Owning a business is a journey
Like a two-lane highway, the future of your business stretches off to a distant horizon that isn’t always clear.
Life in the Fast Lane: Running Your Business
The left side of the road (the fast lane) is where you accelerate and grow your business. You increase revenue, drive profits, and create livelihoods. Running your business at full speed requires attention, focus, quick reflexes, and strategy.
At some point (maybe when the road gets a little rocky), you wonder what life might be like if you sold the business. Would you spend more time with the family? Travel? Pursue a postponed hobby? Or, would you start a new business?
Motoring Along in the Right Lane: Planning to Sell Your Business
The right lane is where you take action to sell your business. You can slow down a little, breathe, and let others speed by you. You start looking for the best exit ramp to take you to the next phase of your life.
Before moving into the right lane, you hire an M&A advisor to help you navigate the sales process. He looks at your business, reviews your financials, and probes deep into your operation. He then provides you with an estimate of what he believes your business will be worth on the market.
This where you may feel tempted to hit the brakes. Before fully committing to sell your business, you may seek more specifics on the valuation of your company or consult a third-party appraiser. You wonder how much it would take to increase the selling price of your business.
The Worst Place to Be: Dawdling in the Middle
Some owners change lanes smoothly, sell, and exit. Others decide the timing isn’t right to sell their business and shift back into the fast lane of running their business.
But what if you can’t decide? What if you’re hung up in the middle, debating whether the price is right, the time is right, or if anything is right.
The worst place to be if you want a speedy sales transaction is standing frozen in the middle of the road like a deer in the headlights. Soon you’ll hear oncoming traffic: Competition. Old age. Slipping bottom line.
If you don’t move, that traffic will run you over. I hope, and I pray that you’ll be able to get up. Many don’t.
So, before you even start cruising toward selling your business, you must be all in. That means committing to work with your M&A advisor to sell your business. You must be ready and willing to provide your advisor with all of the items needed to provide accurate information to the buyer.
You should have already discussed your decision to sell with your spouse and other family members who have a financial or emotional interest in your firm.
The more committed you are to selling your business, the sooner your advisor can introduce you to potential buyers. Click To Tweet
And if your financials are good and your customer base is solid, then someone, somewhere out there, will buy your business.
Your ride in the right lane shouldn’t last too long. If you follow the advice of your M&A expert, you’ll be exiting from your business and ramping up for life’s next adventure.
This two-lane highway analogy isn’t just to provide amusing reading. It’s to help you visualize how self-destructive indecision can be. If you think you might be ready to sell, call me: (561) 543-2323. We can review where you are now with your business and talk about where you would like to go.