Tips & Articles about Selling your Business

Should I sell my business ? Take this quiz ....

Answer each question with a 0 to 5 .....
0 = strongly Disagree with the statement !
5 = strongly Agree with the statement !

< Write down the Question no. and your vote for each question >

I have a clear idea of what I want to do with my life after I sell my business.

If the sale price is acceptable, I am willing to take half of the sale price in cash and loan the buyer the other half for up to five years.

Overall, I would say that myself and my business are both in pretty good shape.

I have 10-20 hours per week that I can dedicate to working on selling the business.

There are no big impending tax or legal problems that I'm worried about in my business.

Without me around, my business isn't worth nearly as much.

Sales and/or profits have been stagnant or declining recently.

I have a specific minimum price that I will sell for, and not a single penny less.

I feel very uncomfortable giving out a lot of financial details about my business.

I'm worried about new competition and/or changes in laws pertaining to my business.

How to score:
Questions 1 through 5: - Add the points for these questions.
Questions 6 through 10: - Subtract the points for your answers here.
(The Highest possible score is 25 points.)

What your score means:
15 or higher - You and your business are on the road to being ready to sell.
12 to 14 points - Probably ready to sell, with some fine-tuning required.
11 or lower - Some overhauling is needed to get ready for sale.

Your answers may shed light on your attitudes and the business sale readiness: ( Compare Answer numbers with Questions above. )

Are you sure you want to sell? What's next in your career? Some business owners realize that they don't have an exit plan late in the selling process and back out after wasting a lot of time and money.

Most business sales (there are a few exceptions but not many) require the seller to "carry paper" for some percentage of the sale price. If you're not ready to consider this likelihood, you may not have realistic expectations. And if someone tells you they can sell your business for 100% cash, that's an indication you should not trust them.

Are you in a position where you must sell due to illness or poor business performance? Or do you want to sell? If you are in a "must sell" situation, you may have to accept a lower price in order to sell the business quickly.

Selling a business takes a great deal of time and effort. Just keeping the place clean for the parade of potential buyers and meetings with buyers eats up a lot of time.

If your business has significant legal or tax problems a potential buyer will find out about them, and you're opening yourself up to even bigger problems if you manage to hide them until after the sale. These problems probably won't scare the right kind of buyers away but they may lower the selling price.

If the business is heavily dependent upon you and special abilities or relationships you have with customers, the business will be more difficult to sell. And don't kid yourself that Uncle Harry will still be the company's biggest customer after his favorite nephew has cashed in.

Declining sales or profits are an indication of trouble, no matter how you answered the other questions. Again, these problems probably won't scare the right kind of buyers away but they may lower the selling price.

It's OK to have a price in mind as long as it is realistic. Perform a valuation (or have one performed) on your business as a reality check on the selling price.

If you decide to put your business on the market, every aspect of your financial statements and business operations will be examined in microscopic detail. It's important that you feel OK about giving out this information to qualified buyers. Hesitancy to release information is often interpreted by buyers as trying to hide something.

If you're a storekeeper losing sleep worrying about the new Wal-Mart going up across the street, selling may or may not be the answer to your problem.