Selling your business in a competitive market can be a stressful time for business owners, particularly when buyers can also easily investigate several other businesses and investment opportunities within your industry, and therefore are quite likely to be very knowledgeable on what value is. The hands down best strategy for selling your business is to sell the dream, but what is the dream that buyers are searching for in today’s market?
Without a doubt, every buyer will have a different reason for buying a business. However, if you cast your mind back to when you established or purchased your current business, you were most probably looking to tick one or more of the following boxes.
- Low risk: With an established customer or client base, a solid supplier network and key employees who will remain with the business when it is sold, your business presents a low risk to prospective buyers. Not being reliant on your own personal reputation or involvement in the business also demonstrates that your business is an independent proposition that has a solid foundation and a bright future.
- Financial security: Buyers want to know that when they buy your business it will grow and expand over the coming years. Their financial security is dependent on the success of their new business, so having a strong company brand, a broad customer base, growth prospects and a recurring revenue model
,reduces their sense of risk and increases their expectations of financial security. - ROI: Buyers don’t like uncertainty, so they will need evidence that your business is both profitable and financially solvent, as well as having a strong market position, loyal and experienced employees and an established customer base and goodwill. All these factors increase a buyer’s confidence that they will receive a positive ROI when they purchase your business.
- Better lifestyle: Some buyers want to completely change their lifestyle and are looking for a sea change, hoping that being their own boss will give them the type of lifestyle they deserve. These buyers tend to look for an established easy-to-operate entry type business in a good location that can be run by inexperienced owners and has an immediate income. They don’t want the stress of building a business from scratch and want to hit the ground running with experienced staff who can essentially keep the business operating indefinitely. Some buyers who are looking for a sea change are also happy to have someone else manage the business for them, so making sure that buyers are aware that key employees will remain with the business following its sale is a good selling point.
- Happier and healthier: When a buyer doesn’t have to worry about work, they can relax and enjoy a happier and healthier life. That’s why buying an established business with runs on the board is a much better option for many buyers. They will have a reliable business with a positive ROI and if it just keeps ticking over, they can enjoy the fruits of their labour without worrying about their finances. Sometimes, a buyer doesn’t want to grow and expand the business, they just want to give the customers a good product or service, build more goodwill and simply be happy with their life.
- Inheritance: Many buyers want to build something that they can pass onto their children where the difficult start up work has already been done and the profits are locked in. They might want to run the business themselves and pass it on when they retire, or they might buy it for their children to manage from day one. If so, they are looking for that secure and profitable enterprise for the future that ticks all the boxes.
These are the kind of dreams that will sell your business – that it is low risk with a good ROI, giving the new owners an increased sense of financial security, the opportunity to be their own boss, offering them a sea change and happy and healthy lifestyle, all topped off with a profitable business that can be passed onto their children.
Verified Businesses is the leading Business Broker on the Sunshine Coast, we are experts at communicating the above factors to your buyer pool, to secure you the best possible price when selling your business. Why not book a consultation with our friendly team and download our Sellers Toolkit?
