Taking your business to market is the culmination of a lot of hard work—years spent creating and growing your company, building it into what it is today, and ensuring that your business is ready for the sale process.
The sale process can be lengthy: on average, the time a small business remains on the market is six to eight months. The preparations you make in advance can certainly help expedite this timeline. Early planning and adequate preparation will not only help you generate more value for your business, but it will also give you peace of mind—so that you are in a position to choose to sell (for example, by deciding to exit) rather than being forced to sell.
There are a number of factors that can affect the length of time it takes to sell a business, such as:
- asking price (see Chapter Three for information on pricing your business appropriately),
- a buyer’s ability to secure financing for the transaction,
- the business’ geographical location,
- economic conditions,
- the nature of the business (for instance, if your business industry is niche, it may be more difficult to find buyers), or
- the seller’s responsiveness.
When to Sell: The Current Market
Market conditions are an important consideration when deciding on a timeline to sell. Small business transactions continue to be at historically high levels and have steadily increased quarter-over-quarter1. More people than ever are looking to buy an already-established business, and current market trends don’t show any sign of slowing down. Taking advantage of positive trends in the marketplace can be one of the most important factors in maximizing value for your business.
Tresle
More and more, business owners are taking the selling process into their own hands. The availability of online platforms taking a top-to-bottom approach has made selling a business yourself simpler than ever before.
Tresle’s online platform is a confidential and secure marketplace to buy and sell private businesses. Tresle lets you list your business for sale online, giving you access to thousands of potential buyers, all in one place.
More than a basic listing site, Tresle efficiently connects sellers with verified buyers, with staff on hand to offer as much support as needed along the way. Tresle’s intuitive platform and dedicated customer service team help to take the guesswork out of your transaction and give you the tools to move forward with confidence.
For more information, visit Tresle.com, reference the Help Center, or contact a member of the Tresle team online or at 1-888-576-9226.
1 https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/10/bizbuysell-q3-2018-insight-report.html