Making The Right Decisions In Selling Your Business

15/01/2010 by info.

Well (in retrospect, I suppose) what was Sir Alf Ramsey thinking about when he substituted Bobby Charlton in the 1970 World Cup quarter-finals? He obviously thought the job had been done.

And precisely what can explain just about every shot decision made by Kevin Pietersen in the last year which led to his dismissals?

Decisions, decisions, decisions! Even the smallest ones can have the most devastating consequences, and nowhere is this more blatant than in sport. Supporters are passionate, bad decisions lead to bad results (don’t even mention Kevin Keegan’s perm!), and supporters get angry and exasperated.

But hang on a minute! Even in sport, you can’t moan if your team loses in the ninth minute of extra time after defending like a bunch of hibernating sloths. After all, if they’re professionals, they’re supposed to know what they’re doing. Aren’t they?

And it’s no different in business. I care passionately about people selling their businesses and making the right decisions when they do so.

So nothing is as sure to make me as sick as a parrot as people making the wrong decisions when it’s so easy to make the right ones!

So what’s the kind of decision that makes me want to shout ‘foul’? Here are four.

Using an estate agent to sell a business

Trying to sell your business yourself.

Ah, but the customer always knows his or her business best. Or that’s what people usually say.

Well, if the customer has been reading these blogs, it’s to be hoped that the customer does know his or her business best, because one of the main aims I’ve had in writing them is to help you all make the best decisions when selling your business.

So just in case they’d passed you by, I’ll take this chance to repeat these three gems of blunt advice.

Instruct the right business agent.

Give your agent the sufficient time to sell your business - at least 6 months.

If you don’t do these things, and you make the wrong decisions, then you really can’t yell ‘foul’ when your sale snarls up. And I’ll be there on the terraces beside you, telling you that in your case, sadly, you’ve scored an ‘own goal’!

So if you do know someone who is trying to sell a business please let them know about us.
You’ll be doing them a considerable favour.

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