If you live in a seasonal area, then you understand the flow of money in your business community.

For instance, the many beach communities of southwest Florida are completely dead in the summer when the heat soars – but come October when the weather up north starts to turn cold – it feels like the population multiplies by a factor of five. Restaurants that had four tables total on a July Saturday night now have a two hour wait on a December Tuesday.

Businesses in seasonal communities understand the ebb and flow throughout the year – working incredibly hard during the peak months in order to survive the bleak off-season.

When the time comes to sell a business like this, it can be challenging to show a potential buyer who isn’t from a seasonal community how well your business is doing when it looks like you teeter on the brink of bankruptcy for half of the year. How do you communicate your seasonal books without scaring buyers away, especially buyers from an area very different from yours?

For starters, you need to have legible books they can look at. A huge box of crumpled receipts shoved under your desk is not going to communicate your seasonal business success. Putting your books in order will help immensely in showing your business in the best light possible. Decent financial records will also help you demonstrate that while your business does terribly in the off-season, the other half of the year more than makes up for the slow times. The ability to show this seasonal fluctuation year-over-year, and the ability to show the business continued to grow year-over-year amid those seasonal fluctuations will put a buyer’s mind at ease.

Another valuable tool for properly communicating seasonal fluctuations is an experienced business broker who knows seasonal businesses. They will be instrumental in getting buyers from a non-seasonal area to understand your business and the numbers you generate throughout the year.

The important message here is you can absolutely show the strength of your seasonal business, you just need good books and some experienced help.

Are you the owner of a seasonal business who needs help making their books look good to an out-of-town buyer? Do you want to know how to impress upon buyers the actual health of your business when they’re looking at it in the slow season? Ask us! Leave any questions or comments here and we would be happy to help.

Michael Monnot

941.518.7138
Mike@InfinityBusinessBrokers.com
12995 South Cleveland Avenue, Suite 249
Fort Myers, FL 33907

www.InfinityBusinessBrokers.com