{"id":561088,"date":"2014-10-08T09:42:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T13:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vrbbd.wpengine.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/selling-your-business-expect-unexpected\/"},"modified":"2022-01-31T12:43:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T17:43:57","slug":"selling-your-business-expect-unexpected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/selling-your-business-expect-unexpected\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling Your Business? Expect the Unexpected!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>According to the experts, a business owner should lay the groundwork for selling at about the same time as he or she first opens the door for business.\u00a0 Great advice, but it rarely happens.\u00a0 Most sales of businesses are event-driven; i.e., an event or circumstance such as partnership problems, divorce, health, or just plain burn-out pushes the business owner into selling.\u00a0 The business owner now becomes a seller without considering the unexpected issues that almost always occur.\u00a0 Here are some questions that need answering before selling:<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>How much is your time worth?<\/strong><\/strong><br \/>\nBusiness owners have a business to run, and they are generally the mainstay of the operation.\u00a0 If they are too busy trying to meet with prospective buyers, answering their questions and getting necessary data to them, the business may play second fiddle.\u00a0 Buyers can be very demanding and ignoring them may not only kill a possible sale, but will also reduce the purchase price.\u00a0 Using the services of a business broker is a great time saver. In addition to all of the other duties they will handle, they will make sure that the owners meet only with qualified prospects and at a time convenient for the owner.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>How involved do you need to be?<\/strong><\/strong><br \/>\nSome business owners feel that they need to know every detail of a buyer\u2019s visit to the business. They want to be involved in this, and in every other detail of the process.\u00a0 This takes away from running the business.\u00a0 Owners must realize that prospective buyers assume that the business will continue to run successfully during the sales process and through the closing.\u00a0 Micromanaging the sales process takes time from the business.\u00a0 This is another reason to use the services of a business broker.\u00a0 They can handle the details of the selling process, and they will keep sellers informed every step of the way \u2013 leaving the owner with the time necessary to run the business.\u00a0 However, they are well aware that it is the seller\u2019s business and that the seller makes the decisions.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>Are there any other decision makers?<\/strong><\/strong><br \/>\nSellers sometimes forget that they have a silent partner, or that they put their spouse\u2019s name on the liquor license, or that they sold some stock to their brother-in-law in exchange for some operating capital.\u00a0 These part-owners might very well come out of the woodwork and create issues that can thwart a sale.\u00a0 A silent partner ceases to be silent and expects a much bigger slice of the pie than the seller is willing to give.\u00a0 The answer is for the seller to gather approvals of all the parties in writing prior to going to market.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>How important is confidentiality?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is always an important issue.\u00a0 Leaks can occur.\u00a0 The more active the selling process (which benefits the seller and greatly increases the chance of a higher price), the more likely the word will get out.\u00a0 Sellers should have a back-up plan in case confidentiality is breached.\u00a0 Business brokers are experienced in maintaining confidentiality and can be a big help in this area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the experts, a business owner should lay the groundwork for selling at about the same time as he or she first opens the door for business.\u00a0 Great advice, but it rarely happens.\u00a0 Most sales of businesses are event-driven; i.e., an event or circumstance such as partnership problems, divorce, health, or just plain burn-out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seller-articles","category-selling-a-business"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbgreenbay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}