The assumptions you make about the value of your business are far more likely to kill your sale than a lack of buyers. Buyers want to buy businesses but only if they have value. Does yours?

False Assumptions About Your Business Value and Retirement Readiness

This article mentions a dry cleaning business that had to be closed and jobs were lost. The initiative would have provided up to $10,000 in incentives to convert it to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). For such a small business, even a $10,000 incentive may not have made an ESOP feasible. A better choice may have been converting it to a Worker Cooperative or an Employee Ownership Trust both of which are less heavily regulated and therefore easier and less costly to set up and…

From a seller perspective, converting a business to a worker cooperative is similar to a management buyout. Instead of just one or a few of the employees, most of the employees will become owners. This presents a few advantages over the simple buyout. First, with more buyers, a greater portion of the purchase price may be provided by the buyers directly. Second, more financial stakeholders increases their overall commitment to its success. Third, more committed buyers means safety of…

A management buyout is the most common exit plan for small business owners. Most want to sell to a third-party, but only one in five actually succeed. Management buy-outs will almost always have to be financed somehow and traditional owner financing will be subordinate to all other financing. Why not consider financing the whole deal if you can? A Case for Seller…