Successful business sales typically rely on careful planning and preparation and presenting an attractive business proposition to potential buyers. A reliable valuation is key, with the input of professional advisors providing invaluable support.
If you’ve prepared your business for sale over some time now and feel that the time is right to place it on the market, we’ll provide an accurate market valuation and can offer you our many years of expertise.
Appointing an accountant and solicitor is fundamental from the start of the process, and professional business transfer agents – also known as business sales agents - provide significant guidance and practical support in what can be a daunting and complex process.
Valuing your business
Overvaluing or undervaluing a business is counterproductive when selling. You need to make sure that you don’t deter target buyers with too high a value or fail to access the business’ full worth by undervaluing.
Our team at Selling My Business has extensive experience in carrying out reliable business valuations. We’ll assess all the aspects of your business that contribute to the valuation whilst factoring in the extensive data we hold on recent comparable sales.
Sales memorandum and confidentiality agreements
The sales memorandum, or information memorandum, is sent out to interested parties at the early stage of selling. Although providing only a broad outline of your business, it does contain highly sensitive commercial information that needs protection.
This is why you should draw up a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that any parties interested in the sale must sign before you release the memorandum. Conducting a discreet sale at this point is important – for example, it can prevent disgruntled members of staff from disrupting the process.
- Previous sales and acquisitions experience
- Sector specialisms and average success rate
- Sales value expectations and growth potential
Sale negotiations
Negotiating the sale of your business can be a particularly daunting part of the process, but we can lead the sales negotiations or conduct them fully on behalf of our clients. This creates a degree of separation for you to carefully consider your options without pressure from the buyer or their advisors.
Buyer due diligence
The prospective buyer will conduct due diligence measures to scrutinise the information on which negotiations were based. If this information is found to be accurate and can be relied upon for the transaction, it encourages trust and instils confidence in the buyer that they’re making a good investment.
Sale agreement
The final sale agreement typically includes warranties and indemnities that are required by the purchaser, which contractually protects them if the issues specified arise after they’ve taken over. You may also wish to include your own agreements with regard to employees, for example, or if you want to stage the exit from your business, an earn-out agreement may be negotiable.
If you’d like more information on selling your business, please get in touch with our team of professional business transfer agents. We have more than 60 years of experience in buying and selling businesses and operate a nationwide network of offices.
