Would you ever advise your clients to sell or rent their properties privately?
Estate & Letting Agents: Would you ever advise your clients to sell or rent their properties privately? If not, please allow me to give you ten good reasons why you will require a broker when you feel that the time is right to sell your business.
PREPARATION – It is not every day that you make the decision to sell one of your prized assets, so why would you NOT want to prepare your business properly and give yourself the best possible opportunity to make the highest price. It’s not smart, it’s just common sense.
POTENTIAL– For many businesses the value of their company purely lies in their turnover/profit figures. However, on occasion, there can be latent value or higher demand, due to the difficulty in getting planning in a particular town or a historical lack of competition. So, you need to seek expert advice.
VALUE – A potential client endeavouring to value their own business can be very similar to a home seller or landlord trying to value their own property. Truthfully, you can be too emotionally attached to your business to see the wood for the trees – so independent advice is essential.
TIMING – All markets fluctuate and prices can go up as well as down. Therefore, it is important to know when it is the right time to sell. Ask an independent expert or your bad timing could cost you wasted time, effort, and money.
INTEGRITY – Trust is a key part in any business relationship, so it is important that you choose your advisory team well. It usually costs nothing to meet with a broker for an informal chat, after which, you can then decide whether they are the right “fit” for you. No fuss, no embarrassment, and hopefully you become better placed to make the right decision for you.
CLARITY – Sometimes the selling process can be quick and trouble free, at other times it can be slow and troublesome – either way it is important that you fully understand both the process and what is required of you. That way, you will be better prepared for most eventualities and make sound decisions when the moment arises.
CONFIDENTIALITY – Confidentiality and discretion are key to selling any business, but estate agents & letting agents are usually well known within a community so tend to be higher profile as a result. A good business broker understands this right from the first meeting with a potential client and should behave accordingly.
COMPETITION – Clearly, all business or portfolio sales are different to some extent, but the one constant factor is that competition (when selling a business) almost always leads to the seller achieving the right or best price. Again, it is not smart or clever – it’s just obvious.
TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT – Selling YOUR business can be exciting, emotional, scary, exhausting, and /or life changing etc. But whatever you think you might feel when the time comes, be assured that it is part of the broker’s job to guide you through the process from start to finish.
ACCOUNTABILITY – Choose advisers that you feel you can trust to give you the right long term advice for both you and your business – who come across as knowledgeable, competent, discreet and personable. After all you are placing your trust in them to find a suitable custodian for a business that has taken you many years and much of your hard work to build.
So, do my ten good reasons sound familiar to you? Indeed, I suspect that they are much like the sort of advice that you would give to one of your own potential home sellers without giving it a second thought. So, it is time to take your own advice, and apply the same logic to selling your business, as you do when selling clients homes. Because if you don’t, it could well cost you your own hard earned money in the long term.
This article was written by Peter Nicholls, CEO of Ideology Consulting. If you would like to find out more information, go to www.ideologyconsulting.co.uk .
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