Exit Planning Advice By Market
Selling an Adult and Continuing Education Business
Don't believe anyone who tells you it's easy to sell an adult and continuing education business. A lot of things need to happen before you can successfully exit your business. But with a few tips, you can keep your shirt and your sanity in the sale of your business.
Selling an adult and continuing education business isn't as simple as listing a power tool on eBay. These days, the business-for-sale market is a hostile place for inexperienced and uninformed sellers.
Yet everyday, hundreds of listed adult and continuing education businesses manage to pique the interest of qualified buyers. They do it by paying attention to the details that other business sellers overlook.
Average Timeframes
Hoping for a quick adult and continuing education business sale? You may be disappointed. The amount of time your business will be on the market depends on how aggressively it is priced and marketed. On average, it takes a minimum of six months to prepare an adult and continuing education business for sale and many sellers spend a year or more positioning their business to command a higher price. In a good market, an attractive adult and continuing education 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.
Pros & Cons of a Sale to an Employee
Employee sales have pros and cons. A faithful employee may have the motivation and ability to continue to operate the business. If you need to sell quickly, the timeframe is condensed in an employee sale because you don't need to track down a buyer. Yet most employees lack the means to buy their employer's business at or near the asking price. Most of the time, employees also expect owners to finance a large portion of the sale. So if you aren't willing to finance the sale or need to get top dollar for your adult and continuing education business, a sale to an employee is probably not a possibility.
Leveraging Industry Connections
Today's adult and continuing education business buyers can be found in a variety of locations. 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.
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