Why should you sell your business?

April 12th, 2010
You started a business for scratch 40 years ago, now you are debating what to do. Do you sell the business, do you retire, do you do something else? These are all thoughts which you have been contemplating for many years but now you want to make a decision, what should you do?

Here is a list of reasons why you should sell your business soon:
no heirs to take over the business
senior staff have been very good to you and you want to give them an opportunity to buy the business
your business is stagnating and needs new ideas
your business has matured and there is no or little upward growth available to the firm
the business outlook is grim and you see that sales and profits will drop in the future
technology or technology is currently being developed which could have a major impact on your business
you are bored and not longer enjoy working in the business
health issues of the or someone in the immediate family which needs a lot of attention
competition is increasing
business needs a large capital injection to grow to the next level
business ie a retail store needs to be refreshed with a large large capital improvement commitment
if you need to spend the money on the store today but are going to retire next year, why incur the additional costs when you will not receive the benefit
you are getting older and you find the the physical requirements of the job too grueling
the business requires a lot of additional hours to be worked to built it back up because you lost a major client and you are not willing to make the commitment
you know that you are about to lose your largest client and that will have a significant impact on revenue and profits
the market is changing and you are not able to keep up with the innovations in the market
technology is replacing equipment which you have purchased for a fraction of the cost, now you need new equipment to keep up with the competitors but still have loans on the old equipment which is not obsolete and worth only a fraction of the original cost. this happened in the printing industry and entertainment industry when digital equipment replaced older technologies.

Filed under: Selling a business — Gary Landa @ 9:07 am