When Is The Right Time To Sell Your Business?

Article by www.entrepreneurmag.co.za

Of the 6 most common questions I get asked on a regular basis, when is the right time to sell is by far the most common. The mergers and acquisitions game is part art, part science and a whole lot of elbow grease.

Your personal context

• How old are you?
• How much energy do you have left in your tank?
• Have you extracted value out of the business already?
• Have you managed to de-risk yourself by investing in equivalent assets outside of your business?

Only you can answer these questions, but they will go a long way in providing clarity for you and your ability to take the first step to selling your business?

Is your business ready to sell?

If I had R100 for every time someone had said to me that they want to wait another twelve months before they sell, I would have accumulated a substantial amount of money. Despite what the majority of advisors say, there is very often no real need to ‘dress up’ your business for sale.

Don’t get me wrong. You need a going concern that delivers solid returns to catch the eye of the right acquirer. However, who are you dressing your business up for?

If you do this properly, you will have more than one buyer at the table. Chances are, what is attractive to one buyer won’t necessarily be attractive to someone else. It is impossible to be all things to all acquirers.

You say you are just 12 months away….

12 Months is a magical number. Business owners always seem to be 12 months away from being ready to sell their business. Maybe it’s that big contract you are hoping to land. Perhaps you want to put in a new IT system. There will always be something.

Speaking from experience, I had a client that was going to wait, but instead committed to the process. Had they waited 12 months they would have been hit with ‘Nene-gate’, Brexit and Trump all in a 12-month period! There is no way that anyone could have anticipated a trifecta like that. I had another client that put in a new SAP system in those 12 months and the acquirer used Oracle!

 You will reach the 12 month point anyway…

With the time that it takes to complete a successful transaction there is a good chance that you will cross that threshold of that big contract that you were hoping to land, putting that succession plan in or whatever the reason was that you wanted to delay the process for.

Something else that generally ruffles a few feathers, is that selling the (proven) potential generally fetches a far greater value than the past. This in itself is a whole other topic, but in the context of when is the right time to go to market, always keep this factor front of mind.

What is happening in the economy and your industry?

We are fortunate to have seen an increased sentiment in, and around, the South African economy in 2018. There is an uptick in international interest, but you know what the reality is, it never really took a major dive. The reason being that irrespective of the economy or your industry, good businesses sell. Some of my best deals happened in 2016 when the economy was under severe pressure.

Remember that when times are tough, acquirers need to buy good businesses to grow, as their own profit and be under pressure. When the economy and your industry is doing well, acquires will buy as they have excess cash to invest and will have a more bullish outlook on taking risk in their investments.

Truth is….there is no perfect time

The one thing that I have learnt over the past few years is that one can theorise for months trying to think of endless ways to increase the value of your business. Without climbing into the market and actually determining what your reality is, you will keep delaying your decision to take your business to market.

There is only one real hurdle that needs to be overcome, and that is you. If it is any consolation you will never be 100% ready. What have you got to lose? If you go to market and, worst case scenario, you don’t sell, you still have a great business to run and grow.

Article by www.entrepreneurmag.co.za