The Time to Sell

The Time to Sell

The time to sell is when someone wants to buy!  When we brokers talk among ourselves this is always a hot topic.  You see for a Business Broker we are always on the hunt for new listings.  For a broker having listings is like having inventory.  Without it, there is nothing to sell.  I jokingly tell people that two days a week everyone wants to sell.  You just need to ask on the right day.  When it’s raining for instance I know to call on landscapers and house painters.   For a business owner the decision of when to sell often presents itself in the way of forced life changes or business environment changes.  This article will make the assumption that business is good and the idea just popped into your head. “The time to sell is when someone wants to buy.”  That is what I was always taught, and it makes a lot of sense in some cases.  The answer lies in control of timing.  We have none.  Just as you can be sure that employees won’t come in on a busy Monday morning…you can be sure that when you want or need to sell quickly the buyers will be hard to come by.  A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush here too.  By the way, all those customers that have told you to call them when you wanted to sell will disappear and soon as you have the nerve to want real money for your business.  The question that you must answer before you even think about selling your business is:  What am I going to do with myself?  A person needs an exit strategy.  The only people that regretted selling are those who gave no thought to the day after the sale.  I’m not saying that retirement is not a good option but even then you need an idea of what you are going to do on that retirement.  This is so important that we have to talk further on this subject.  Selling your business is gut wrenching!!  Especially if it is a business that you started on paper in the bathroom 25 years ago and built it from scratch.  It’s more than a place to go to work, it’s a friend, a constant, for some of us it’s the reason we wake up in the morning.  We have our employees and customers and our way of doing things.  The new guy or gal will have new customers and new ways of doing things and, God forbid…they may be better.  What if they are more successful than me?  It is a very strong person that truly wants the new guy to do better.  We define ourselves by our business and if it succeeds then we are successful.  If it fails we would take it very personally.  The joys of knowing that your strength and independence will in some ways be gone if you sell without a plan for the future.  Your longtime vendors won’t call to talk to you anymore.  You’ll be just like the rest of us regular “Joes” if you sell without a plan for the future.  You must be running toward something not just away from something. Money obviously is a big concern and the seller should be aware of the expense of the sale.  It is rare for a small business to be bought for an all cash deal.  For most small businesses the buyer and the lending institution will expect the seller to “hold a note” for part of the payment.  This isn’t necessarily a cost but you won’t have use of that money the day after the sale.  Also there is a thing called taxes that seems to come between your money and your wallet.  There is also lawyer fees and accounting due diligence stuff that will add a few thousand to the bill.  Brokers like me usually have a commission fee of 10% of the total sale price.   I know what you’re thinking…all this reading and still I don’t know if I should sell or not.  Well it should be a hard question.  This is after all a change of life and all.  Eventually we all do the same thing.  The romantic idea of selling is over, and we have time to think about it.  Kind of like the fantasy we all have about just running off to live in another place and starting life over with no responsibilities.  (I know you have had that dream at least once.)  You will treat this just like any other business decision and weigh the pros and cons of the deal.  Remember the goal of any business is eventually to sell so you can reap the benefits that the money will bring, and that if your business isn’t giving you more life…it is taking it away.  With all that said…the time to sell is when someone wants to buy....

The Good Salesman

The Good Salesman

Funny thing about constantly looking for the new answers to all of today’s issues; the answers seem to all come down to the basics that we were taught when we were five.  Be nice.  See, I am a salesman.  I say this with pride, or at least I used to.  We salespeople see the world a little differently than most.  We see opportunity in almost everything.  We like people, and look for ways to solve challenges for others.  Then we tell them about it, and if our solution is worth more than the cost of the problem, they will buy it and we become friends.  That’s how a salesperson sees it, not necessarily the definition of a salesman that the rest of the world will use.  This was stated clearly to me the other day at an impromptu meeting with a client.   While visiting with, and getting a new client set up with our company, I realized the proximity to another client was too close for me not to just stop by and say hi.  We had nothing to sell, but this client and I became sort of friends over the past few months and we enjoyed talking to each other.  With this in mind and not much time to kill I drove to his factory and entered the building.  Standing outside of the office was another salesman fiddling on his Blackberry waiting to go in.  Seeming a little nervous the salesman told me that the client was in, but on the phone and that I should wait with him.  Instead, I knocked and opened the door to see for myself.  With a big smile the client waved me in and asked me to sit down.  He was still on the phone so I waited and let him finish up before I told him about the other salesman outside the door and, that he was here first.  There is some honor in sales, and mutual respect for the guys out there making things happen.  It was my client’s response that caught me off guard and validated all the sales training that has been absorbed into my body after all these years.  When informed about the other guy standing outside the door he said, “Oh, don’t worry about him, he is just a salesman” Well, what am I?  Later, on the phone with time to think, I told him that I was pleased with the new category that he put me in, in his mind.  Then the magic nugget was spoken, the reason for this article, the new definition of a Good Salesperson.  This is what he said:  “You are here to make my life better, the other guy just wanted to take my money”. • Salesperson- Wants to take your money • Good Salesperson- Wants to make your life better Pretty simple huh?  People hate to be sold, but they love to buy, from friends. When you get in a sales situation are you thinking about the money you can make? Or are you thinking about how your solution can help the client?  The way you think will manifest itself into creating a friend or not.  This is the deciding factor of whether you will be in the office, or standing outside playing with your cell phone....

Attitudes Can Change a Nation

Attitudes Can Change a Nation

 Children are the best teachers.  They show everyday how hypocritical we can be.  I caught myself preaching to my son about making excuses instead of finishing his required work for school, and the same day caught myself making the same excuse to my wife about not doing something about the ants in the kitchen.  A wise man told me once that “the only reason you are ever late is because you didn’t leave early enough” In other words it is always you.  It is never the situation that you find yourself in.  Today’s world gives you tremendous ammunition for your excuse maker to get involved.  He will encourage you to wait, to contemplate, or to stay in a holding pattern with your life until things settle down in our so called “economic crisis”.   This is self destructive to every aspect of your life, and our Country.  If you think that I am preaching to you now…you are right.  The fact is that there are only a few things we can do to affect the situation, and none of them require us to know about all of the other challenges that face the planet.  Sitting around worrying about the ozone layer doesn’t build a new electric car.  Fighting with your neighbor about the best candidate for the Senate doesn’t feed your family.  Jeffrey Gitomer wrote: “resign yourself from being the General Manager of the universe” Now that is good advice.  Think of how much more time you’ll have to work on the things that you actually have control over, if you leave the rest of the stuff to the world to handle.  It is time for you to make the news, not to watch it happen.  Attitudes can change a Nation and affects everyone.  When you wait for others to do things, or wait for things to happen before you do things, nothing gets done.  I met a woman once who was lamenting the fact that she wasn’t born in the time of the industrial revolution in the 1900’s.  She believed that the opportunities that the industrial giants had then, was the reason for their success.  If she were only alive then, she too would have been a giant.  Maybe so, but it was interesting that her birthday happened to be in the same year as Bill Gates.  Some would say that he too just fell into the right place at the right time.  Do you think he sees the world with the same trepidation as you? These times, as in all times, require men of action, or doers and risk takers.  Man has always looked for the short term gain and easy way out.  It must be a nature thing.  However, there is no gain with worry about the future, there is no gain with poverty, and there is no gain with anger or any negative emotion that prevents action.  It is time to stop with the excuses, and blaming, and questions of why things are the way they are.  Holding patterns don’t help anyone…It is time to get off your bum and fly.  Then you can see the world from 10,000 ft. up, with a new perspective, one like Bill Gates....

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