3 Tips for a Fast Business Sale

Selling a business typically takes between 6 and 12 months to complete from putting the business on the market to completing the sale. At Bizdaq, we regularly get asked by sellers “how can I sell my business fast?” If you’d like to achieve a quicker sale there are a number of steps you can take to give yourself a great chance of completing your sale within a matter of months.

We’ve put together three tips for setting up your business for a quick sale.

1. Price Your Business Right
2. Prepare Your Key Documents and Financials in Advance
3.  Present Your Business in Its Best Light

1. Price Your Business Right

To sell a business fast, it is essential that your business is priced in accordance with the market. Get the valuation wrong and your business might not sell.

We offer an instant valuation tool that provides you with a guide price based on an algorithm that analyses your location, financials, industry data and previous selling prices.

Before you complete your bizdaq ad, you’ll have the chance to set your own asking price. Just be careful to avoid using your ‘parent bias’ if you do decide to increase your asking price significantly above the valuation.

After you’ve built your business from scratch it can be difficult to detach yourself and establish a fair market price. However, be aware that nothing slows the sale of a business more than an inflated asking price.

When sellers inform us "I want to sell my business fast," our initial advice is always to price the business right. 

2. Prepare Your Key Documents and Financials in Advance

Potential buyers will always need to see your key documents before they enter into any form of agreement to purchase your business.

To avoid slowing down the process and putting off buyers when you’ve put your business on the market, always have your key documents and financials prepared in advance.

Instruct your accountant as soon as you’ve decided to sell to help get your financial documents and statements prepared.

Buyers will want to see the following when you enter due diligence:

• 3 years of accounts including profit & loss and balance sheets
• Tax returns
• Inventory lists
• Leases
• Supplier & customer contracts

Additionally, it is good practice when you have prepared these documents to identify any weaknesses in advance and be prepared to answer buyer questions when they come up.

3. Present Your Business in Its Best Light

Just like selling a house, you’ll achieve a quicker sale if you spend time working on presenting your business in its best light to potential buyers.

Below we’ve included our tips for presenting your business in its best light:

• Take time to take photos of your business. Especially important if you are a retail business. Buyers will want to see how your business looks before arranging any viewings or taking their interest to the next level. Follow our photo guide for tips for taking great photos.
• Cut out your operating non-essential costs. Consider cutting non-essential expenditure, reduce debts and offload excess stock.
• Make a good first impression. If your business has a physical location, will your buyer see order or chaos when they view your business? A professional presentation will leave a good impression and building trust with the buyer.

Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. Ask what would I want to see if I was looking to buy this business?

And that's about it! We hope you have now learnt the best way to sell a business fast.