Exit Planning Advice By Market
Selling an Auto Buying Information and Referral Services Business
Nervous about selling your auto buying information and referral services business? You shouldn't be. Our tips will help you get the highest price for your auto buying information and referral services business, regardless of what's happening with the economy.
Business sellers are notorious for second-guessing themselves about the right time to put their companies up for sale.
The economy hasn't squashed the market for auto buying information and referral services businesses. Like always, unprofitable and poorly positioned businesses struggle to find buyers while sellers who have invested time and effort to prepare their sale are being rewarded in the marketplace.
Selling Time
From the day they decide to sell their company, the question that plagues many owners is how long it will take to sell their auto buying information and referral services business. 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 auto buying information and referral services 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 auto buying information and referral services 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.
Leveraging Industry Connections
These days, auto buying information and referral services business buyers are an extremely diverse group with backgrounds in and outside of the industry. To advertise your sale to the widest possible audience, consider a listing on BizBuySell.com or other top online business-for-sale listing sites. More focused prospects are typically found within industry networks. 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. Your broker may be able to offer strategies for promoting your sale within your network while maintaining some remnant of a confidential sale.
Turning the Tables: Buyer Concessions
Most auto buying information and referral services 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. Often, buyer concessions represent financial incentives that the seller receives in exchange for providing a non-cash benefit (e.g. training, financing, etc.. 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.
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