How I Sold my Business Privately!

by 14th of January, 2013

Owners story of how they sold their Family owned Newsagency & Gifts store in a regional part of NSW.

SOLD FOR $100,000 DECEMBER 2012

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Why did you decide to sell the business?

We originally bought the business off an elderly family member with the intention to renovate the property as it was run down and then to sell it.

How did you determine the value of your business?

We initially valued our business by looking at the turnover and return on investment over 5 years, in terms of the location of our property we were unable to sell it at its value in this sense, we reduced the price by over half and the purchaser got an excellent deal.

How did you decide where to advertise?

We did a lot of research on where to advise the business for sale, we advertised on numerous websites and paid a lot of money for some advertisements, which from experience now, some proved to be waste of money in our case.

Did you consider a business broker?

We were very wary of brokers and this proved to serve us well, we were constantly receiving calls from brokers, one in particular said that we would receive their $5000 odd fee back if we sold the business through them, they claimed they could sell it for us in 6 weeks. I knew this was highly unlikely and proposed that if he thought he could sell it then he was more than welcome to advertise it for us and we would provide the information they needed but we would not pay the fee as they claimed we would get it back when they sold the business anyway. Needless to say he declined and never called again.

How did you deal with buyer enquiries?

At first we gave all enquiries everything, answered all their questions, sent them figures, we were over accommodating and probably too friendly. It took us a while to start screening the enquiries and asking them questions to see if they were suitable to the location and business. I think a lot of enquiries are just trying to get your figures to compare them to other businesses.

How did you obtain your financials for potential buyers?

We had all the financial information ready when the business was advertised. We did not have any difficulty getting the financial information from the accountant, however we also used MYOB in the business and it was easy for us to get the information from there.

How was the process of finalizing the sale?

Finalising the sale with the solicitor was difficult, we had a lot of trouble getting the contract finalised, our accountant had trouble writing our instructions into the contract, however I think this is an isolated case, it would really depend on who you deal with, we had lost too much time to change solicitors, it went right down to the wire, it was the relationship that we had built with the buyer and their solicitor that allowed the sale to go through on time

Suggestions to other Private Sellers:

Be discerning with your enquiries, ask for quotes when dealing with solicitors before deciding on who you will deal with, help the buyer, they may not have run a business before and not know the processes of what is involved with getting started, we tried to be as upfront as possible about all the 'extra' costs that are involved on top of the sale price and they really appreciated it, better to lose the sale at the beginning than half way though. It can take a long time and there can be a lot of disappointments. Be wary, there are a lot of people who try to scam you as well, we were caught out.

Review of Bsale:

Very happy with Bsale, both their customer service and website, we received almost all of our enquiries through Bsale, it is the website that our buyer used to purchase our business, they show up in the search engines and offer excellent packages and value for money. Bsale have been excellent to deal with from start to finish and worth the investment.

David and Katherine

* Note: Name and Photos changed to due to confidentiality. These opinions were provided by the owners of the Newsagency. This is an actual story.