When selling your business in Texas, you don’t want any buyer, you want the best buyer. Utilizing a broker like Elan significantly increases your chances.
Selling Your Business in Texas
When selling your business in Texas, you don’t want just any buyer, you want the very best buyer for your situation. With the business market we’re now experiencing, many sellers are getting multiple offers, but the buyers they choose aren’t always the ones that are offering the most money.
Would you consider an offer that is significantly lower if it meant the difference between years of seller financing vs. 100% cash at close? Would you accept a lower offer if they kept your employees and were a better fit into your company’s culture?
When selling your business in Texas, or anywhere else for that matter, it’s common for deal structures to include a variety of options which must be carefully considered and evaluated. And this should begin long before you get to the negotiating table.
You may not realize it, but you’re negotiating from the moment you made the decision to sell on day 1. Be sure your priorities are well thought out or you might convey the wrong impression to a buyer, which may have serious consequences on the sale.
A common problem
For instance, it’s common for a prospective buyer to inquire how long you’ll be sticking around after the sale and you may respond with you’ll “be around as long as needed.” Then later in the sale process, you find out that the buyer is thinking about a two-year transition when you and your wife had been discussing moving away a few months after the close.
It’s these kind of details that could blow up a deal. Had your initial response been that you would be around three to six months and then could provide consulting services as needed from afar, the buyer would not be counting on long-term in-house support for a couple years.
Remember, it’s always easier to give the buyer more than expected than to take something away.
The Benefits of Using a Broker When Selling Your Business in Texas
- Business brokers provide skilled negotiating tactics for business sellers so you end up with the best deal.
- Business brokers know more buyers that are looking for a business to buy than you will ever find on your own. They have set up connections and networks for years.
- Business brokers market your business. Brokers efforts are concentrated on marketing and sales efforts directed towards business buyers including private equity groups, other businesses and individuals looking to buy a business.
- Business brokers maintain confidentiality when selling your business. It’s very difficult to maintain confidentiality when selling a business in Texas without utilizing an intermediary, like a business broker. A buyer must be qualified and sign a confidentiality agreement before learning that your business is for sale. Business brokers are very experienced in marketing a business without identifying it.
- Brokers provide business continuity. Selling a business is time-consuming for an owner, and with using a business broker, the owner can maintain focus on running the business while a broker is working on the sale.
- Business brokers have other businesses for sale. A broker’s inventory of businesses for sale attracts more buyers for your business. At Elan Capital, we often find buyers buy a different business than the one they initially contact us about. By offering a variety of different businesses, business brokers attract more potential buyers that will be exposed to your business.
- Business brokers are experienced at valuing a businesses. A good business broker can cast a better light on the earnings of your business in order to show a buyer all of its economic benefits, increasing the value of your business to the buyer. At Elan, our expertise helps our sellers set the right asking price for their business and helps buyers understand how to properly value a business.
- Business brokers have experience in selling businesses. A business owner typically sells a business once. Brokers to it all the time. Both buyers and sellers are frequently not familiar with all of the business buying/selling processes and business brokers help both in order to facilitate a sale of the business, including all required paperwork.
- Most importantly, business brokers like Elan Capital help serious buyers get financing when needed to by your business.
Selling your business in Texas? After all the blood, sweat and tears you put into your business, you owe it to yourself to give Elan Capital a call.