Hey there,

I happen to have sold my business with the help of Bizprof Exchange. It is an unique portal to buy and sell any business or professional practice firms online. From my experience of selling my business, the average time taken to upload details to sell my business was not more than 5 minutes.  

Initially I did retract my thought about selling it and then there were two options placed before me: 

I was also stuck between the thought that I want to sell my business and retire and do what after retirement?  

The businessman in me decided to opt for the second option. Though uncomfortable, it did have a silver lining of monetary compensation after the completion of the deal. 

Fill out the seller registration form provided on the website for the industry to which you belong to. Provide as much details as possible and even utilize the overview option to disclose the key factors that make your business unique which will be your USP.

One suggestion I would like to incorporate is, give correct details. When I decided to retire, a friend along with me also decided to take a plunge and sell his business.  

We both listed on the portal on the same day however, he failed to disclose few details in the form w.r.t the profitability of the company. What followed his action is multiple buyer meetings but failed deals. Disclosing incorrect details did land him a lot of buyers but they would backout during the discussion. Some did proceed further after discussion but failed in due diligence.  

This may seem like an extra paperwork but when you have decided to sell your business, try to be legally secure in your deals. You do not want the burden of legal fee to be taken out from your retirement fund. There is also a minimum fee which is taken as a deposit from both the buyer and seller as a token of genuineness and sincerity towards the deal. I appreciated this because I was not willing to spend my time on buyers who saw the business available for sale and the process only as an experience and were not looking to buy.

This is where the action happens. Lot of deals fall out at this stage. Don’t be alarmed if the buyer asks a lot of questions. After all they are paying you for your business. Consider your business as a product at this stage and you're a salesman. Your key objective is to make the sale and convince the customer about the product.  

Buyer of business would also want to do due-diligence of your business and you should be open to it.  

If everything goes good with the initial buyer discussion, you start making a transition to the buyer. This may be a lengthy process roughly ranging from two to eight months. Transition from seller to buyer also varies from business to business and how well you have done your succession planning. Another key driving factor to get full value for your business is to make sure that it is ready for sale.