Most owners approach selling a business the same way they would selling a house.<\/p>\n
List it.
\nWait for offers.
\nNegotiate the number.<\/p>\n
On the surface, it makes sense. It\u2019s familiar. It\u2019s how most people have experienced selling something valuable before.<\/p>\n
But selling a business doesn\u2019t follow that same pattern.<\/p>\n
When a buyer looks at a business, they\u2019re not just thinking about what it is today. They\u2019re thinking about what happens after they take it over.<\/p>\n
Almost immediately, a few questions come into play.<\/p>\n
What is the risk?
\nWhat is the upside?
\nAnd how does this compare to everything else I could invest in right now?<\/p>\n
If something doesn\u2019t hold up, they don\u2019t usually try to work around it.<\/p>\n
They move on. That\u2019s part of why so many businesses never sell.<\/p>\n
Estimates vary, but it\u2019s often said that somewhere around 70 to 80 percent of privately held businesses that go to market don\u2019t actually close.<\/p>\n
Even when a business generates interest, deals often fall apart once buyers start digging deeper. Not necessarily because the business isn\u2019t good, but because it wasn\u2019t prepared to be evaluated that way.<\/p>\n
This is where the comparison to real estate starts to break down.<\/p>\n
Buyers aren\u2019t looking for reasons to say yes.
\nThey\u2019re looking for reasons to say no.<\/p>\n
If the business depends too much on the owner, that raises concern.
\nIf revenue is tied to a small number of customers, that raises concern.
\nIf there isn\u2019t a clear, repeatable way to generate new business, that raises concern.
\nAnd if the financials are inconsistent or hard to follow, the conversation usually stops there.<\/p>\n
Because of that, the \u201cmultiple\u201d most owners have in mind often isn\u2019t the starting point.<\/p>\n
Preparation is. A more useful question isn\u2019t what the business could sell for.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s how well it would hold up under real scrutiny.<\/p>\n
And more often than not, that leads back to the same place. The numbers.<\/p>\n
Not just having financials, but having financials that are clean, consistent, and actually tell the story of how the business operates.<\/p>\n
They make it easier to understand.
\nThey make it easier to trust.
\nAnd they make it easier for a buyer to move forward with confidence.<\/p>\n
Value isn\u2019t created in the conversation.<\/p>\n
And unlike real estate, it\u2019s not something you can stage at the last minute.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s built into the business long before it ever goes to market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most owners approach selling a business like selling a house: list it, wait for offers, and negotiate the price, but the reality is far more complex. Buyers evaluate risk, upside, and transferability, and many deals fall apart long before price is even the main issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":11874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-selling-a-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n