Granted, selling or buying a business can be really exciting, but it can also be very straining. If you are in the market either as a seller or a buyer, it’s important to realize that the process of buying or selling a business, especially one engaged in the Accounting and Financial Planning industries, demands a great deal of time and specialized knowledge. In other words, simply placing an ad on Craigslist won’t do the trick. The process can particularly take its toil on sellers, especially ones with hectic work schedules, as they have to juggle two things at the same time – running their business and dealing with buyers.

 

The phrase “dealing with  buyers” may seem innocuous on the surface, but almost always includes: pre-qualifying buyers on financial and professional basis, assuring the buyers of confidentiality and also ensuring confidentiality on their part, providing them a detailed profile of your business, various financial statements and any additional information they may require, following up, scheduling and arranging business tours, negotiating the various terms of the purchase agreement, preparing documentation and submitting to escrow, and last but not the least, maintaining a record of activities and current status for every buyer.

  

Given the current state of the market, sellers have to be very prompt with their communication, otherwise there is always a great possibility of the buyers losing interest and turning around to look for other opportunities. Once buyers lose interest and turn away, it’s practically impossible to rekindle their interest.

  

If you intend to sell your business and do so in a profitable manner, you should seriously consider engaging the services of a reputed and reliable business broking agency. That’s because finding a great buyer and successfully closing a deal while simultaneously running your business is close to impossible in today’s market, or at the very least requires super-human effort. A business broker will make things considerably easier for you by helping minimize your interaction with buyers? How? Well, by taking over the activities we have mentioned above. Not only that, a business broking agency will make what little you will be required to do a lot easier by helping you with their unique expertise.

 

Let’s have a look at how a business broking agency will help you with the sale of your business.

 

Assistance in valuing your business. . .

 You begin the “selling” process with the valuation or appraisal of your business. You need to correctly determine the purchase price in order to easily sell your business at a good profit. You will not want to overprice your business as you won’t be able to sell it. Similarly, you will not want to leave any money on the table by underpricing. A business broking agency will help you with the correct valuation of your business.

 

Assistance in preparing your business for attractive presentment to buyers. . .

The more time you spend preparing your business for sale, the greater are your chances of succeeding in selling it on favourable conditions of sale. A business broker will help you prepare your business for sale and present it to the buyers in the most attractive manner possible. He or she does that by helping you gather the required information, prepare a business profile, re-project financial statements, etc.

 

Assistance in determining and implementing the best advertising strategy. . .

Advertising the business is an integral aspect of the selling process. The marketing team at the business broking agency you choose will not only determine the advertising strategy that’s best for you, but will also develop personalized, descriptive advertisement. Advertising expenses can add up to a significant sum, but a good business broking agency will usually take care of such expenses at no additional cost to you.

Assistance in maintaining confidentiality. . .

Maintaining complete confidentiality is critical when you are selling a business. You most certainly don’t want buyers badgering your employees, clients, etc., to inquire about your business. Unrestricted inquiries of such nature can easily start rumors that are most likely to adversely affect your business. You may end up losing important clients and talented employees. A reputed and reliable broking agency will help maintain complete confidentiality as they will never reveal the name and location of your business until the buyer signs proper confidentiality agreement.

 

Assistance in prequalifying every buyer . . .

A great majority of buyers inquiring about a business are not qualified to buy it either financially or professionally. Dealing with such pseudo buyers can result in the loss of a considerable amount of your precious time. The business broking agency you choose will help prequalify every buyer in the early stages thus saving you a lot of time and effort.

 

Assistance in communication and follow-up . . .

Follow up is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the selling process. But you need to regularly communicate with the buyer for that. At times, however, repeated attempts at communicating with the buyer can make you look desperate, especially if the buyer isn’t responding at all or is communicating ambiguously. Moreover, if you are dealing with a number of buyers, maintaining a clean record of each communication, current status and follow-up activities can be a great hassle. The business broking agency you choose will be able to easily communicate with buyers and follow up on your behalf without compromising your position, as a business broker is a neutral third party. Furthermore, your business broking agency will also keep a record of each communication, current status and follow-up activities using their own data base.

 

Assistance in negotiating with the buyer . . .

The most important aspect of a business broker’s job is to assist the seller and the buyer in the negotiations. The outcome of such negotiations greatly depends on how professionally or otherwise they are handled.

That’s because a great deal of tension is generated when parties are negotiating the terms of the purchase agreement, especially monetary terms, and even the slightest of arguments at this stage can lead to the termination of the deal. In engaging the services of a good business broking agency ensures that negotiation process goes as smoothly as possible and results in a favourable outcome.

 

Assistance in submission to escrow . . .

As most business sale transactions are finalized through escrow once the buyer and the seller carry out the terms of the agreement, a business broking agency also assists in the preparation of documents and submission to escrow.

It is really important that you engage the services of a business broking agency to help you with the sale of your business. But as they will guide and assist you from the beginning of the selling process till its conclusion, it is equally important that you hire a good business broking agency.