Preparing Businesses for Sale – A Broker’s Holiday Tale

Whether your phrase of choice is Merry Christmas, Habari Gani, or Happy Hanukkah, we wish each and every one of our Buyers and Sellers a season’s greetings.  Many celebrate by spending time with their families, shopping for holiday gifts, or merely relaxing by the fire as a busy year winds down.  How do business brokers celebrate the season?  By feverishly preparing a brand new batch of businesses for sale in 2019!

Most Buyers and Sellers don’t realize the immense amount of detail work an Agent performs preparing a single business for sale.  Here’s a look at the process from our perspective: when we take on a Listing, we’re now responsible for presenting your business to thousands of qualified Buyers.  Coming up to speed is a lot of work!  Often, we have several years of financials (profit & loss statements, balance sheets) to review for accuracy, profitability, and pitfalls.  We review your lease, looking for the good and bad.  Reviewing business taxes to understand and determine how best to communicate the data to our Buyers.  Agents evaluate the current state of the business, looking for its’ best selling points and discussing / strategizing over anything that might be a roadblock to a sale.  We then package all this information so it is digestible by our thousands of qualified Buyers.  Yes, it is an awful lot of work, ranging from several weeks to several months worth of preparation for each and every Listing.  But hey, that’s what we do!

We pride ourselves on the vetting our Agents undertake to help Buyers and Sellers navigate this process, whether the business has been in operating for 40+ years or is an asset sale.  Each Listing was cared for by one of our talented, experienced Agents -- yes, even in 2019, human capital still remains our most valuable asset.  So when you’re browsing through our business Listings, rest assured that each one has been vetted by a BottomLine professional.

Stay tuned to our blog in 2019 – We’re just getting started, and you’ll hear from us regularly.  We will provide lots of advice from years of experience, business stories so unusual they could only happen in the real world, accounting insights, legal lingo, and much more more.

Have a Happy Holiday Season!

Sean Edelstein

Founder, BottomLine Business Brokers

Greetings!

Many of you may be brand new to BottomLine, while others have been following our listings (and buying and selling businesses with us) for nearly two decades now.  Novices and seasoned veterans alike, welcome!  Regardless of your expertise or seniority, if you're reading this blog, the magic of Google and the Internet has once again led you to the right place.

Take a few moments and tour our spiffy new website.  If you're new to business brokerage, learn what commonly goes through the minds of our Buyers and Sellers.  Get an overview of the deal Process, or get answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions.

Alternatively, you can dive straight in to our Listings and browse away.  Look all you'd like, but you'll have to login in order to get the specific details; sign up if you don't already have an account.  You'll be asked to sign our Non-Disclosure Agreement (online, of course) if we don't have one on file for you.  One of our listings may just be the business opportunity you've been looking for!

I'll write again in the next week or two, and share what the holiday season really means for BottomLine Agents … it’s anything BUT calm and relaxing.  Here's a spoiler: “Holiday Season 2018” === “Working Feverishly to Prepare the best Businesses for Sale in 2019”. 

Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who celebrate; we appreciate your loyal following over the years.  Enjoy the time with friends and family; may all the good things of life be yours, not only at Thanksgiving but throughout the upcoming year.

Sean Edelstein

Founder, BottomLine Business Brokers