Does Your Asking Price Truly Matter?
It is no great secret that sellers often aim high. The logic sellers use is simple, “I can always reduce my price.” While that is true, sellers do need to remember that if the asking price is initially too high, buyers won’t even take a serious look. In short, your selling price must be bound by reality and what the market will bear.
Pricing Does Matter
When an asking price is too high buyers will simply move on. But in the meantime, you may have lost a qualified buyer that would have been very interested at a lower price. Pricing isn’t a factor that should be played with, instead it should always be treated in as professional of a manner as possible.
Instant Millionaire? Maybe and Maybe Not
Some sellers want to become instant millionaires and sell their business for top dollar. Sometimes this is warranted and sometimes the numbers don’t support lofty valuations. Every situation and every business is different. It pays to be realistic.
Studies have shown that there is usually about a 15% difference between what sellers want and what the market will bear. For example, when a business is over $1 million, sellers usually sell for 90% of their asking price. Smaller businesses, valued under a million, usually sell for about 85% of their initial asking price. (Now, that stated, it is important to keep in mind that only data on sold businesses factors into this statistic.)
Business Brokers Help Determine an Accurate Valuation
A business broker has considerably expertise when it comes time to calculate a reasonable asking price for a business. They know that it is essential that they come up with a price that is fair. As a result, business brokers take many diverse issues into consideration. A few of the factors that business brokers consider are location, competition and annual sales variations.
Prospective Buyers Can’t Read Your Mind
An experienced business broker can help you determine the right value for your business and determining the right value is key. The last thing you want is to have an evaluation that is far too high as you will immediately eliminate many prospective buyers. While you may know that you are willing to negotiate and perhaps even reduce your asking price substantially, prospective buyers do not know this fact. A realistic and appropriate asking price is of paramount importance and a business broker can help guide you towards the best decision.
Market Forces Have the Ultimate Say
In the end, it is the market, not the seller, that determines the correct selling price. If no one is willing to pay a certain price than a given business is overpriced. That may be a brutal fact, but it is also quite true.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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How to Ensure Confidentiality During your Sale
Selling a business is a process that depends upon professionalism and confidentiality. Selecting a business broker who understands the critical role that confidentiality plays is simply a must. Unfortunately, countless sellers have in fact dealt with a situation where a breach in confidentiality has caused a deal to fall apart.
A failure to maintain confidentiality can lead to a slew of negative reactions from a range of parties. Everyone from supplies and vendors to creditors could react in a way that could harm your business, for example, vendors could change their terms and this could in turn negatively impact your cash flow.
A breach of confidentiality could also lead to negative reactions amongst both employees and customers. The reason is that employees may begin to worry about the security of their jobs and may also become nervous about the change in management. These fears could prompt employees to find a new job and leave you with a position that needs to be filled. Potentially more significant is the fact that the loss of key personnel could cause your buyer to have cold feet.
As if all of these factors were not enough of a concern there is also the issue of the competition. If your competition gets wind that you may be looking to sell they may take advantage of the situation and start attempting to steal your customers.
Finally, a breach in confidentiality could send potential buyers running. The headaches that are often associated with a breach in confidentiality are such that potential buyers may simply drop the deal.
The best way to protect your confidentiality is to opt for a great business broker. A business broker is an expert in prompting a business without notifying the competition, your employees, vendors or anyone else. The process is both an art and a science.
When attempting to sell on your own there are many and diverse pitfalls. Sellers are much more likely to accidentally reveal who you are; after all, a seller has to provide phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses and other critical and identifying information. Even your home phone number could be traced back to your identity and ultimately your business.
A seasoned business broker can help you bypass these potentially damaging issues, by not just shielding your business’s identify but also by ensuring that all interested parties sign confidentiality agreements and are pre-qualified. In this way you only reveal what is absolutely necessary. In short, it is best to work with a business broker and maintain your confidentiality at all costs.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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What is EBITDA and Why is it Relevant to You?
If you’ve heard the term EBITDA thrown around and not truly understood what it means, now is the time to take a closer look, as it can be used to determine the value of your business. That stated, there are some issues that one has to keep in mind while using this revenue calculation. Here is a closer look at the EBITDA and how best to proceed in using it.
EBITDA is an acronym for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It can be used to compare the financial strength of two different companies. That stated, many people don’t feel that EBITDA should be given the importance that is frequently attributed to it.
Divided Opinion on EBITDA
If there is disagreement on EBITDA being able to determine the value of a business, then why is it used so often? This calculation’s somewhat ubiquitous nature is due, in part, to the fact that EBITDA takes a very complicated subject, determining and comparing the value of businesses, and distills it down to an easy to understand and implement formula. This formula is intended to generate a single number.
EBITDA Ignores Many Key Factors
One of the key concerns when using or considering a EBITDA number is that it is often used as something of a substitute for cash flow, which, of course, can make it dangerous. It is vital to remember that earnings and cash earnings are not necessarily one in the same.
Adding to the potential confusion is the fact that EBITDA does not factor in interest, taxes, depreciation or amortization. In short, a lot of vital information is ignored.
Achieving Optimal Results
In the end, you simply don’t want to place too much importance or emphasis on EBITDA when determining the strength of a business. The calculation overlooks too many factors that could influence future growth and prosperity of a business.
Business brokers have been trained to handle valuations to determine the approximate value of a business. Since valuations take many more factors into consideration, they also tend to be far more accurate.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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