It’s time to sell your business. You may be looking to retire, ready to launch a new business, or ready to move to an exciting new city and see what’s waiting for you. No matter why you’re ready to sell, the top thing on your mind is likely getting the best price for your business. You’ll want to have enough money to make that next move. As you get ready to sell your business, consider hiring a business broker to sell your company. While you will need to spend some money to pay the business broker for their services, this can help you get a lot more for your business in the long run.

If you’re planning on selling your business soon, start today to find the right business broker. You don’t want to end up working with one who can’t get you the money you need for the company or that takes forever to find an interested buyer. You don’t want to wait years for the business to sell. Finding the right business broker means you’ll have help fast, you’ll get personalized assistance to sell your business, and you’ll be able to find the right buyer as quickly as possible. It may also mean you’ll get more from the sale of your company.

Benefits of Working with a Business Broker

The main downside to selling a business on your own is that you don’t have experience. You may have an idea of the type of buyer you want to sell your company to, but you won’t know how to find the right buyer, how to make sure the sale is successful, or how to get as much as possible for the company. This is where a business broker comes in. They offer a ton of benefits that can help you get more when you sell your company. Some of the benefits include the following.

• Free Up Your Time – Selling a company on your own requires you to spend countless hours marketing your business, looking into potential buyers, and dealing with the actual sale once you find the right buyer. A business broker handles all of this for you. This gives you more time to maintain your business and continue doing everything you’ve been doing up to the decision to sell.
• Determine the Sale Price – How much is your business really worth? It can be incredibly difficult to determine the true value of your company and figure out how much you should get from selling it. Business brokers have experience and access to information that helps them determine the value of your business. They’ll make sure they can get as much money as possible with the sale.
• Provide Marketing for the Sale – Marketing the company is a crucial step to help bring in many potential buyers. A business broker knows how to make the company look good to potential buyers to sell the company fast and get more money for it.
• Make Sure the Company Sells – Once a buyer is found, there is still a lot to do to make sure the sale goes through. The business broker works on making sure the company is sold as fast as possible to minimize potential issues. They’ll work with you to create a deal with the buyer then finalize the sale of your company.

How to Find the Best Business Broker

Like any industry, some business brokers are far better than others at what they do. Some have more experience overall or more experience in your industry and some are going to work hard for you while some may just try to sell the business fast, without much concern over getting you the best price. When you’re looking for a business broker to sell your company, there are a few things you’ll want to look out for. Keep an eye out for a broker who has the following before you decide to hire anyone.

• Experience Selling Businesses – Check the experience a potential business broker has. Business brokers should be able to provide you with a list of previous clients as well as examples of the work they’ve done in the past. Look into the references they provide to see what kind of work they’ve done previously. This gives you a good idea of what to expect them to do for you.
• Good Reputation – Reviews are available for everything, even business brokers. Look online to see if there are any reviews for the business broker you’re considering and read through them carefully. A business broker who has a good reputation is likely going to be a better option as you can trust they’ll work hard to sell your business.
• Specialization in Your Industry – General business brokers are available, but they might not know about certain details in your industry that can impact your sale. Look for a broker who has experience selling businesses in your industry as well as in your area. This can help you get more when you sell your business because they already know how to sell a company like yours.
• Uses a High-Quality Marketing Plan – How they market your business makes a big difference in the potential buyers they’ll find. Learn more about how they plan to market your business and ensure they’re going to create a high-quality marketing plan specifically for your business to attract the right buyers.
• Ready to Tell the Truth – Make sure the broker you choose is going to tell you the truth, not what you want to hear. It may be hard to hear that you won’t get as much money as you want for the company, but you need to be able to trust that your broker is being honest about the value of your company and issues you might face during the sale.

Red Flags to Watch Out for When Choosing a Business Broker

It’s just as important to know the red flags to watch out for as it is to know what to look for in a business broker. If you see any red flags when you’re meeting with the broker for the first time, skip that broker and work on finding a much better one to help you.

If the business broker requires the majority of their fee or all of it upfront, go ahead and walk away. While you may have to pay some of their fee at the beginning, you should never pay the full price until your company is sold. This is a major red flag that the business broker is not going to actually help you sell the business but, instead, is going to take your money and disappear.

Brokers need to take advantage of many different marketing techniques to reach out to buyers for you. If they don’t have a website, it’s a sign they might not be up to date and may not be able to reach out to nearly as many buyers. This could lead to a much lower sale price for your company if they’re able to sell it.

Talk to the business broker about the price for your company. If they seem overly confident, they might be trying to get too high of a price for the company and may have trouble actually finding potential buyers. Also, ask about how they are going to do the valuation for your business and what it includes. You want them to be able to explain to you and to potential buyers why your business is worth as much as they think it’s worth. If they can’t explain how they came up with the number, it’s possible they’re trying to reach for too high of a selling price.

What to Expect After You Hire a Business Broker

After you’ve found a business broker you want to work with, expect them to get started working on trying to sell your business right away. They’ll need to determine the market value for your company so they know how much it should sell for. Then, they should start working on finding the right buyer. They’ll need to use a high-quality marketing plan to let potential buyers know about your company and to get them interested in buying your company. They should be able to find a buyer fast, though the amount of time this takes does vary. Once a buyer is found, the business broker should work closely with you and other professionals to facilitate the sale and have everything finalized as fast as possible.

The decision to sell your company is a huge one. You want to get as much as possible from your company so you can move forward with your retirement, starting a new business, or anything else you want to do in the future. Use the tips here to make sure you’re working with the right broker. The right business broker is going to work hard for you and strive to make sure your company sells quickly. They’re going to make sure your company sells for as much money as possible so you’re happy with the outcome of the sale.