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"Introducing the ONLY Complete Email Training Course Guaranteed to Take
the Guesswork Out of Attracting a Steady and Predictable Flow of Serious Buyers to Your Business"...
As regular as clockwork, once or twice a week, I am approached by a business owner who wants
to sell their business. And of course, it has to be sold now, or at the very latest by tomorrow lunchtime. No pressure then! I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been asked to sell a business in a hurry:
"I'll take any reasonable offer."
"I
don't know how to run my husband's business and I don't have the time."
"I'm getting divorced and my wife wants the business."
"We've had enough and we're emigrating. I need the money by the end of the month."
The stark reality is, trying to sell a business in a rush, 'off the shelf' and
completely unprepared for sale, does the business and the seller – and eventually the buyer – a grave disservice.
The sale will drag on for months and may never complete at all. If it does sell, the seller's expectation of price
invariably ends up a shattered dream.
Why on earth would anyone in their right mind be content to strip thousands of pounds
from their personal net worth by simply failing to plan and prepare their business for sale?
Breakthrough Business-Preparation
Training:
If I can help business owners to get a firm grip on exactly
what needs to be in place to sell a business for the very best price and in the shortest possible time, it makes my job easier
(good!). My clients make more money (great!). The buyer is confident they are investing in a good, strong,
solid and sustainable business... everyone ends up happy.
To get the very best price for
your business, you must prepare well for the sale and in good time. Frankly, there is no other way. There
are no short-cuts. No quick fixes.
For this sole reason I'm making available free subscriptions
to the only training course of its kind in the UK, for all small-business owners wanting
to sell their business for everything it's worth, and not risk waiting months and months (or even years) for
the sale to go through - if at all. Is this you?
Preparing properly, orderly and systematically for the
sale, skyrockets your business to way above the mediocre 'also-rans' – stockpiled with the thousands
of other run-of-the-mill businesses for sale you see everywhere you turn these days – into a highly desirable and sought-after,
high-end product, never failing to attract a flow of eager and willing buyers to your door. Now let me ask you 3 tough questions. Please be brutally honest
with your answers:
If you were to sell your business today, would you get all you want (or need)
for it?
If, for any reason, you were not around to oversee the process,
would your spouse, life partner, or children be able to sell your business for what it's REALLY worth?
Do you even know what the REAL value of your business is?
Tough questions indeed. And if you can confidently
answer "yes" to all 3 then great, you don't need any help from me or from this eCourse.
However, if there's just one niggling grain
of doubt left in you mind, then subscribing to this eCourse will slash months off the time it will take to prepare your business
for a high-value sale. If, on the other hand, you let good old procrastination take a grip and do nothing, or come up with
some lame excuse like "I don't have the time"... disturbingly, you're not alone.
80% of small businesses in the UK are sold
unprepared or unplanned. Often both.
By 'unplanned',
I mean under circumstances where common, every day events such as illness, accident, divorce, serious crime and even death,
forces the sale of a business. Of course, not all businesses
are sold because the owner dies.
Thankfully the owner is usually fighting fit and
in complete control when the time comes to sell their business. Then why is it so many businesses in this country get sold for well
below their true market value?
Businesses a lot worse than yours are selling for much higher prices
WHY?
Mainly because most owners of small businesses give hardly any thought to preparing their businesses for
sale before a serious prospective purchaser asks to see details such as - full financial statements,
management accounts, VAT returns, customer profiles, debtor analysis, future opportunities, how the asking price was arrived
at… and so on. And what happens?
Because the prospect doesn't get the answers he or she wants in a timely manner and in
a verifiable, believable format, they quickly lose interest and slide from being a serious prospect to only 'mildly
interested', to 'not really bothered at all', as a better-prepared business grabs their attention.
The
Secret to Selling Your Business for Its Full Market Value, is 'Timely' Preparation
Some time ago my eyes were well and truly opened to the
importance of careful and methodical preparation, in readiness for the sale of a business...
