Business Planning

You have a business and at some stage will wish to exit that business.  This may be due to a desire to retire or its simply time for a change.  Selling a business is not like selling a house.  There is not a ready market for businesses.

There are a number of barriers to selling any business, these may include:

• High investment price
• High technical barrier for potential investors
• Lack of systemisation
• Personal goodwill (as compared to business goodwill)

All of these issues can be mitigated with good planning.  Grooming a business for sale is not a quick process and could take around 1 to 5 years.  It is best that you know about the issues so that they can be addressed during the whole ownership phase, rather than leaving these until the point where you want to exit the business.