When Do I Sell My Business?

Selling a business is like developing and executing a well-crafted game plan. A part of any good game plan is knowing when to execute a particular play. The same goes when it comes to selling a business – timing is everything.

When do you think it is the time to start the process of selling a business? When you tire of the business? When you are ready to move on to something else? Quite the contrary. The time to start the process of selling a business is before you lose your passion for the business or spend more and more time daydreaming about retiring or starting or acquiring another business.

Every business owner should sell a business before they start losing their passion or begin daydreaming about a future life. Why?
After the passion is gone, your focus is not on the business. You quit doing things that will take the business to the next level. The business stagnates or, worse yet, the business begins to decline.

Why is that a problem when you sell a business?
Buyers pay the most for businesses with increasing sales and margins. Buyers pay the least for business with declining sales or margins. We have seen it time and time again, a business owner waits until his or her passion for the business has declined to start the process of selling a business. The problem is that as that passion declined, so did the value of the business.

The Lesson:
Sell a business when you are on top of your game to maximize your sale price.