Advice for selling a business yourself

[HB88]

Hi there, does anyone have first hand experience of selling a brick and mortar business themselves without the use of a broker/transfer agent? What was your experience of this like? What was your motivation for not using a broker? Would you recommend this approach and do it again?

 

[Joel Bissitt]

Yes done it twice myself. Even via a broker you still have to handle the negotiations legal, like an estate agent so provided you can generated the leads yourself I think selling yourself is the best way to sell a business. We have a network of 46 free advertising sites where you can advertise the business for free, check out my message footer for links etc

 

[The Byre]

Yes - back in 1999, but I had two legal teams backing me up. This was the sale of a German business to a UK company, so I used my fav. German legal beagle and a UK partnership. I also received advice from a cousin who has a PhD in German company law and another from a cousin with a PhD in business administration. The cousins I got for free (not that they did that much!) but the legal teams cost about £12k each.

Everything depends on the circumstances. When it comes to the buying and selling of small businesses, there seem to be so many charlatans swimming in that water, that I would stay away from brokers and agents altogether!

If you care to put some meat on the bones of your situation, some folks here might be able to comment constructively. In particular, it would help if you tell us in very broad terms, total revenue, gross profit (remember the wage of an owner-manager should NOT be included in the gross profit, when it comes to valuing a company) number of staff and type of business (sale of white goods, toys, cars, whatever!)

 

[Deleted member 59730]

It all depends on whether you are hoping to sell to a total stranger or someone you can target with a proposal. Sometimes there will be a rival who will be glad to buy your business to add to theirs.

Valuation is difficult. Making a business attractive to a buyer is worth thinking about which might mean being brutally honest about dead stock.

 

[Clinton]

I've sold several businesses. If it's a small business then yes, an owner can do a good job of the sale. For larger businesses it would be crazy to not use a professional (and, no, I'm not talking the average business broker - they are not professionals).

I'm putting some material together here on how to sell your business yourself. Hope you find it useful (note; it's still work in progress)

 

[Clinton]

dupe

 

[HB88]

Thanks Joel Bissitt for sharing your experience. I'd heard similar opinions regarding still having to do a lot of the work involved even if using a broker.
The Byer - yes, I understand other professional services such as legal would need to be engaged as part of the process.
Clinton - Yes, I should have said in my op that I was referring to small business (<£1M). Thanks for posting the link to your content.

 

[joseph090]

All of the starup story really inspired me.

 

[Asjs3n4]

Have recently sold a successful online marketplace, happy to help. I tried a traditional broker and an online broker, bother were a bad experience but ended up doing everything myself.

I advertised in the Sunday Times, on for sale websites etc but in the end and as with most sales it's a trade sale to someone in the industry or an existing supplier/customer.

You might just need a simple cheap broker service to cloak who you are to potential buyers and encourage an offer. You want to engineer the offer to come to you, by seeding the opportunity and get the best price, not a distressed sale

I might be able to help...PM me...

 

[Andrew Omole]

Yes I sell my house in Manchester myself. I waited for too long to sell my home which was my biggest mistake. After taking advice from local brokers i set up long term planning, keep sales portfolio on hand at all times which helps me to avoid sale disappointments.