handing your business over within the family Two dimensions to keep apart: the estate, where fairness is essential, and management, where shared power rarely works. Recommendations for planning ahead.
You are buying
Finding and convincing
There are more and more would-be buyers, and they don’t know where to look. Many negotiations fail because they don’t realise that buying a small business is, first of all, a human deal.
- Buying a small business: how to avoid the big mistake Buying a small business is above all a human deal. What the seller is really after, the hidden decision-makers, and why so many negotiations fail on questions that have nothing to do with money.
- Taking over a going concern: the seven things to check Restaurant, bakery, hair salon, shop: what a going concern includes, what needs auditing, and the real reason the seller is selling.
- Crowdfunding: financing a purchase without borrowing Crowdfunding lets you raise private money to buy a small business while staying entirely independent of the credit institutions. How it works and what makes it succeed.
Four stages, from the file to the signature
A sale is conducted in stages. Each has its own questions, and skipping the first one costs dearly in those that follow.
- Preparing the file. Assembling the documentation, valuation, information memorandum, identifying the possible sale scenarios.
- Finding buyers. Approaching partners directly, advertising through sale platforms and fellow professionals, direct approaches within the trade.
- Selecting. First contact on limited information, sifting candidates, introductions, release of the sale file.
- Negotiating and contracting. Price and terms, support for the buyer’s financing package where needed, contract.
Two hours of conversation, free.
To understand your situation, that of your company, and to identify the options open to you.