Are you thinking about selling your business?
Selling a business can be a potentially stressful process, and it’s essential to hire the right professionals to help you. After all, you have invested years of effort into growing your business, and you want to make sure that the entire process is problem-free and comfortable.
It’s rare to find a straightforward buyer who will offer you a fair, upfront price. As most experienced entrepreneurs will tell you, you’ll probably need to shortlist genuine offers from a pool of prospective buyers. Selling a business involves advanced planning to minimise delays, confusion and losses.
Important Things to Consider Before Selling a Selling a Business
Several factors require serious consideration before you decide to sell your business:
- Who Is Going to Buy?
You need to first think about the profile of a potential buyer. Who will be interested in buying the business? Potential buyers could include competitors, new entrants in the market, current or former employees or an established company looking to diversity their products or services.
- What Are the Terms of Purchase?
Most buyers want to buy a successful business and may agree to a combination of a cash buy-out and a promissory note for future payment to be paid over some time. You need to ensure that the promissory note is backed by a guarantee or hard security before agreeing to the sale.
- Review All Your Current Arrangements
Have you reviewed employee contracts, intellectual property agreements, current customer contracts, business ownership documents and financial reports? All your existing records and arrangements must be up-to-date and legal.
- Are You Selling the Entire Business?
Do you plan to sell the entire business or are a part of it? Do you have other business interests that are connected to the business you want to sell?
Typical issues that affect the sale or purchase of a business include location, size, and the nature of operations, intellectual property and employment agreements. Selling a business involves a detailed assessment of several complex factors. The final sale agreement should be fair, legal and compliant with current regulations.
Why It Helps to Hire Professionals
Experienced lawyers can support you every step of the way to ensure that the entire transaction is legitimate and valid.
The experienced legal team at Owen Hodge Lawyers can help perform due diligence regarding prospective buyers, draft your business sale agreement and ensure legal compliance. We coordinate with other professionals like accountants to get a clear idea of the assets, liabilities, structure and layout in order to assist you in the best way possible.
That’s not all.
Business lawyers can also help you negotiate fair terms of sale based on the current facts and figures. They may also need to file documents with certain agencies, obtain licenses or coordinate with government officials during the sale. We prioritise our clients’ interests and work hard to protect you from potential liability and litigation.
Our team of trained business lawyers has worked on business sale and purchase agreements across a variety of industries including franchising, retail, manufacturing, real estate, medical, automotive and many more.
Please contact our office on 1800 770 780 for more information on how we can help you buy or sell a business.