I just went by some clients of mine who want me to sell their business and the company doors where closed.  It’s 9:30am on a Tuesday and they aren’t open for business.  This is killing me.  I’m sure there is some good reason but in a buyer’s view, the one who might just stop by, it doesn’t look good.  I’ve told her, like so many other business owners, that once you mentally decide to sell your business you HAVE to work twice as hard and not mentally check out.  Maybe it’s human nature, but once we decide it’s over, we mentally leave long before we actually physically leave.  I have had the same experience in relationships, school and working for someone.  Unfortunately, it is the exact opposite if you want to sell your business.

You need to work twice as hard, not only because you have your regular 50-60 hrs work week, but you have to spend time planning, meeting and selling your business.  You cannot sell your business with your revenue volume going down.   There have been too many times… when a price is determined based upon historical numbers, early in the negotiations, and then when it finally comes to close, the numbers are way down and the buyer gets cold feet.

Please listen to me, you cannot mentally leave your company until after you close escrow.  There is no guarantee that it will close until the final day and the money transfers.  Buyers pull out all the time at the end so do not believe the sale will happen until it happens.  Work hard, make all decisions during escrow as if the transaction will not close.  You have to work on revenue, manage cash flow and keep the machine turning.  Consider it a relay race, and you are running your leg of the race and now you turn the baton over to the next runner.  DO NOT slow down, hand the company over in full sprint, make them catch you and after they have it (and more importantly you have the money), then slow down and watch them run.

Please, listen to me.  Most business sales require some type of seller financing, so it’s in your best interest to help them succeed.  Give them the best chance of success by not slowing down until your part of the race is over.   If you do this then it increases your chances of a successful transaction, and if it falls out at the end, you still have a business that has value.

Now please go to work.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Sell Your Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.