There are two camps here as it relates to finding a buyer.  One seller might be looking for the “right” buyer as defined by their personal exit goals while another is going after the highest sales price.  Obviously the dream deal is when the seller will obtain bo by finding a buyer who will protect their employees, product or vision and still pay the highest amount of money.  I’m not saying that the dream is a fantasy, but it rarely come out that way.  Just be honest with yourself and expectations when you go into targeting your buyer and make it clear upfront what you want out of the deal in order to make it a win/win.  There have been more deals blown up because the seller starts off the selling process with one goal in mind and then changes the rules along the way.  Recognize that every potential buyer will require some sort of choice between your goals and their offer.

If you believe in the well publicized 80/20 rule of thumb, then not every buyer is the ideal buyer.  You will need to get as many interested parties looking at your business to give you the best opportunity for success.   Most business owners I work with say they don’t care who the buyer is as long as they get the money, but let me tell you that the buyer can make a difficult process much easier or harder, so be careful before you proceed.

There are a few simply ways to find a buyer for your Company.  You can either pay a business broker to professionally represent you and they will take care of the marketing and transactional work, or you can do it ourselves.  I always recommend that before you hire an advisor that you research the individual and check references.   Most business brokers have their own website where they list the businesses they are representing and will also list it on other major online sites.   If you want to do it yourself then you can list your business on any of the multiple online listings sites as there is still no standard Multi Listing Service (like in residential) for business listings.  There are some big fish in the web space buying and taking over sites but look around and that is a fairly easy and inexpensive listing.  There are also local website listings like Craig’s List that I have had success listing businesses on and finally the local community print newspaper has been successful in selling small, local businesses.

To be honest though the best way to find the right buyer is to start talking with people that would have interest in taking the Company.  The big Investment Banking firms don’t list a business for sale on an online listing website.  Their skill, as well as why you pay the big bucks when you hire them, is to locate the ideal buyer and meet with them face to face to present why they should buy the company they are representing.  I just went to bizbuysell.com and they are marketing 47,000 business for sale right now.  How are you going to be found in that site?  I’m not saying don’t list it but what I am saying is don’t think that a couple of listings are going to make the phone ring.

How you find the buyer is you go looking for them.  This is a proactive effort that requires time and effort.  Look around at your major customer base, your largest supplier/vendor or competitor.  All of them aren’t looking but if provided a reasonable business reason to buy it then they might look more seriously.  The fact is that there are a ton more sellers then buyers, and not all those buyers are good for your business.  It only takes one buyer to close the transaction but finding that buyer requires listings, networking and effort.  In the end, your fantasy may come true.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 12:53 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.