Business Exit Planning
Selling a Marriage and Family Counseling Business
Most businesses are susceptible to economic conditions and marriage and family counseling businesses are no exception. But in some cases, a down economy can actually improve saleability. All it takes is a strategy to identify solid prospects and convert them to buyers.
Despite your best intentions, great business sales don't happen overnight.
Too often marriage and family counseling business sellers fail to receive fair market value for their businesses. With the right strategy, your sale doesn't have to end that way.
Business Assets
During due diligence, the buyer will undoubtedly conduct his own appraisal of your marriage and family counseling business's inventory, equipment, and physical assets. Most sellers, however, conduct a pre-sale appraisal to gain an accurate gauge of asset value prior to negotiations. A professional appraisal is a necessity because it gives you the information you need to negotiate a sale price. A pre-listing appraisal also gives you the opportunity to document the condition of your marriage and family counseling business's assets and possible even make repairs or upgrades to increase the total value of the operation.
When Is the Right Time to Sell?
When is it the right time to sell your marriage and family counseling business? If you're asking the question, now may be the time to put your business on the market. Some experts are telling marriage and family counseling business sellers (or would-be sellers) to take a wait and see approach. We aren't nearly as pessimistic about the marriage and family counseling business marketplace. The inventory of what we consider to be quality marriage and family counseling businesses is actually low right now and there is room for the right sellers to realize substantial gains with investment-conscious buyers.
Post-Sale Details
As your marriage and family counseling businesssale nears completion, there is a lot of work remaining to be done. There are several details that still need to be addressed. What will the ownership transition look like? Are you prepared to deal with the tax consequences of receiving a significant sum of money in exchange for your business? How will you prepare your employees for your inevitable exit from the business? Ideally, these and other post-sale details should be addressed early on. But if you haven't dealt with them yet, it's important to have a frank conversation with the buyer, your broker and other professionals as soon as possible.
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