How to Prepare Your Business for Sale

Proper planning is a decisive factor when preparing to sell your business. The process can be intimidating, time-consuming and emotionally challenging. Most entrepreneurs face complications throughout the selling procedure due to a lack of planning and preparation.

If you want to maximise the value for your business, you should explore the different platforms where you can get prospective buyers across Australia. The best thing you can do is to sell business online and get the desired price for your venture. Make sure you understand the complexity of tasks and focus on achieving a seamless transition.

Here are some valuable tips that you should consider while preparing your business for sale.

1. Prepare Mentally

This is an important step when preparing your business for sale. Think carefully and decide why you want to sell your existing business. Determine your future goals and how you can pull your business and maximise the reputation before the sale. Of course, this can be a taxing process but think about the endgame before making final decisions. You can ask the following questions to yourself for better clarity:

• Why do I want to sell my business?
• Is my business ready?
• What are my plans after the sale?
• How will I cope if my business doesn’t sell?

Whether you are planning to relocate or retire, you should always prepare your mind while selling your venture.

2. Streamline Your Business Processes

It is good to develop and systemise your processes to ensure that your company doesn’t rely entirely on personal goodwill or specific knowledge. This is also a crucial step because developing new strategies before selling the business can help you maximise its value in this competitive market. Make sure you streamline your business processes at least one or two years in advance of the sale.

3. Organise Your Financial Documents

Preparing your business for this massive decision requires time, proper planning and research work. You can organise all your finances by reversing out abnormal or personal expenses. Decide the actual operating profit for the company and have at least three years of financial records in a streamlined manner.

Remember that the potential buyers will examine these documents before finalising the deal.  Keeping them organised will help you evaluate the business’s profitability at any given time so that you can pitch it with precise information.

4. Check and Protect Your Trademark

Do not forget to check whether the trademark of your company name, logo and other valuable assets are secured. These important things will be included in the selling process to attract prospective buyers. There are seven types of intellectual property protection aspects, including plant breeder’s right, confidentiality or trade secrets and circuit layout rights.

Most businesses in Australia use:

Trademarks : It is used to differentiate the products and services of one business from others. It can be a number, letter, phase, word, logo, shape, picture, etc.

Patents: It gives you the exclusive right to invent or introduce new products and an idea for a period of time and can be legally enforced.

Designs: It simply gives a unique appearance to your products and services.

So, make sure keep them secured, especially while selling your business in Australia.

5. Check the Lease

Do you have a rented office in the hotspot of Australia? If yes, then check the lease and extend it if required. This will give a sense of security to the new owner and also help you get the desired value for your business. Also, deep clean the property, including important spots and high-traffic areas, before clicking pictures. This will help you gain more visibility when you sell a business online.

6. Review Employment Documents and Contracts

Make sure you thoroughly check all employment contracts and documents along with accrued entitlements. If you have staff with plenty of annual leave, encourage them to take or take leave before the business’s sale, which will make it easier for a new business owner to manage the leave liabilities without any stress.

7. Get Rid of Outdated Stock Items

You can carry out a stocktake to get rid of out-of-date or unseasonal stock. It can also help you find out any assets owned by the business that you may want to hold back. This is also a crucial step that can help you increase the chances of getting prospective buyers with ease.

8. Get the Valuation on Your Company

You should get your business valued if you want to know its current value in the market. Of course, your business has reached a benchmark, but make sure you know how the market will value it depending on the current situation and demand. Once you get a sufficient sum, you can list your business for sale. If the sum is falling short, you need more time to prepare your business for sale.

9. List Your Business

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs are more into leveraging online platforms to sell their businesses. Thus, listing a business online can help you promote your business, its key features and other important aspects in a well-organised manner. You can advertise your business and convey a selling pitch to prospective buyers in a matter of a few clicks.

You can provide detailed information about your business along with a few pictures while listing your business online. The best part is that the listings are viewed by thousands of potential buyers, which increases the chances of finding the right owner quickly.

Endnote

Selling your business is one of the challenging processes. Fortunately, the tips mentioned above in this article will help you prepare your company for this big decision. Make sure you prepare in advance for this transition and seamlessly sell your business online without any stress.