photo credit: timparkinson
John Warrillow, the author of Built To Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell, knows about selling businesses: He has started and exited four companies. His new book is a compact and essential guide to anyone who plans to sell their business. Suggestion: buy the book a couple of years before you plan to sell, because you have a lot more work to do than you realize. Stated recently on About.com.
When business owners receive offers or what is otherwise called a “term sheet” this is just the initial offer that once accepted by you gives the buyer a chance to do further digging around to which they may realize something about your business that they don’t like. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the term sheet is a done deal.
Many owners have certain perks that they put through their company such as hotel rooms, family vacations on the weekends, gas and even coffee or breakfast expenses. When someone is buying your business they will look at every last detail about your expenses so you don’t want to have too many of these luxuries listed.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when selling your business is having your lawyer do all of the talking for you. This creates a very uneasy and distrustful atmosphere with the buyer. They assume you are a very untrusting and possibly untrustworthy person to be doing business with, they figure you must have something to hide.