Do you know how sellable your business is right now? You should, even if you think selling your business isn’t something you want to do right now.
Sellability should be built into your business at the earliest stages to give you more options in the future.
We’ve got five reasons you should get ready to sell your business.
1. Options
What if you couldn’t work for a while? Would your business come screeching to a halt?
In order to make your business its most sellable, it has to function without you. If it’s dependent on you completely, it won’t be sellable when the time comes, simply because it can’t function without you.
That’s not of much value to a potential buyer, so think about “selling my business” well beforehand. Set things up so that you can take time away now and then. You’ll know your business is sellable when you can step away and it still functions smoothly in your absence.
2. Have More Flexibility
If you spend most of your time on mundane tasks, you never have time to step back and take a look at the big picture. Where do you want to take your business next? What new ideas could you put into practice if you had time to actually sit down and think about where you want to go next?
When you turn day-to-day business operations over to your employees, you open up your time to take your business into the future. It’s more fun, it’s more flexible, it can increase your prosperity – and it makes your business truly sellable.
3. Establish Your Financial Freedom
Why did you establish your business in the first place? To create a product or service that would benefit your customers, perhaps to provide solid employment to those who work for you – but also to create financial freedom and security for yourself.
You’ll never have the freedom to enjoy the fruits of your labour if you’re always tied down to daily operations. Establish your financial freedom both now and in the future, when you sell it, by allowing your employees autonomy. Set things up so that they have the knowledge, independence and expertise to run things without you day-to-day, and then go ahead and enjoy your freedom!
4. Create a Gift to Pass On to Your Heirs
You may want to pass on your business to heirs or to trusted management. That’s admirable, but your gift may not be worth much if your business can’t run without you. Make sure your business is a self-sufficient machine that really is worth gold to those you’ll leave it to.
5. Give Yourself Time to Make Things Right
You can’t make your business sellable overnight if you’re just starting the process now. You’ll need to assess and adjust, to make and then implement changes so that your business’ performance stays strong even without your continual presence.
Before you sell, make sure you can show potential buyers strong performance for at least three years. That means you’ll need to make changes, prove that they work, and then guarantee a solid performance even in your absence. Then and only then will you be ready to sell.
Ready to find out if your business is ready to sell? Download our free guide to building sellability.