Sell a Business Tips
Selling a Scholarships and Financial Aid Business
A good business is about more than dollars and sense. To make your scholarships and financial aid 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.
These days, the prospect of selling a scholarships and financial aid business is so daunting that many would-be sellers are biding their time, waiting for a break in the economic clouds.
For sellers who are willing to perform adequate sale preparation, the numbers make scholarships and financial aid businesses a solid investment for qualified buyers in the business-for-sale marketplace.
Selling Time
Hoping for a quick scholarships and financial aid 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 scholarships and financial aid business, you'll need to invest as much as a year in preparing it for prospective buyers. 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.
Dealing with Tire Kickers
If you haven't sold a business before, prepare to be overwhelmed by tire kickers -- seemingly interested buyers who lack the capacity, ability or desire to actually purchase your scholarships and financial aid business. As a seller, it's important to separate the tire kickers from the serious buyers as soon as possible. Each tire kicker is an investment of time and energy that could be poured into finding a more qualified prospect. Your business broker can offer insights about how to quickly spot tire kickers. As a rule, they limit the amount of information that is provided in the initial stages of an engagement, waiting to reveal the juiciest details of the business until the prospect has been thoroughly vetted. Smart sellers may require prospects to provide background and financial information fairly early in the process as a way of verifying the financial capacity to close the deal.
Signs You're in Over Your Head
Many scholarships and financial aid business are tempted to save brokerage fees by selling their businesses on their own. But for every successful unassisted sale, several other scholarships and financial aid 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. Hire a broker and conduct a professional appraisal ASAP.
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