The
story begins with me in a small office, sat across the desk from a client who had agreed to engage me to sell
his business. He had firmly planted in his mind an idea of how much he wanted for the business – which I thought at
the time was a little high – and was determined to prove and substantiate this figure by handing over his last 3 years'
financial statements and the current financial year management accounts.
After
several swift taps on the keyboard he also printed out a debtors list, proudly declaring 90% of debtors pay in full within
30 days. "And your last VAT return?" I asked tentatively. A quick phone call to his wife
in the next office and in she swept with the last 3 years' VAT returns! And so it went
on. Report after report, statement after statement, document after document. I left with a stack of paperwork crammed into
a file close on 3 inches thick.
Hit by a Blinding Flash of the Obvious:
That evening, I gathered everything together I
had collected during the day and began to compile my report.
Then an
idea struck me completely out of the blue.
What if I should write a report so finely detailed and so comprehensive that when presented to a prospective
purchaser they would have no questions to ask the seller?
I had certainly
been given enough information to get very close to this lofty ideal and I believed the seller was keen enough and sufficiently
well organised to give me every bit of help I would need on my quest.
So we spent the next 2 weeks working together and gathering every bit of information and documentation
necessary to compile an in-depth, 'no stone left unturned' profile of the business, that would be more than capable
of answering any question raised by any buyer. Interestingly,
as work progressed, I became more and more convinced the initial price we set for the business was incorrect. In fact, it
looked like it was too low. I discussed my feelings and reasoning with the seller and we agreed to raise the price when the
business went to market.
Never Underestimate the Power of a First Impression:
Initially we saw a lot
of raised eyebrows and wry smiles when prospective purchasers were told the asking price. Equally we saw a
favourable reaction (to the point of mild shock) on handing over the business profile – which you can imagine was quite
an impressive document by now. And yes it's true, first impressions do count. In
all honesty, my aim of "no questions" never materialised. I guess partly due to buyers hardly ever reading everything
that's given to them in any case. And also because it's only reasonable to expect a buyer to want to talk with
the seller to get a better feel for the business and the owner’s motivation for selling.
In any event, all questions were answerable from the
information presented in the profile. Although I must admit to feeling slightly glib when referring a buyer to the
relevant section of the business profile for the answer to a particular question.
Towards
the end of the sales process I was able to take two formal offers to the seller, accompanied by full deposits. This was
the culmination of a race between four hopeful buyers, all tendering at a far higher price than I had been instructed to obtain
originally.
I have used this
method of meticulous preparation, total disclosure and 'wow-factor' presentation many times since, with only the slightest
of tweaks and fine-tuning applied over time, as I got better at it.
This orderly, methodical and structured approach results in a timely, no-hassle, low-stress and
lucrative sale, proving to be well worth the extra effort and time put in up-front by both myself and the business seller.
If Preparation is Proven to Work So Well, Why Do So Many Business Owners Consistently Fail
to Prepare Their Businesses For Sale?
Largely because they don't know where
to start.
It's not their fault. After all, selling a business
isn't something you do every day of the week is it? You'll probably only do it once in your whole lifetime. You only
get one stab at getting it right. The very best way of getting it right is to start with a plan and
to prepare well in advance for the sale.
On making the decision to sell their business, most business owners are aware
there is a need to present turnover and profit figures. They also understand VAT returns are used to prove
the turnover. Some may even go as far as hastily crunching out cash flow forecasts, based loosely on improving 'this'
here and changing 'that' there.
The main concern of every business owner I've met is that their employess will become increasingly
unsettled and leave if they get wind of an impending sale of the business. What if customers find out? What if suppliers get
to know? What if, what if... ?
And because they are overwhelmingly preoccupied that the world and his wife is going to discover
their business is up for sale, they take the easy way out and do nothing to prepare the business for sale.
They
do nothing until a prospective buyer is in the office firing a hail of awkward questions across
the desk at them.
Of
course, by then it's too late. At this stage, things start to get really messy.
The bookkeeper is called in to the office, sworn to
secrecy, and has all the pressure piled into his or her shoulders.
Unsurprisingly,
by the following morning, even the delivery driver, the postman, the office cleaner (and her cat), know there's something
out of the ordinary going on.
