Information a Business Broker Needs to Help You Sell Your Business

Information a Business Broker Needs to Help You Sell Your Business

By Sidney Smith

If you are considering selling your business, then you'll likely be working with a "Business Broker."

When you start your work with them, he or she will ask you many questions about your business and your goals. There are two primary reasons they ask so many questions:

* Your business broker needs everything that is relevant to the business buyer. This speeds up and makes everything work more smoothly and ensures that the buyer won't will agree to the terms more readily.
* They will also need the details for the marketing of your company.

To be ready is to succeed. The goal is to get it all prepared from the get-go before the buyer, bankers and investors ask for the information. This is how they'll make sure that the process runs smoothly, and it's how they make sure that you come away with the best deal, and that they come to closure on the deal.

What You'll Provide About Your Company

What you see next is a partial outline of the information you'll provide about your business when your broker gets things rolling.

Company Organization and History

* The complete history and timeline of your company
* How your business is structured, and the ownership
* Your latest organization chart
* A list of your key people, any issues you might have about your employees, and what these people do on a day-to-day basis

Information About Your Services and Products

* Make a copy of your main services and products
* Write a total description of these products and services
* Now, write the timelines of these same products and services
* And prepare a analysis of the competition
* Get all your licences, patents, etc. lined up
* Make sure that you've got your product delivery mechanisms well-defined
* Put all your warranties accessible
* And, make a complete analysis of your technology

An Overview of Your Industry

* Write a summary of your industry
* Talk about the different trends that are going on in your industry
* Articulate what you see for the future of your industry
* Describe the demographics of your industry
* Talk about the general issues of your industry

Understanding a bit about Your Customers

* Who are your primary customers?
* How do they pay you?
* Have you recently lost any primary customers?
* What new major customers have you added recently?
* What is the buying cycle of your primary customers

Getting the scoop of your Sales and Marketing

* Let your broker see your sales and marketing plans
* Provide a detailed description of your marketing and sales process
* Discuss your sales force with them
* What type of advertising and promotion do you do?
* Describe your distribution channels in full.

What About Your Competition?

* Who are your most significant competitors?
* Will your primary accounts jump ship?
* How do you think your competitors will react?

And, There's More... You'll also provide details about:

* Your Suppliers and Vendors
* Your buildings and facilities
* All about the equipment you own
* A ton of information/data about you
* And, finally, you'll give them detailed data about your business, financial records, and inventory

Summary

As you can see, the data investigation goes both deep and broad. When selling a business, your business broker will try to make the process easy, and that requires as much information about your business at the beginning as possible. This guarantees that the buyer will have all the data he or she needs to breeze through the due diligence process and will come to closure more quickly.

For more information about selling a business, please visit Bowman/Hanson, the California Business Brokers.

Sid Smith, AKA "CopySmith" creates innovative internet marketing strategies and writes exquisite copy for entrepreneurial executives, B2B companies and B2C companies. He focuses on generating leads and making sales, as all else has little meaning online. The customer experience is of utmost importance. If you're looking for ways to make your websites work for you, create web copy that makes people buy, and implement internet marketing strategies that work...

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