Usually, at a certain point in the life cycle of small and medium-sized companies, the owners decide to sell. The case depends mainly on the timing and the money offered.

Why sell your business?

How do owners end up with the decision to sell? Maybe they have been discussing and thinking about it for many years. Some of the owners might want to retire or perhaps became seriously ill. Sometimes the owners feel they need bigger muscles to grow their business further. Often market and technology changes can be so dramatic that selling the company is deemed to be the best way forward. In some cases, the challenges are so enormous that the owners feel selling the company is the only way out of the situation.

Fortunately, the reasons are usually very rational and well-considered.

How to prepare to sell your company

The selling process takes time and won’t happen overnight. The owners should begin preparations for selling the company and maximizing its value years in advance. However, that is rarely the case, even though it is not complicated. Preparations are mainly about getting the basics of the business in place. On top of that, fundamental operations should be optimized. That could be done typically more professionally.

If you don’t know how to start, you can ask for help and/or you can onboard an external expert as a board member. It’s quite simple, and once you have started, the rest of the journey is more comfortable.

It would be best if you had more than a single buyer candidate

It is incredible how many companies are sold to the bidder who contacts the owners at just the right time. If a company wants to buy your business, most likely, their competitors could be interested as well. It is the point in the selling process where excellent speeches should not blind you to other possibilities. Instead, focus on getting data to compare the offers on the table. It is the phase of the process where you have an excellent opportunity to increase your company’s value.

Here M&A Advisors can help you to optimize the value of your company. They can grow your future wallet and earn their fees simultaneously. Using Advisors will bring you more money than not using them. So, don’t accept the first or only offer even it appears at what seems to be just the right moment.

Are you interested in hearing how to increase value?

Our mission is to help our customers to increase the value of their company. If you are interested in discussing your company’s value and how to raise it, let’s talk.

Jarmo Kuusivuori