If you own a business, want to retire, have no succession plan in place what do you need to do to sell your business?


  1. 1
    Prepare your business for sale. Before you sell your business, you need to accumulate information and prepare a package for others to review. Included in this package will be financial statements and tax returns for the last three years, internal financial statements for the current year. Copies of notice of assessments from the appropriate government agency to confirm that the information you are presenting was actually filed with the tax authorities.
    • Build selling, marketing plans and strategy with complete information about your existing business.
    • Repair and maintain your all financial records and update them properly. Provide accurate information about your profits and losses.
    • Make sure that all the financial status of your business are completed.
  2. 2
    Determine what you are selling. Are you selling the shares of the business or the assets of the business. There are significant differences between the two. If you sell the shares of the business, the buyer of the business assumes all your liabilities of the company. These include tax and trade payables even if you did not disclose them in the due diligence period or as a result of a tax reassessment after the sale of the business has been consummated. The seller usually has a tax advantage to selling the shares of the business but the buyer usually wants to buy the assets of the business because they are not buying any potential skeletons that you may have not disclosed and they do not assume any potential tax liabilities that you have have incurred.
  3. 3
    Prepare a list of assets which are you selling. If there is inventory, you have provide a general description of the type or categories of what is carried in inventory. This will be reviewed in detail at a later date. If you have fixed assets, what is included in the sale of the business, how old is the equipment, what is included in the fixed assets being sold.
  4. 4
    Determine the normalized profits of the company. These are the on going profits of the company which would continue after you have gone. Typically, you remove all the personal expenses and family members from the payroll and you would include a salary for the owner which would have to be paid to a third party who would run the business if you were not involved in the day to day operations of the business.
  5. 5
    Determine the value of the business. There are many ways to value a business, earnings multiple, discounted cashflow, fair market value of the assets in the company. You will have to determine the most appropriate method of valuation and determine what is the fair market value of the business. Remember, the fair market value is the price that a willing buyer is willing to pay not the price that you need to retire. If the purchase price is overstated, few if any people will look at your business for sale.
  6. 6
    Prepare a three-page summary of your business in case someone would like a little more information. Have the rest of the information if the buyer appears to be more serious and wants to discuss the purchase of your business more seriously. Some of this information would be provided only after you request a confidentiality agreement be signed to protect you in case they disclose this information to a competitor.
  7. 7
    Determine if you are going to prepare your business yourself or use a business broker.

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      • Brokers charge a large commission for the service which they perform. Hopefully, if you decide to go through a broker, s/he will be able to sell the business faster and obtain a price higher than you would have been able to obtain by selling your business on your own; possibly covering the price of the commission.
      • If you have never sold a business before, you may not know the proper price to ask for the business nor the information to provide when you find a potential buyer. However, you can always hire an accountant or lawyer to assist you in the negotiations to overcome the lack of experience and knowledge needed to sell your business.
      • If you observe that market is going low, and it seems that the chances of finding a good deal are unlikely, then avoid selling your business at that time. Use the time wisely to make sure that you don't have any pending bookwork. You also have to make sure there are no issues regarding the government responsibilities that you might need to address.



      • Starting at a high price and lowering it later sends the message that your business is not desirable, that other buyers found the price too high, and / or that you are unreasonable. This turns buyers off.
      • Many buyers will look at your business once, if it is over priced, they do not monitor the price to see if you lower it at a later time. That is why it is imperative to be realistic in your asking price because you may not get a second opportunity to present to that buyer.
      • No one will pay the asking price of the business therefore you will need to price the business slightly higher than fair market value. If your asking price is considerably above market price, you will scare off potential buyers. It is imperative that your asking price is realistic.

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      23 votes - 96%
      Co-authors: 13
      Updated: August 30, 2019
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