Terrible timing

At the end of last year I cancelled Suitegum’s involvement in a sale of a business.

It was a desperate sale, and taken on by us with some convincing by the sweet talking sellers who, as it turns out, were desperate to put something over their eventual buyers, the intermediaries and the banks. Several promises to us had been broken.

• Economy of truth had become a tradable commodity.
• Financial rectitude was in short supply.
• The blame game had been wheeled out as the main attraction.
• To my own fault – we are just no good at dumping businesses at short notice.

In the sale of a business, time has to be the friend of the seller. Opportunity and fortune are built around not being in a panic, but on building a solid selling foundation and creating a need for buyers. Much more than simply a perception of value of the quick sale. Sellers need provable evidence of value.

More than ever, capable and willing investors are able to shop around for deals that offer good value. They know this. So they are quick to move on from anything that provides any doubt at all.

Hang on… That sounds like the way you have built your business to sell your products and services, doesn’t it? That has worked for you until now, right? So why stuff up the eventual goal in this business enterprise, and try to sell it out of a bakkie parked at a petrol garage on a Saturday morning with some slight of hand and good sales patter?

The ultimate goal of every business owner should be to sell his business for the best price possible. When he does so, the business will be subject to scrutiny from unknown people with acceptable money. They will look carefully at what they are buying. Quick patch jobs will be evident as they twist and turn the thing you want them to buy.

That is also what your business is set to be one day – another product on the shelves for business buyers to put down in favour something more appealing. Get their interest, keep their interest. Build the evidence on a solid foundation which will stand up to scrutiny.