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Johnny's Ramblings
In the Crosshairs
A Word from Our Sponsor
Forum Watch
Diamond in the Rough
One on One
Scumbag of the Week

Issue # 211 (06-25-2004)

A Life Lesson

Words of wisdom from a fallen President ... gMail ... scumbags galore !

In the Crosshairs

So, you have decided to sell your business, now what?

Part 2 - Preparing your Business Information for the Sale

There you are, "Day One" after you have finally decided to sell your business for whatever reason, chosen an asking price that you can support (hopefully with some advice from research or even an article or two), and are now ready to talk to some potential buyers. Or are you?

Much like the asking price, the art of preparing your business for sale is not that easy. In fact, this is without doubt the most difficult part. How so you ask? Personally, I liken this next step to the equivalent of writing a business plan while being audited and making dinner at the same time (if you cook like I do anyway). Of course, depending on your skill set and business or personal organizational skills, this can be much easier.

So, what do you need to successfully prepare the business and information? The list and needs vary greatly over business types, revenue sizes, verticals, and so on. For any business, the basic requirements for what you will need are quite similar. At the very least, you should have the following items:

Business Summary -- what it is and why you are selling
Business Plan/Marketing Plan -- if you have them
Asset List -- both tangible and intangible
Web or Store Traffic Reports (Rankings/PageRanks also, but they are one small piece overall)
Any Technical details Financials (*very important)
Most recent completed year's Profit & Loss or Income Statement report and Balance Sheet -- if you have it
Any and all previous years of financials Current YTD financials
Any Proforma statements or sales forecasts
Supporting documents for the Financials -- Tax, Bank, and/or Merchant Statements (I suggest you hold these until later if you can, though.)
The previous items will give all potential buyers a good idea what is for sale and probably a good idea if they are interested in pursuing the sale or not. However, that is usually just the beginning, so be prepared for many, many, many more questions.

Also, please keep in mind that your materials, presentation, and responses will be graded as part of the business in a way. Why? Because, how can your business be successful if you are unorganized, not well presented, and not able to respond quickly and concisely? This is what the buyer will be thinking. And in my experience, this is pretty accurate.

Lastly I will leave you with this: There are no guarantees your business will sell (and/or at the price you are looking for) so be prepared to keep running it going forward. And often putting your business up for sale, gathering your materials, writing up plans and analyses, and responding to questions (and criticisms) will often get you thinking about all the things you should or could do to improve and grow. So what is the worse case scenario if you do that? You do not sell the business but you keep making money -- and maybe even grow from what you have learned (more on all of this in the next addition). That is without doubt the best advice I or anyone else can give, and I hope you use it.

About the Author:
Ross Whittaker is a Managing Partner at eBizBrokers, Inc., a specialty e-business brokerage firm located in Waltham, MA. For further inquiries or questions, please contact rossw@ebizbrokers.com.

Read the In the Crosshairs section from the Last Issue or in the Following Issue

JimWorld Member comments and feedback ...

Posted On: 06/25/2004 10:08
Posted By: nameplace

There it is, the only piece of info in this newsletter that is remotely usable. Why not just print this entire article instead of filling the once-interesting newsletter with John's chest-thumping, war-mongering rants?

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A Life Lesson

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