Sell a Business for the Best Price
Selling a Portrait and Commercial Photography Business
Don't believe anyone who tells you it's easy to sell a portrait and commercial photography business. A lot of things need to happen before you can successfully exit your business. Good advice can be hard to come by, so we've put together a few proven suggestions to help you see your sale through to a profitable conclusion.
You need to get a good price for your portrait and commercial photography business. To get there, you'll need to set realistic expectations and follow a deliberate selling strategy.
In today's market, there is still plenty of room for portrait and commercial photography businesses that demonstrate solid earning capacity and a robust market position.
Turning the Tables: Buyer Concessions
Most portrait and commercial photography business sellers realize they will need to offer concessions to sell their businesses. But for every concession you grant, there may be an opportunity to obtain a concession from the buyer. Although this scenario frequently plays out around seller financed deals, it's possible to push for a higher sales price or other form of compensation if you agree to mentor the buyer for a specified period of time. Asset exclusions, retained ownership shares and long-term contracts with another of the seller's companies can also be leveraged to extract concessions from buyers.
Sale Documents
In a portrait and commercial photography business 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 portrait and commercial photography business sale? You may be disappointed. 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. Before you can list your portrait and commercial photography business, you'll need to invest as much as a year in preparing it for prospective buyers. In a good market, an attractive portrait and commercial photography business can sell in as little as a few months, although it can take more than a year to find the right buyer after the business is listed.
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