Pretty much everything to do with running and building a business is influenced by timing. Whether the time you choose to bring your product or service to market, or when you choose to restructure, these concerns will no doubt be familiar to many a business owner.
The importance of timing especially applies to when you decide to sell your business. If you’re wondering whether it might be too late, then you’re in the right place. Here, we take a brief look at where to seek expert advice on the matter, along with a few cases in which it could be too late to carry out the sale.
Getting the right kind of advice
If you’re considering selling your business, it’s important early on to stress the importance of getting specialised advice. Just as you wouldn’t attempt to represent yourself in court or organise your company’s organisational structure, you shouldn’t try to sell a business alone.
Business brokers such as Dexterity Partners will be able to help you navigate a lot of the issues that we’ll mention later on, and while it may be possible to do this yourself, you will likely fail to get the full value for your business sale using a self-driven strategy.
Why might it be too late to sell a business?
There are a number of reasons that could make it difficult to sell your business.
Fiscal health
To sell a business, as with any other product that you might sell, you need to be able to prove that it’s something that’s worth buying. If your business is starting to become less profitable, then you need to make sure that you are able to complete the sale before it enters any kind of serious debt, while being honest about the fiscal health. Selling an insolvent business can be practically impossible, and is likely not something that you want to even attempt.
Market conditions
Selling a business can be very dependent on market conditions. You want to ensure that things are at least stable, preferably on an upward turn. If you wait until the niche starts to decline, then it could very well be too late to sell. At the very least, buyers will be able to demand a far lower price for your business, compared to if conditions were more favourable.
Regulatory concerns
When selling a business, in a lot of niches you’ll find that there are specific regulatory requirements that need to be met. This is especially the case if your business involves dealing with sensitive information or individuals, or dangerous substances.
Failure to abide by the relevant regulations prior to selling the business could result in legal complications that make the sale a lot more complicated than it would otherwise have been, in some cases potentially even making the sale impossible.
These few points have really only touched the tip of the iceberg. It’s crucial that you seek expert advice on the sale, from a range of different parties. Your business will likely be something that you’ve put substantial time and effort into developing, and its sale is not something to take lightly.
