The business owner of a party hire business tried to sell her business since August 2022, unsuccessfully.
She reached out to me as she saw great reviews about my work. She contacted me to see if I could help sell her entire business before resorting to liquidation. She needed to sell her business fairly quickly, as the matter was dragging since August 2022.
I had a discovery session with her to gather all the information I needed, and to see if I could help her achieve her goal. Once we found that we were a good fit, I started working on conducting the business valuation. I need to calculate the fair value of her business, so she wouldn’t lose money over all the efforts and time she spent building it for 7 years. I started working on the strategy and built all the steps needed to find the right buyer. There are lots of steps to take before a business can be sold, more than 10 steps. The process of how to sell a business depends on the size of the business, it can be more complex and take more time. It is important to tailor the work based on the uniqueness of each business, to get better results.
She had a lot of questions about the sale process, the steps she needed to take, and how to reach the right buyer. Part of my job was to respond to all the questions and offer guidance to ensure success.
As she struggled to sell it alone for the past 5 months, I wanted her to get the right steps and ensure she wouldn’t get a lot of time wasters, or people with a hidden agenda. I have built a strategy that would allow filtering those unwanted queries. Usually, the reason for the selling process to be long and unsuccessful is the fact that people don’t have a strategy in place to reach the right buyer, and waste a lot of time answering queries from people who just want to know the value of the business or to get the documents to copy them, or to bargain. The whole point of creating a roadmap is to avoid people who are not serious.
After putting everything in place, and submitting all the required deliverables of the pre-sale phase, my client started the sale phase. After putting her business for sale in mid of January 2022, where I recommended, she received 21 inquiries. After moving forward, step by step, she got 9 people who were willing to move forward. This was a bit disappointing and a little frustrating for her, but great results for me. Because it meant that the first barriers worked, and we had eliminated unwanted people who were not serious enough to continue the process, such as time wasters, and people with hidden agendas.
From those 9, we have heard back from only 3. Of the 3, one said it wasn't for her. Two said they were interested and would like to move forward in the process. Further down the line, one serious buyer bought her business. The great news was that she sold her business at a premium on the 2nd of February 2023. Her return on investment was huge as she invested in working with me and could sell her business at a premium, which could be estimated at 191%. The options she had, were either shutting down and not finding someone interested to buy her assets, selling only her tangible assets, or selling her entire business to someone who could operate it very quickly.
This shows that having a business valuation is not enough to sell a business. You need to have a strategy and a process in place to filter unwanted people. You also need to put in place all the steps for the sale process. I was in constant contact with my client during the process, and monitor the progress of the process.
In conclusion, when you want to sell your business, make sure that everything is ready before starting putting it on the market. The first impression counts, if you get that wrong, people will have a bad impression, such as your seriousness, or maybe a hidden issue with your business. Be professional, and get your business ready! You might not have the skills or the time to handle this part, so ask for help, to ensure that you will get the right value for what you have been working for, for so long. The other recommendation would be not to wait until the last minute to get your business valuation. By doing it early on, you can improve some areas in your business to increase its value, and sell it at a premium. Yes! Business valuation can be useful way before wanting to sell your business. You need to know regularly where you can increase value by improving certain areas of your business.
Her feedback from working with me was:” To say I am excited is an understatement. I couldn't have done it without you and all your advice and hard work and guidance. It set everything up for success and was really invaluable. I was floundering before I came to you, and now look at the result. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, really.”
My purpose is to help small business owners to get the results they want by working with me. But it is also to see them happy because they achieved what they wanted, either by launching their business, scaling up, or selling their business.
If you need help with your new venture or your business, feel free to contact me at info@businesschallenges.net for a free business consultation.