Who Wants Your Business Anyway?

As mentioned in my previous article, Is Good Enough, Good Enough to Sell?, hoping to sell your business to anyone is like starting a business and not knowing your market. Getting to the day in your business when you are ready to leave, and hoping someone wants to pay you for your business is not enough. If you do not know if it is valuable to anyone else but you, you cannot ensure what you want to sell is what someone else will want to buy.

Identify The Who

Think about your industry. What is affecting the products of your industry? For instance, if you were in the publishing industry, many publishers have already had to change their business model drastically, to go from print to hybrid or completely online. If you were a publisher, could you sell your business if it had only a fully print products? Probably not.

In your industry, what are the trends that make your business valuable now? If you know you have to change from a physical product to an online product to be a viable business now, you will also need to do that to be a valuable business later. Just like the publisher example above, no one wants to buy a business that has a product that is no longer viable.

So, when you are looking at who could buy your business from your industry, look at what they will want to buy from you. Something that is current and has value now.

Think about your competitors. What do they offer now that is in direct competition with your offerings? What do they offer that is in indirect competition with you? When you know what they already have, do you have something they could use that would add to their product or service offerings? Do you have a higher-end product, to add to their selection? Do you have the next step, the accessory, the additional piece?

If you have something that adds value to their business, then they could be the potential buyer of your business.

Think about other businesses.  There are other types of buyers that might buy your business. Those that purchase a business for a quick resale (like flipping houses). Those that only want to own one part of the business, shutting down the rest. Those companies that only buy assets.

You may have something of value at the end of your time in the business, but with these types of sales, you are getting far less for the business, than the business may be worth to you.

Next Steps

If you are hoping that some day you will be able to transition your legacy to another owner who will continue the work you started, keep on your employees, and support your clients, the way you have done for years, then you need to have a business that can transition easily.

Remember, to have these insights, is one thing, to set up your business to have the actual value both you and your buyer will want, takes time. If you have not already done this work, you will likely need to compromise when you go to sell. So, start this work now.

1. Do your self-assessment to determine what you want from the sale.
2. Identify who might be a good buyer for your business. Look at all the different types of buyers that might buy from you.
3. Choose the best buyer for your type of business and then identify what this buyer would want from the business when they buy it.
4. Create the value in your business now to align with the needs and wants of the buyer you want to sell to.

Yes, this is a fair amount of research, to help you assess and identify your business’s next stage, but it will be worth it when you find the perfect buyer that is willing to pay for the value both you and they see in the business.

NOTE – If selling your legacy is not your goal, then you may still be able to get some money for the assets in your business.

Like all articles on this blog, “This article is 100% original content – The articles you read in this newsletter are created by Barb Stuhlemmer, not by AI.”