According to a recent Forbes article, many business owners find themselves unable to sell their business when they want to. Their expectation may be that they should be able to sell any time they want, but the reality is far different. As it turns out, selling your business in Baltimore or anywhere else is easier said than done.
Why Plan for Selling Your Business?
A key reason that owners find it difficult to sell is lack of advance planning. It’s easy to put off the need for an “exit plan,” and that procrastination can cost you. According to some estimates, most businesses will need to sell within the next 10 to 15 years. Regrettably, almost none of them are prepared to do so.
You see it often in so-called Baby Boomer business owners. Many analysts thought by now we’d see a large number of Baby Boomers selling their businesses. However, the fact is most of them are holding on longer and waiting to sell. Most will probably now only sell when they have to – in their early 70s.
According to a recent survey of 200+ businesses, 53% had given little or no attention to any transition planning. A full 88% had no written transition plan, and 80% had never even sought advice from professionals about their transition.
To make matters worse, most business owners don’t know the value of their business.
Without an idea of business valuation, and without advance planning of any kind, they are flying blindly into the future, hoping things work out.
Unfortunately, our experience backs up these recent surveys and articles. Many business owners aren’t prepared to maximize the value of their business. They simply aren’t ready for the process of selling a business and extracting the wealth they have built up over the years.
However, we can definitely overcome this problem with some planning, some expertise, and some homework. Rather than “hang on and hope for the best when the time comes,” you could be confidently heading into the future with a well thought-out transition plan.
Every Baltimore area business owner should be thinking about the day they sell their business. The best time to start working with a business broker like CGK Business Sales is today. Starting now, let’s work together to begin formulating your strategy to maximize your business’s value. Contact our Baltimore office today (or any of our offices across the country) to start a confidential, no-obligation conversation about selling your business – even if it’s years in the future.
