Benchmark Business Group

Sell My Business

Are you thinking of selling your business now or are you curious how to go about it in the future? What you need to know, depends on how soon you want to sell.

If you’re ready to sell soon, you’ll want to talk to one of our business brokers to understand the process for selling your business, how to prepare your business for sale and how to list your business for sale while maintaining your confidentiality.  If you’re looking to sell later, you’ll want to understand what drives business value and how to design your business to be more sellable.

Select the option below that best matches where you are in the life cycle of selling your business.

 

The Process for Selling Your Business

Preparing Your Business For Sale

Listing Your Business for Sale

Consider Selling Your Business

Talk to a Business Broker about selling your business

The Process for Selling Your Business

While the selling process can be a complicated affair, our business brokers make it feel easier by fielding the plethora of phone calls and emails, managing the myriad of moving parts and facilitating all the activities and people it ultimately takes to get your business marketed(without exposing your identity), sold, and successfully closed. We focus on the process of selling, so you can focus on keeping your business profitable and attractive to buyers.

Our business brokers understand how to:

  • Maintain confidentiality while advertising your business for sale
  • Price a business
  • Present a business to attract buyers
  • Qualify buyers and protect your confidential information
  • Help you field and respond to questions from your buyer
  • Prepare you to successfully engage with buyers
  • Negotiate offers
  • Work through due diligence
  • Close the deal 

Our proven, well-orchestrated approach to the selling process effectively ensures your business will be presented in the most favorable way, at the greatest possible price, to the right buyers, in as short a time as possible, all while protecting your confidentiality and your time

talk to a business broker

 

Preparing Your Business for Sale

In a way, selling a business is like selling a house or a car, you can leave things that are broken the way they are, not wash or clean anything, fail to look for warranty or service histories, and generally present it on a “what you see is what you get” basis. 

Or, you can invest some time, energy, and even a little money “getting your house in order.”  Like houses and cars, there are lots of businesses for sale, and yours needs to be more attractive to buyers.

Effectively preparing your business for sale means getting it operationally ready to transfer to new ownership and applying basic marketing concepts to ensure it is presentable to buyers.

Our business brokers are trained to help you realize which small investments will allow you to capture the interest of buyers; however, if you’re looking to maximize the value you get for your business, you can work with our business coaches to make sure your business information, operating and training systems are as turn-key and transferable as you can make them. 

Each step you take towards preparing your business for sale can dramatically increase your businesses value. We know the steps to get there.

talk to a business broker

Listing Your Business for Sale

 

List Your Business For Sale

Listing your business for sale can be very frustrating if you’re not prepared and don’t have the right professionals to guide you through the process.

At Benchmark Business Group, our closing ratio on deals that have accepted offers to purchase is more than 7 times the business brokerage industry national average. The reason our clients experience such a high degree of success is our experienced team, proven systems, strong buyer and lender relationships, and expertise in presenting financially sound deals. Once we list your business for sale, our team of business brokers and business coaches take action to present your business to the market and guide you through a proven process.

If you're thinking about listing your business for sale, it's important to talk to one of our business brokers.  We will be glad to answer any questions and explain the process in detail.

Remember, this is a no obligation, confidential, and no pressure conversation.  Regardless of where you are in deciding to sell your business talking to a BBG business broker will be worth the investment of your time.

I am ready to discuss listing my business for sale

our business brokerage experience

Selling Your Business in 2+ Years

Have you been thinking about selling your business, but are not sure where to start?  Where you start depends on your timeline. 

  • If you're looking to sell within the next 2-3 years you need to be on a fast path.   Buyers will analyze at least 3 previous years of business activity when purchasing a business.  What you do today can impact the value of your business!

  • If you're wanting to sell in 4+ years you have more time, but that doesn't make this less important.  We talk to a lot of business owners that need to sell unexpectedly due to health or other reasons.  In addition, understanding the process for selling your business will help you make more strategic decisions as you operate your business today.  And, as a bonus, we've found that what makes your business more sell-able is also what makes it easier to grow and manage.

1. Understand What Buyers Want And Baseline Your Business

When you look to sell your business, it's not unusual to think about selling from your own point of view, as a business owner.  The problem is that buyers make decisions based on their point of view, as investors, not from your point of view as the person that's put their time and effort into building the business.

If you're looking to sell within the next 2-3 years, you'll want to get an Opinion of Value for your business to determine what it is likely to bring on the open market.  This evaluation of your business identifies the price it might bring and a thorough understanding of why.  It is important that a business owner understand why their business is worth what it is worth, what attributes of value should be protected, and what can be done to increase its value. BBG’s unique combination of professional business coaches, skilled business evaluation specialists, and professional business brokers guarantees an unmatched, holistic approach to an Opinion of Value that will help you understand the current market value of your business. Our commitment to business owners in our market area is to provide a complimentary Opinion of Value to determine if now is the time to sell, or if they want to focus on growing the value of their business.

consider selling your business?  get an opinion of value or business valuation

If you're not ready to sell just yet, understanding what motivates a buyer and having a baseline for your business gives you a head start that most business owners wish for when they are ready to sell their business.  By getting an earlier start, you'll be able to grow your business to maximize its value from a buyer's perspective, providing you with more offers and options. We suggest getting your Value Builder Score to understand how buyers evaluate businesses they are looking to buy.  It takes 15 minutes and is a no-obligation and no-cost method for understanding how you can increase the market value of your business.  There are 8 drivers of value in every business and knowing how you score today will help you increase your business value.

learn about the value builder score

 

 

2. Talk to a BBG Business Broker

Selling your business is a complicated process.  Our business brokers have years of experience.  They know the in's and out's of what it takes to list a business for sale, to attract qualified buyers, to negotiate the closing process, and to help you achieve maximum value.  Regardless of where you are in the process of selling a business, we have the tools and knowledge to help you achieve your goals.  Contact us for a confidential conversation to discuss where your business is today, the timeline you have for exiting, and what would work best for your unique situation. 

talk to a business broker

Social Media for Buying a Business

Follow these Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds which are focused on:

  • owning or selling a business in Iowa
  • owning or selling a business in the Midwest
  • owning or selling a business in the United States

We provide tips and articles that will help you realize value through your business while you own it and when you go to sell it.

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