If I could clearly show you in 12 simple steps how to easily avoid commercial suicide when
selling your business - at the same time adding immense value to your enterprise and reducing your stress-levels
to as near to zero as makes no difference - would you be interested?
OK. If you're still not sure you need a little help, support and professional guidance
in preparing to sell your business, let me remind you of two of life's common (and quite dangerous) myths.
Dangerous Myth #1: "I
will never get so ill that I'm unable to work"
For some very odd reason, we humans think we're infallible and unbreakable, don’t we? When was the last time you caught
yourself thinking "It’ll never happen to me".
Of course not, it always
happens to someone else, right? Wrong!
Last year one of my best friends entered the British Heart
Foundation's annual fund-raising London to Brighton bike ride. The course covered 54 miles over a relatively easy route,
although you have to be reasonably fit to propel a bike for 54 miles in just one day! At
37 miles into the ride, Matt woke up lying face down in a ditch at the side of the road. Dazed and confused, he couldn't
remember falling off the bike. The road at that point was straight and level and wouldn't have presented any obvious problems.
Feeling weak and groggy, he got back onto his bike and managed to finish the course.
A check-up later showed he had suffered
a heart attack!
He lay in hospital for days. Followed by weeks at home in bed and then the balance of a whole year struggling
to get his city-based business and clients back on track… all the while feeling depressed, angry and crushingly tired. He
later bought a business in the less hectic environment of rural Wiltshire.
Unable to sell his business in London,
he commutes between the two! Income from the London business supports him and his family as they grow the Wiltshire business.
Imagine the difference the proceeds of the sale of the London business could have made to
Matt and his family as they got on with their lives. Unfortunately, the business had not been prepared for sale before
Matt fell ill. Matt has always been a keen sportsman, run marathons, cycled in many events and spends more time in the gym
than the rest of us put together – and yet he suffered a heart attack.
Had his business been systematically prepared
for sale he would have been in a better position to sell it quickly and for a good price; recuperate fully; and buy the business
in Wiltshire under less stressful circumstances. A stark lesson to us all.
Dangerous Myth #2: Assuming you will live well into your 70's, 80's and beyond
As I was putting the final touches to the eCourse, a fellow member of a speaking club we both attend locally
asked whether there was anything I could do for a friend of his who's husband had died a year ago, at the relatively young
age of 61. She had struggled to run the business – which she didn’t really understand – and in sheer
desperation, placed a "Business For Sale" sign in the shop window! With
taxman, landlord and supplier pressures mounting, she was now willing to accept any offer.
Such
a shame. Things could have been so different. I did call
her, but was told it was her day off. I tried her mobile, it was turned off. Who can blame her for wanting to disappear for
a while?
28 year old elite distance
runner Ryan Shay collapsed and died five and a half miles into a marathon race. Graham Clark
(aged 21) fell 15ft off a ladder. He was treated on a life support machine after suffering a fractured skull, swelling of
the brain and lung injuries. The machine was switched off when he failed to respond to treatment.
Both
had their own businesses, both have young families, both were fit and active at the time of their deaths.
Let's face it, we all believe to varying degrees
in these two dangerous myths. If we continue to do so without preparing our businesses for sale - without compiling a complete
and comprehensive set of documents and records and rigorously keeping them updated - we doom ourselves,
our families, staff, customers and suppliers to the same sudden loss in an unplanned crisis.
Here's a Quick Look at Some of What You'll Learn From the eCourse:
How
to unlock the TRUE value of your business, effectively transforming it into an irresistible
product, eagerly sought after by your target market; the business buyer.
How to
safeguard your family's future in the event of a calamity. By preparing for an unplanned crisis,
clear selling decisions can be made and acted upon by those not normally in day-to-day control of the business.
Identify
business-growth opportunities as you discover new methods, tactics and strategies
brought to light by the systematic process of preparing a business for sale.
Discover
how a well-prepared business helps you identify new market opportunities and increase
profits should you decide the time isn't right yet to sell up.
Study
real life examples of little known business-selling strategies proven to sell businesses
quicker and for thousands more than the owners originally anticipated from the sale.
