Tips on Selling

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve invested untold time, energy and resources in your company. Nicholson & Associates helps develop strategies to ensure you get the most out of it when it comes time to sell. Here are some tips we offer sellers:

• Know what you’re going to do after the sale.
• Reduce your role in the business now by delegating to employees.
• Develop accurate financial statements.
• Dispose of obsolete equipment, dead inventory and other nonproductive assets.
• Be prepared to finance at least part of the sale yourself.
• Keep the sale plan confidential – even from trusted employees.
• Obtain professional advice.
• Expect the sale to take a long time--maybe a year or more--no matter what time frame an optimistic broker tells you.
• Keep operating the business on a high level and resist the temptation to mentally move on. A strong business will sell, but a slip in sales can reduce its value and kill a deal.