We get it. Your business is your baby. Your blood, sweat and tears. When you are preparing to separate yourself from your business after a sale, it can be fairly difficult to remain objective. After all, this business has been your life for a long time. The level of emotions you encounter might surprise you. Add to that the need to work through a deal with a buyer who, in most cases, is a complete stranger.

Anyone who is selling their business hopes to find a buyer they like. Negotiating with someone whose personality meshes well with yours is far easier than with someone you generally dislike. 

The reality is you might not like the person buying your business. The good news is you don’t have to like them – you just have to get through the deal. The key is to remain calm, cool and collected.

It can take anywhere from 9 to 12 months (sometimes longer for niche businesses) to get your business from listing to closing. Even if you have a buyer it can take many months to get a deal all the way through. That time span can feel like an eternity if you’re working with someone you dislike.

Do your best to maintain your composure and maintain a level of professionalism in interactions with your buyer (whether you like them or not). This will make the transaction process far easier than if you let a clash of personalities devolve into a miserable time for everyone. Deals fall apart every day that didn’t have to because people let their feelings get hurt. Business transactions are just business – so reminding yourself of that regularly will help.

What if I totally hate the buyer?

You don’t have to sell someone your business, but their money is as good as anyone else’s. There’s also no way to know how long it will take you to find another buyer. Instead of walking away, do what you need to do to keep your distance from your buyer if it turns out that you’re not going to get along. Use your business broker for any and all communication between you.

Another thing to consider? In most business transactions there will be a  2-week training after closing. This training will be part of the purchase contract and ensures that the new buyer has the chance to learn everything they need to now in order to operate the business going forward. If you’re not a big fan of your buyer this 2 weeks can seem torturous – but you have to remember that at the end of the day the goal was to sell your business and get a financial return. If all that it’s going to take to reach your goal is 2 weeks – you can do it. 

Are you thinking about selling your business and are worried about finding a buyer you can work with? Do you have an experience with a buyer you’d like to share? Would you like to know more about the training period after closing? Leave any questions or comments, we would be happy to help.

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If you are selling your business you probably know how damaging it can be if your staff, customers or frankly anyone finds out that the business is on the market.

Employees can panic and quit en masse, taking their regulars with them. Customers can stop coming in, worried about how much the business might change under new ownership. The community at large might think you’re selling to get yourself clear of a sinking ship (as the misconception that a business for sale is a business on the brink is both pervasive and in the vast majority of cases – false).

While your business is for sale maintaining confidentiality is paramount, but not just in terms of the for-sale status. There are parts of your business that a buyer will need to see – your tax returns, your employee records, your vendor contracts, your client contracts and the like that are also critically important. Your business records and proprietary information need to stay confidential too. 

That’s why it’s a good idea to hire the right help – a business broker. Business brokers are able to safely and confidentially market your business to buyers, at first through a purposefully vague listing and then only disclosing any identifying information after a prospective buyer has signed the appropriate non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA also protects the records and information a buyer will have access to from disclosure so you don’t need to worry about confidential information ending up in the wrong hands.

While your business broker and buyers who have signed the NDA do their part to keep the confidentiality of your business transaction in place, you as a seller also need to be careful so you don’t burst your own confidentiality bubble. It happens more than it should, and often it’s the product of an seemingly innocent conversation.

Here’s an example. A business seller flies to see their parents on vacation, and while on the plane headed out of state they strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to them. The conversation turns, as it often does, to what you do for a living. The seller tells this stranger that he owns a waterfront restaurant that he’s currently selling. Later in the conversation he lets slip that this restaurant is in a specific community, one where there’s only one waterfront restaurant. Unbeknownst to the seller, this casual stranger not only lives in this community, they’re very involved in the community’s social scene and have many friends who frequent his restaurant. As soon as the plane lands, the gossip begins, as phone calls to friends include “did you hear the restaurant is for sale?” By the time the seller is on his return flight the damage is done and the entire community knows about his for-sale status. 

The point here is you wouldn’t carry around a copy of your business tax returns to show every stranger you meet, so you need to work just as hard as your broker and the buyers who sign the NDA to keep your for-sale status under wraps. Don’t tell strangers, don’t tell your friends, don’t tell your neighbors – you get the idea.

Are you considering selling your business and hadn’t thought about how important confidentiality is? Would you like to know more about how we market your business while maintaining confidentiality? Ask us! Leave any questions or comments and we would be happy to help.

Michael Monnot

941.518.7138
Mike@InfinityBusinessBrokers.com

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Selling your business can be tough. There’s the to-do list of getting the business and your books in order, the extra workload of providing everything a buyer asks for during due diligence and the stress of negotiations. At the end of the transaction process you have to hand over the keys to a business that has been your blood, sweat and tears – usually to a buyer who is essentially a complete stranger.

This last bit of the process, the part where everything becomes final, can bring out an emotional response that sometimes surprises business sellers. Those big emotions can be exacerbated when you really, really don’t like the buyer. Sometimes the distaste for a buyer can even derail a deal.

Here’s how to keep that from happening:

Is the problem is the buyer, or you relinquishing control?

Business owners are a particular breed. They’re decisive, strong-willed and hard working. Most have a type-A personality. This is a great personality while you’re in charge of your business, but it can cause issues when the time has come to hand over the reins. In the vast majority of cases buyers are going to come into a business and make changes. Changes that maybe you as an owner would never make – and the relinquishing of all control over the fate of your business can cause a seller to balk. You need to understand that not only are changes likely to happen, you are probably going to have this kind of negative reaction. Remember that just because the choices this buyer wants to make don’t align with your own – they are likely still a good buyer, perfectly capable of purchasing and running your business. Sellers who aren’t prepared to let go will often project their strong emotions onto their buyer, deciding that it’s the buyer who’s the problem. If you know going into the process that you might feel this way you can be better prepared to keep your big emotions from impacting your deal.

Is the problem a clash of personalities?

The transaction process can be a long one, sometimes forcing together two people who really struggle to maintain a professional relationship. Maybe you and your buyer have differences of opinion on how the business should be run. Maybe you and your buyer fundamentally disagree about everything under the sun. Wherever the clash of personalities comes from, it can be really difficult to remain objective during meetings, negotiations and the like when your buyer is someone you would never engage with in any other situation. If this is the case for you, slow down and take a breath. Remember that point of this transaction isn’t for you and your buyer to be best friends or work together forever. The point is to get to a closing table and get a financial return on all of your investment of time, energy and money that you’ve put into your business. It can be really helpful in the high stress moments to keep your eye on the prize. This type of situation is also where your business broker can be instrumental in the success of the transaction. If you don’t like interacting with the buyer – don’t. Use your broker as a buffer between you for as many situations as possible. 

It can be difficult to get a deal to closing when the parties involved aren’t fond of one another- but it’s not impossible. Think about where the animosity is coming from for you, remind yourself that this process doesn’t last forever and keep your broker in the middle.

Have you tried to sell a business and had personality issues with a buyer? Do you have questions about how a business broker can act as a buffer during the transaction process? Please fell free to share your experiences or ask questions. We would be happy to help.

Michael Monnot

941.518.7138
Mike@InfinityBusinessBrokers.com

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