Enjoy
peace of mind a business properly prepared for sale gives you, knowing the business is
perfectly positioned for being sold in a timely manner for the best price, instead of at mere 'auction value',
should a crisis arise.
Join the exclusive band
of tuned-in business owners capable of producing a comprehensive business profile and
document portfolio, assisting buyers to formulate a bullet-proof business plan that lending institutions will fight over to
finance.
Understand how to quickly identify the different
types of buyer you will meet as you approach the time to finally hand over your business
to a new owner. Learn how to short-circuit the time-wasters and eliminate the tyre-kickers.
Let's be honest, we both know selling businesses is not for the faint hearted and is something you are unlikely to do
more than once in your whole lifetime. So getting the value right, safeguarding your family's future, putting the deal
to bed with a well-financed buyer and finally making the deal stick, is of vital importance.
In my professional opinion, I believe all
businesses of every shape and size should be in a constant state of readiness for sale. We live and work
in an uncertain world with new challenges thrown at us every day. You don't know if you will ever need
to sell your business at short notice.
And of course, it does no harm whatsoever if you prepare
your business for sale and end up never selling it. The preparation journey itself is going to open your eyes to so many ways
of making your business really fly, you’ll be leaving your competitors scratching in the dust.
I guess by now you are beginning to appreciate the rack of benefits to you and your business of
a free subscription to the 'Preparing To Sell Your Business' eCourse.
So let me briefly run over some of the content of the course.
This unrivalled, free-to-subscribe eCourse, skyrockets you from where you know the right
thing to do is to prepare your business for sale… to the giddy heights of having all the tools to hand to actually
prepare your business for sale, and present it professionally to the marketplace in its very best light,
so achieving everything you want from the sale.
Throughout
the course, we'll talk about all kinds of businesses… manufacturers, shops, franchises, consultants, middlemen
and home-based companies. We'll discuss little businesses made big, and not so little businesses made tiny by the
lack of action of their owners. We will cover your competitors and your customers and how to get the most out of them in the
process of preparing your business for sale.
I also include self-evaluation questionnaires and 'must-do' checklists. I show you exactly
what no other business broker in the whole of the UK even thinks of when selling a business. I unravel and
expose the valuation myth. I give you a list of the warning signs to look out for in potential buyers.
And for subscribers only I will make myself
available for a full 45 minute telephone advisory session, at no charge, to answer all your questions in private and in confidence
when you are ready.
Make no mistake. Methodical, careful, systematic
and orderly preparation of the sale of your business adds thousands, tens of thousands and often more, to the final selling
price. No question.
Why? Because the actual
selling price of your business will not be determined by how good it IS – but rather by how good it LOOKS. Remember...
perception is reality!
Why am I so confident
proper preparation works so effectively?
Because I have tried, tested and used the methods I'm going to reveal to you in the 'Preparing To
Sell Your Business' eCourse, every day of the week when selling businesses for my clients.
I have proven they work time and time again.
The next move is yours.
Because you've read this far – you will understand how important it is to have your business in a constant state
of readiness for sale. And you want to turn it into a valuable and sellable asset when the time comes, or in case of
an emergency, particularly if you are not around to conduct the proceedings.
Finally, if you
don't fancy gambling on:
Then you owe it to yourself to profit from the benefits, the advantages and the tangible and achievable results
a free subscription to the 'Preparing To Sell Your Business' eCourse
offers you right now. Joining the course is a no-brainer really isn't it? Look
at it this way…
Right now
you could sell your business… possibly. But for how much? How long will it take?
Once you've
signed-up, read, acted on, and implemented the 12 weekly modules of this unmatched eCourse, you will be perfectly placed to
sell your business at a time of YOUR choosing, or if you NEED to, and for an amount reflecting its absolute true value.
We may never get to meet face to face, even so,
I know full well you work damned hard in your business. You have taken all the risks and shouldered the consequences.
You have seen some reward from your considerable efforts to date. Isn't it now time you look towards controlling the final
destiny of your business and your future prosperity and happiness?
I think so.
I trust you agree.
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