Selling your business? You need to optimise your operations
30/09/2022
When buying a car, you want to make sure the specification matches your expectations and this is exactly what potential buyers of your business will be looking for.
You should have already figured out what you want for your business, and this will influence the type of deal that you wish to make.
Regardless of whether getting the most money is the driving factor behind the sale, potential buyers will have expectations for the condition that your business is in.
Being able to provide evidence of how well your business is operating could be the key to swaying a buyer during the consideration phase.
To get your business in the best shape possible, you need to do the following:
Tidy up your accounts
You should be keeping your accounts up-to-date as a standard practice. But if there are things that have slipped through the net, these must be addressed before putting your business on the market.
Any gaps in your accounts will be an instant red flag to potential buyers.
If you aren’t already using cloud accounting software to keep your accounts up to date, consider doing so.
This ensures all of your business’s accounts are automatically updated and makes extracting data a lot easier.
Identify weak areas of the business
If you offer a service that doesn’t perform as well as the others, buyers will want to know why this is happening and what you have done to address this.
As a business owner, it’s easy to look at your business with rose-tinted glasses but being completely honest with yourself about the state of the business is essential to prepare it for sale.
Doing an in-depth SWOT analysis, before selling your business, will bring issues to light that aren’t apparent from the facts and figures alone.
This can then inform you of the course of action you need to take. For instance, it may be worth considering focusing resources on the stronger areas of the business to drive the sale.
Monitor your contracts
Some buyers will want to come in and completely restructure your business, but others will want to ensure your current infrastructure is made to last.
So, any contracts you have, with either suppliers or clients, will need to be kept up-to-date.
If you are able to, inform any external parties of your intention to sell the business and of the potential impact this would have on any agreements.
However, if you are selling the business to a PLC, you won’t be able to disclose details about the deal until it is announced to the stock market.
Prepare your staff
If you want to make an immediate exit for your business, you need to make sure you aren’t indispensable.
To ensure this, your staff need to have the knowledge and skills to run the business without you.
If you currently take on a lot of responsibility, you must begin to filter tasks down to your staff.
Doing this before putting your business on the market will also highlight any areas where staff need more support, before passing over the reins.
In our next blog, we will delve into choosing the right time to sell.
Need advice on selling your business? Contact us.
