You're a busy person. You are running a business. You spend your days delivering on your product, dealing with employees, managing taxes, marketing & advertising your business, selling your products and about 100 other things. You aren't focused on the big picture because you don't have the time, knowledge or the interest. Not to mention it makes you uncomfortable to do things you don't know how to do-and that is normal!
When we don't know how to do something it creates fear in us. The fear of the unknown, the fear of messing up- it's a survival technique that is deeply rooted in each of us from the caveman days.
When it comes to our business, we don't want to mess it up because we have worked so hard to build it. We have dedicated years of our lives to creating a business that we hope to sell some day. It’s a good thing to be afraid of trying to sell your business. It's completely natural and you would be a little weird if you weren't afraid, because let's be honest-you haven't done this before and have a healthy dose of fear about not making a life changing mistake. Again, this fear is normal.
Unfortunately, not selling your business is also normal. In fact, 80% of businesses listed for sale do not sell. DON'T BE NORMAL. Be your own hero and do what others can't or won't do. Do the uncomfortable thing and get help.
Selling a business is complex in its entirety, but what you need to do is break it down into very manageable steps. You need to have a checklist of every step you will need to take to sell your business
Very few complete guides are available, far fewer are available for you as an independent business owner. In fact, I believe you need the best & most complete checklist so badly to get started, that I’ll give it to you. Just tell which email you would like it delivered to.
Now here is the thing with our checklist, or anyone else’s you may get…
BEWARE-when you get it to help you sell, it's long. You will get the checklist and have good intentions to starting on it. You may even get started at the top of it, but it will inevitably get buried on your desk or in your email and you won’t get it completed. Your failure isn’t your fault, it’s a long list. It’s a long list and complicated. It’s something you are trying to do in addition to everything else you need to get done.
Unfortunately, the chances of actually making through is slim to none.
We know this because we see it all the time. Good intentioned DIY’ers. Heck we even try to do these things ourselves and learn the same lesson over and over again. We have learned that we can move far faster, more efficiently and more effectively when we have some guidance along the way.
So, what do you need to do to sell your business?
To do list:
Get a checklist to get everything in order- you should now have this.
Get a valuation.
Get yourself out of the “day to day” of the business.
Grow sales.
Improved marketing and sales scripts.
Business value impact
NO surprises as you sell your business.
What is your business valued at today?
The biggest way to increase the value of your business.
The 2nd biggest way to increase the value of your business.
How you accomplish growing sales.
You know how to run your business. You know what to do every day because you have done it. You don't know how to begin the business selling process because you have never done it and those skills are undeveloped. When we don't know what we are doing we tend to not do it at all or, put it off so long that when we do attempt to do it we rush and do it poorly, which yields poor results.
P.S.- Business valuations done by the wrong person will make your business unsellable. Get a reliable business valuation and know how the value was determined.