Business Exit Planning
Selling a Mainframes Business
No one said selling your business in a depressed economy would be easy. But selling your mainframes business doesn't have to be as daunting as it sounds.
You survived all the ups and downs of owning a business. Next, you'll need to prepare yourself to address the rigors of selling a mainframes business.
There is no simple way to sell a business. But the most prepared mainframes business sellers are achieving fair market value and more for their companies through persistence and the application of sound selling techniques.
Leveraging Industry Connections
There are a lot of different places to look for mainframes business buyers. To advertise your sale to the widest possible audience, consider a listing on BizBuySell.com or other top online business-for-sale listing sites. For more targeted lead generation, consider tapping into your network of industry contacts. When leveraging industry relationships for sales prospects, you'll need to be cognizant of the potential for competitors to use knowledge of your sale against you in the marketplace. Use good sense in restricting the flow of information within the industry and focusing your efforts toward trusted industry allies.
When to End Negotiations
Negotiations have a way of dragging on forever. Yet eventually many negotiations reach a stage where further discussion is pointless. A lull in negotiations may be part of the buyer's strategy. Then again, it may be a sign that the search for common ground is a lost cause. Since it can be difficult to tell whether the buyer is serious or playing games, it's important to know the lower boundaries of your negotiation strategy and be willing to walk away from the negotiation table, if necessary.
Sale Preparation Timeframes
It's critical to properly plan for the sale ofa mainframes business. Buyers want to see growth trends, healthy profits and other variables that increase the likelihood of long-term success. Next, the business will need to be documented in professional financial statements and manuals that facilitate the ownership transition. Since all of this takes time and effort, a mainframes business can rarely be ready for the marketplace in less than six months. A more likely scenario is that it will take more than a year to create the conditions necessary to receive the maximum sale price.
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