March 2021 – Now may be the time to sell your business

It typically takes 6-12 months (or more) to sell a business. So… if you want to sell your business in 2021, you really need to start now.

Selling a business has many steps:

1. Assess the business to establish probable selling price and validate your decision to sell
2. Create a plan
3. Build a business sale team – intermediary (Exit Strategies), attorney, CPA, others
4. Develop market materials – NDA, Executive Summary, CIM (confidential information memorandum)
5. Build a buyer prospect (BPro) target list
6. Outbound outreach to targeted buyer prospects
7. Business for sale website advertisement
8. Buyer prospect management and qualification (lead → prospect → qualified BPro → Offer)
9. Facility visits and buyer-seller meetings
10. Offers
11. APA – asset purchase agreement
12. Financing
13. Due Diligence
14. Escrow
15. Close

Exit Strategies’ role is to quarterback the seller team through this process – the entire process, from start to finish.

Right now many business owners are sitting on the sidelines (not selling). They are waiting to see what happens as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down. There may be a flood of seller interest starting in Q3 or Q4 of this year. If you want help selling your business, we encourage you to start soon, before that flood hits.

No time like the present.

Roy Martinez is a business intermediary with Exit Strategies Group, a leading California-based M&A advisory firm with almost two decades of experience selling small-to-medium-sized and lower middle market businesses. Prior to Exit Strategies Roy was VP of Finance at WineDirect where he completed two acquisitions. For further information, or to discuss a potential sale or acquisition, confidentially, contact Roy Martinez at 707-781-8583. This post was adapted from Roy’s response to a question from a Sonoma County small business owner.