If you are on the road to sell your business, you probably already know the importance of confidentiality when it comes to maintaining the integrity of your business. If you don’t, here’s why it is completely and totally necessary:

When the average person hears that a business is for sale, it immediately conjures the image that the business is in some kind of trouble – possibly teetering on the brink of failure. This is, of course, not reality – but this dangerous false perception can cause real havoc within your business if the word gets out that you are trying to sell. Think about what your employees will think if they think the business is about to close the doors. Think about what your competition might do if they think you are about to go under. You can lose vendors, contracts, future customers. Not good.

This is why, instead of trying to sell your business on your own, you really need a good business broker at your side. One of the major responsibilities of a business broker is maintaining that all important confidently – and therefore the integrity of your business.

How do we as brokers maintain confidentiality?

We ask questions, do our homework and we make people sign legally binding confidentiality agreements.

What kind of questions do we ask? The kind that will weed-out the sneaky, sneaky people who have no business knowing that your business is for sale.

We get a list of people from you that you don’t want knowing the business is for sale, like your current or former staff or a big competitor. We get the full name and physical address of anyone who wants to sign a non-disclosure agreement for your business. We “Google” people to find out if they really are who they say they are. We have multiple ways to research prospective buyers, and we use those research tools. By doing our homework, we ensure that your confidentiality stays in place.

Doing our homework also means we catch sneaky people, and we catch them all the time. Staff members who pose as someone else to find out if the for-sale rumors are true. The owners of competing businesses who have their parents or siblings call, pretending to be buyers. Real estate agents posing as business brokers calling on behalf of someone on the don’t-disclose list.

Our diligence when it comes to confidentially is what keeps your business safe. A buyer on their own probably isn’t going to know the industry well enough to know when someone is posing as someone they’re not. You aren’t going to have the time to properly vet curious potential buyers – you need to run your business and prep it for sale, both of which take enormous amounts of time and energy. Don’t go it alone and risk irreparably damaging your business. Having a good broker at your side is essential to keep confidentiality in place.

Do you have more questions about the importance of confidentiality or how we go about keeping it in place? Would you like to know more about other parts of the business selling process? Ask us! Please leave 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

https://infinitybusinessbrokers.com