Niche Market Exit Planning Tips
Selling a Bed and Breakfast
You've invested time, effort, and creativity into building your bed and breakfast. Now it's time to put that same kind of focus into selling it.
Business buyers are a timid lot, even more so now that they are facing an uncertain economic landscape.
But at Gaebler, we see bed and breakfasts still selling at a brisk pace. Not surprisingly, buyers expect to receive value for their dollars - and that means sellers need to demonstrate that their businesses are capable of delivering anticipated returns.
Sweetening the Deal
Today's bed and breakfast buyers expect sellers to offer concessions to persuade them to close the deal. Concessions can consist of non-cash as well as cash incentives. When you've reached your limit on price, consider offering non-cash concessions to encourage a commitment from the buyer. A limited amount of training and mentoring may seem inconsequential to you, but to a young bed and breakfast owner, they can be critical launching points for their ownership journey.
Legal Concerns
In a bed and breakfast sale, the Letter of Intent contains the vital elements of the deal between the buyer and the seller . If you are seeking buyer concessions, the time to address them is before the Letter of Intent is drafted. For sellers, that makes a close review of the Letter of Intent more than a formality - it's a critical juncture on the path to closing.
Average Timeframes
Hoping for a quick bed and breakfast sale? You may be disappointed. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules about the length of time your business will be on the market. Pricing plays a role in sale length, but there are no guarantees that a fairly priced business will sell quickly. To adequately prepare your business listing, plan on spending six months to a year prior to listing. Even though it's conceivable that an attractive opportunity could sell in weeks, an immediate flood of offers could indicate that the business is underpriced.
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