When you’re ready to sell your franchise, you may consider doing it on your own. After all, no one knows the business better than you do, and there seems to be considerable interest from buyers in your industry. You’d certainly save the commission fee, which you think might offset the extra time and effort it takes to make a deal.
In theory, that may all be true. However, here’s why we always recommend engaging a professional intermediary:
Vetting buyers takes enormous time and effort. One of the advantages of working with a broker, especially one with experience in your industry, is that they have a network of motivated and qualified buyers seeking a business like yours. We have thousands of buyers in our database; that’s why we average 4.2 offers for every listing. When buyers are competing to make an offer, you’re bound to get more from the sale, both in price and in favorable terms. Often, the higher price offsets the broker’s commission.
When you work with a broker, you won’t waste your time on tire-kickers or buyers who can’t pull together financing for the deal. We ensure you interact only with serious buyers who have the financial means to make an offer.
Selling a business is a full-time job. You know what it takes to keep your business running profitably. Now add on dozens of hours a week to screen buyers, have long and repetitive discovery meetings, and respond to inquiries and requests for documentation. Furthermore, because you’ll want to maintain confidentiality, you’ll be doing most of the work outside the office. It can be exhausting, so much so that some sellers simply give up on the process.
Even buyers who are a good fit and serious about making an offer can keep the process dragging on for months. From discovery, franchisor vetting, and negotiation, it may take up to six months to receive an offer you can evaluate. Part of our job as brokers is to ensure communication keeps flowing and to handle routine requests for information. If a buyer can’t keep the process moving, we can move on to other buyers who are prepared to make an offer.
Making mistakes and missing deadlines can be costly. They may even kill the deal. A business sale involves hundreds of details, each of which can affect the deal’s viability and your profit from the sale. This is probably the largest and most complex transaction of your life, and if you’re doing it for the first time, it will be easy to overlook something important. We sell businesses every day, and we know exactly what to look for – and what to look out for. Our job is to keep you away from costly pitfalls and unforced errors.
We’ll also be able to take the emotion out of the sale and help both parties focus strictly on the numbers. It’s easy for a seller to take buyers’ questions as challenges. Discussions can become emotional, even heated. Some buyers and some sellers can dig in, determined to “win” the negotiation. We understand how to keep the conversation going and keep it centered on what matters. We help both parties see issues more clearly because we don’t have an emotional stake in the outcome.
We have years of experience and deep expertise in delivering the highest value for your business. From financial analysis and proper valuation to marketing to and screening buyers, evaluating offers and negotiating terms, we handle the business of selling your business so you can stay focused on what matters – running your company. Because we only get paid when the deal closes, our motives are aligned. We both want to get the highest offer and close as cleanly and quickly as possible.
An experienced broker will make sure both parties walk away feeling like they got a good deal. And we make sure our sellers feel confident that we earned our fee.
