Niche Exit Planning Strategies
Selling a Digital Imaging Equipment Business
A good business is about more than dollars and sense. To make your digital imaging equipment business what it is today, you've had to fully invest yourself in its success. To see your ownership role through to completion, you will need to exhibit similar diligence in selling your company.
In any economy, there is a right way and a wrong way to sell a business.
Qualified buyers are constantly looking for attractive digital imaging equipment businesses. Like always, unprofitable and poorly positioned businesses struggle to find buyers while sellers who have invested time and effort to prepare their sale are being rewarded in the marketplace.
Selling Time
From the day they decide to sell their company, the question that plagues many owners is how long it will take to sell their digital imaging equipment business. Although asking price and other factors contribute to sale time, it's difficult to predict how long your business will be on the market before you locate the right buyer. On average, it takes a minimum of six months to prepare a digital imaging equipment business for sale and many sellers spend a year or more positioning their business to command a higher price. Once your business is ready for the marketplace, it could take an additional six months to a year to locate the right buyer.
Signs You're in Over Your Head
Many digital imaging equipment business are tempted to save brokerage fees by selling their businesses on their own. But for every successful unassisted sale, several other digital imaging equipment businesses sell below market value or languish on the market for years without attracting the interest of qualified buyers. As a rule, no business should sit on the market for more than six months without attracting the interest of at least a handful of qualified buyers. Lack of buyer enthusiasm or persistence indicates that something is wrong. The remedy is professional brokerage or a consultation with more experienced sellers.
Pros & Cons of a Sale to an Employee
Employee sales have pros and cons. A faithful employee may have the motivation and ability to continue to operate the business. If you need to sell quickly, the timeframe is condensed in an employee sale because you don't need to track down a buyer. But in many cases, employees expect to get a deal from their employer based on their years of service to the company. Seller financing is one way to get around the capital deficit of an employee-based digital imaging equipment business sale, as long as you are willing to vet the employee's credit worthiness the same as any other buyer.
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