How can you get the best deal for you?

27/09/2022

Building your business up has taken a lot of your time and effort, so you don’t want to let that all go to waste when you are selling it.

Getting the best deal possible may mean getting the most money, but your vision for the business may also come into play.

Linking back to what you want to gain from the sale, if you want your business to uphold the values you instilled in it, you will face a trade-off between money and control.

You won’t get a second chance to sell your business, so you need to consider all possibilities.

How do you want to be paid?

If you want to maintain close ties with your business, the way that you are paid will be influenced.

To retain an element of control over the business, you will need to keep some shares in it.

But, do you want to sell shares to an external buyer and remain the majority shareholder?

Or, do you want to be acquired and buy some shares in the overall business?

How involved you want to be will influence your options, and which classification you opt for will be linked to your overall vision for your business.

If you’re a serial entrepreneur, you will want to get your cash as quickly as possible and make a clean break from your business.

What will happen to your staff?

When your employees hear that you are selling your business, how this will impact their jobs will be a key concern.

So, what will you do to reassure them?

Some of the key things to consider include:

• Will there be incentives for staff to stay with the business?
• Will there be changes to their duties?
• Who will be managing them?
• Are they at risk of being made redundant?

If you plan to remove yourself from the business completely, it might be hard to give definitive answers to these questions.

So, you must discuss any potential buyer’s intentions with your business, before agreeing to a sale, to ensure that these align with your views.

What will your buyer want?

If you want to be completely independent of your business, you will need to convince your buyer that your business can not only survive, but thrive without you.

Your business operations must be solid enough so that all systems can operate as usual without you.

Having a strong team of staff in managerial roles can reassure buyers of the business’s resilience.

On the other hand, if you wish to remain present in the business, a potential buyer must be willing to share their control.

You could come to an agreement that would allow you to stay in the business for a certain period, before giving complete control of the business over to the buyer.

This option can reassure buyers that the business will continue to operate as it currently is, whilst also offering considerable tax savings should payments be staggered.

In our next blog, we will discuss how you can optimise your business’s operations for sale.

For advice on selling your business, contact our team today.