Sell Your Business on Facebook

By Barbara Taylor on the New York Times Blogs: An independent florist with a reputation for unusual arrangements, Bloom is a fixture in historic downtown Bentonville, Ark., an area whose rapid growth was recently accelerated by the opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

I don’t usually work with businesses as small as Bloom, but it’s a special business that’s held a special place in the community. Plus, I’d been a customer since it opened and knew the owner well. I dispensed with the usual formalities under which my business brokerage firm accepts clients, made a hand-shake agreement with the seller and immediately got to work. There was one big problem: I had four months to sell the business before the seller was going to pack up and move to Chicago to take a job.

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What is Your Business Worth?

Mark N. Bass, chief financial officer at Capital MatchPoint, stresses the need for a "fact-based, analytical approach to business valuation in this video.

He does concede, however, that business valuation is more art than science.

No Two Businesses Are Alike

One of the trickiest yet most vital aspects of the business sale process is the business valuation.

Not only is it difficult to make any general statements as to value as companies are all unique, but often different buyers see value in different commodities.

For example, buyers will have differing endgames when deciding to make a purchase. Some may be looking for a business that delivers a quick turnover of profit, and will pay a premium for it,

whereas others may want to redesign a business to run it their own way, and will need to keep back money in reserve to pay for renovations.

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What Does 2012 Hold in Store for Business Sellers?

After another tumultuous year, will the nascent recovery gather pace or be arrested by the Eurozone debt crisis and the scheduled cuts in federal spending?

And what does this mean for anyone wanting to sell their business?

Sellers will sometimes put a sale on hold if they think the market has reached its nadir and a recovery is round the corner.

Conversely, if they expect the economy to flatline then, unless they don’t mind waiting months or even years to exit, they may well decide to proceed without delay.

The problems across the Atlantic continue to cause concern. Every fresh bailout of the stricken PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) seems to buy only more time.

To some commentators the collapse of the euro is unthinkable; to others simply inevitable.

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How to Know a Buyer is Serious

A leading South African broker believes that a buyer with genuine intentions to make a purchase should be able to provide certain, fundamental information.

Carl Kleynhans of AfricaBrokers.com suggests that the following questions are worth asking of prospective buyers. If the buyer is hesitant to answer them then alarm bells should ring.

• Why are you buying a business at this particular point?
• What is your time-frame for finding the right business?
• Are you looking for a very specific type of business or are you open-minded about different opportunities?
• Have you set aside some capital to invest in a business for sale?
• Do you really want to be in business for yourself?
• Are you presently employed or unemployed?
• Are you the decision maker or are there other parties involved?