Sell a Business Tips
Selling a Special Risks Insurance Business
The sale of your special risks insurance business is the culmination of this stage of your entrepreneurial journey. Although most business owners expect a storybook ending, it will take the careful application of sound selling principles to bring your sale to a successful conclusion.
Business-for-sale markets are less dependent on economic conditions than most sellers think they are.
If your exit strategy involves selling a special risks insurance business now, sellers need to make a strong case for buyers to purchase at or near the asking price.
Factoring In Economic Variables
When you sell a special risks insurance business, there are a number of variables you need to consider. Interest rates, spending, inflation, and other variables directly influence how long your special risks insurance business will be on the market as well as its sales price. The truth is that perfect market conditions may never materialize. Rather than watching the economy, we recommend watching buyers and tailoring your business to meet their investment expectations. In our experience, the most important factors in the sale of a special risks insurance business have little to do with the economy.
Broker vs. No Broker
Anyone who has ever sold a special risks insurance business has eventually needed to decide whether to use a business broker or go it alone. Business brokers typically charge a 10% "success fee" when they sell a business, but they also handle many of the hassles that are associated with selling a special risks insurance business. You can also expect to receive a higher sales price for your business in a broker-assisted deal.
Identifying Serious Buyers
Unfortunately, many of the prospects you will encounter aren't serious buyers. Even though tire kickers are a fact of life in any sale scenario, they sap valuable time and energy that could be spent identifying more serious prospects. 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.
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