Matt Blackwell on 
When you start thinking about selling your business, there are probably a few questions that immediately come to mind. What is my business worth? Who is going to buy it? How long will the process take? And of course, what am I actually going to walk away with when everything is said and done?
All important questions. But interestingly enough, these are not always the things that end up creating problems during a transaction.
More often, the issues that slow down or even derail a sale were already there before the business ever went to market. Maybe the owner’s expectations of value do not quite match what buyers are willing to pay. Maybe there is a piece of real estate that no one has decided what to do with. Financials need some additional explanation, facilities need work, or there is an employee or legal issue that has been sitting in the background.
None of these automatically mean you cannot sell your business. Most of the time, there is a solution. The real problem is when the buyer is the one who finds it first.
Take valuation as an example. As an owner, it is almost impossible to separate the value of your business from the years of work you put into building it. A buyer does not have that same connection. They are looking at profitability, market position, growth opportunities, real estate, capital needs and, maybe most importantly, risk.
This is where having a realistic understanding of value before going to market becomes so important. It does not mean accepting a lower number or discounting what you have built. It means understanding what a buyer is likely to see, what they are likely to question and what you can actually support when negotiations begin.
The same applies to due diligence. You know a buyer is going to ask questions, so why wait until you are three months into a transaction to start asking them yourself?
Are your financials clean? Can you support your adjustments to earnings? If you own your real estate, do you want to sell it or keep it and collect rent? When was the last time you took an objective look at your facilities and equipment? Is there anything else in the business that you would rather explain to a buyer upfront than have them discover on their own?
Again, none of this requires having a perfect business. I am not sure that exists. What matters is knowing where the issues are and having an answer for them.
Once a transaction starts, time matters. Every unexpected issue creates another question, another document request and potentially another delay. One delay may not matter much, but stack enough of them together and what started as an exciting process can quickly become an exhausting one.
If selling or transitioning your business is somewhere in your future, you do not need to wait until you are ready to go to market to start preparing. In fact, that is probably the worst time to start.
At Foresight, we work with owners to understand their business from a buyer’s perspective, identify potential challenges and prepare for a transition before those decisions have to be made under the pressure of a transaction. You cannot control everything that will happen during a sale, but you can make sure you are prepared for the things you can.