Selling Your Business
Many entrepreneurs don’t plan for the sale of their business – they only start to think seriously about it when they get an offer or decide they want to do something else. For many entrepreneurs, the business represents a significant portion of their total net worth. Our advice is to have a plan in place regardless of your age or stage in life because it can significantly impact the value of your business.
We advise to start planning to sell your business the day you start or buy the company and consider every decision you make within the context of how it will ultimately increase business value. When you ultimately decide to monetize your business’ value, you will want a process that starts with your objectives. Do you want to transfer ownership to family, or sell to management? Do you want to cash out at the highest price possible by selling to a strategic purchaser? Your goals will dictate the game plan.
If your exit strategy is to sell your business to a third party, timing and process are important. If for example, you try to sell in the middle of the current recession, or, say, a three-year capital investment program, when revenues for your efforts haven’t yet materialized, you won’t realize full value for your asset.
Negotiating skills are critical. The process is both art and science. As your financial advisor, we can give you a process that will give you comfort that you left no money on the table. As corporate finance professionals, we have advised literally hundreds of business sellers in all industries. Many of us have also been buyers and sellers of businesses ourselves. We can add a lot of value to what is likely the most important financial – if not the most emotional event of your life.
Equally important, we can bring in other members of the Newport Partners team who are specialists in personal wealth management. In addition to our corporate expertise, we’ll make sure all of the decisions that impact the sale of your business and your personal interests are integrated – from tax planning to insurance and legal issues. Throughout the process, you can be assured you have professionals who are in your corner and looking out for your interests in any transaction.
More than 100 Canadian entrepreneurs who’ve sold a business candidly share their views about life after the sale in our survey. Download your copy of our survey results here.
