PREPARE YOUR BUSINESS FOR SALE - The Top Guy

PREPARE YOUR BUSINESS FOR SALE

The Top Guy by Mark Corke

Good Morning Bloggers

For a while, with his permission, I will be posting articles from Mark Corke of Suitegum.

Mark is a Business Broker, who writes articles on, and runs seminars on “Preparing you Business for Sale”. Should you wish to register for some of Mark’s free articles and tips, Here is the link.

Both Mark and I are of the opinion that ensuring that your Business is Prepared for Sale at all times will ensure that your business always commands the highest value. It actually increases the value of your Business quite considerably.

I have the best attorney in the country; a really top rate guy.

But then don’t we all? Nobody wants to believe that he is using second rate professional help; attorney, accountant, dentist or business broker. We would not be able to live with ourselves if we did not send our parents to the best oncologists to fight their cancer. And half the readers of this column will run a mile to hear a “professional” saying “I’m no gynaecologist, but I’ll take a look”!

Shine from the Top Shelf
We delight in having the best suppliers, and we show off our best gadgets. Skype was carried for free into homes and offices around the world by the very people who had just signed up, and then immediately called 10,000 of their closest friends to tell them how cheaply they were calling from half way round the World with the top voice over IP software.
Eighteen years ago I was involved in selling the first cellular phones in South Africa. It was an amazing gadget which weighed in at 3,5kg, was the size of a small briefcase, and usable only in select areas of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. I had one installed in my Citi Golf! And at a cost of R15,000, it was more valuable than my R12,000 car. One day, one of my customers called John Berks on his morning show, from the phone that I had sold him the day before. He spent more time telling an amazed Berksie that he was calling from the latest and greatest techno gadget. Only he and I knew that even my Citi Golf was worth more than his clapped out old Audi from which he was calling.
So with so much value being placed on the best, why would we believe for even a second that anybody wanting to buy a business, and presented with three or four similar offerings, will not want to buy the best that he can afford? So let’s plan to give them what the buyers want. Not today, I know. Of course you don’t want to sell today, or even in the next month, or this year. But at some time in the future, you will want to sell your business.
Four people called me today. People I have never spoken to before. They all have one thing in common: They all want to sell their businesses. One of them wants to sell his before the end of the month! He won’t.
I have been banging this old drum for some years now. Prepare Your Business for Sale! Prepare now, and make your life better from now until the time you sell. Why better? Well because you will sell for a higher price, and you will be able to sell when you want to or have to. The amount of work involved is so small in relation to the benefit that will be gained, that you will simply shake your head in disbelief when you have done it
When you eventually sell your business, you need to be the number 1 choice amongst all the other businesses which are for sale in your industry.
Everybody else will quit well before they come anywhere close to being number 1. You must not be one of the “everybody else”. You must stick to your guns, prepare properly, stay prepared, so that when you decide to sell, or have it decided for you, you will have the best crack at a tough market place.
When the day arrives for you to sell, you don’t want to rely on: “Oh well, there’s nothing better, so we’ll take this one”. Your buyer is going to choose the best factory, butchery, hairdresser or candle stick maker, and you have it in your power today, to give that buyer enough information for him to decide that yours is the best business available.
The business owners who ignore this call are in the majority, but their businesses will not be in demand because they will not be scarce. Today scarcity represents value. Take a look at the Star on a Monday night, and you’ll see what I mean. Take a look at a web site that promises 800 businesses for sale, and you’ll see what I mean.
Selling a business would be easy if only the buyer thought the way the seller does. Here’s your opportunity, while you’re in control, to provide the information in a manner which will help your purchaser to think like you do…. Because you are the top guy.
I am running a new seminar series in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in the near future. Have a look at my website to see when the next one is in your area – http://www.suitegum.co.za. Please join me to learn how to Prepare your Business For Sale and Present Your Business For Transfer.
I hope to meet up with you there.
CheersMark Corke