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Length of Time to Sell Your Online Business and Keeping It Confidential

Posted by Justin Harris in Articles
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Many people choose to use the services of an online business broker for a variety of different reasons. Even if you are new to the concept of hiring a website broker to assist with the sale of your online business, scheduling a consultation today can help to clear up many of the most common misconceptions or questions that you might bring to the table. Two common issues presented by many sellers of an online business is how to keep the news of the sale confidential and deciding how long it might take to sell the business.

Let’s talk about the length of time it will take to sell your online business first. Small businesses that are appropriately priced can sometimes be sold in as few as three months. With proper pricing, it often takes a year longer to sell the business. One of the first questions is about how long it could take to sell your business. If your business is priced appropriately, and it’s smaller and doesn’t require as thorough due diligence, you could have your business sold in three months or less.

Sometimes, even with correct pricing, it can take as long as a year to sell the business. This might initially seem like a lot of time, but when you step back and look at all of the different stages of the transaction, including listing the company for sale, finding and interviewing potential buyers, drafting up contracts and agreements, getting the proper financing from the buyer, carrying out the due diligence process and closing, all can be time-consuming. If the buyer and seller are not willing to compromise without the assistance of a negotiation expert such as a business broker, this process could take even longer. More buyers will be interested if the seller is willing to accept a less than half percentage as a down payment.

One of the biggest reasons for using a business broker or using an intermediary is to keep the sale of the business confidential. Every person that enquires about the company will likely sign a confidentiality agreement. This is known as an NDA or non-disclosure agreement. Some buyers will also need to submit basic information about their background and financial details. This is to determine whether or not the buyer truly has the ability to buy the business. If there is a lot of atypical or unusual behavior, the business broker might still flag the transaction as questionable.

When you’re going through this process on your own, it can be overwhelming to evaluate the various types of sellers and to figure out whether or not someone is truly interested in purchasing your company. You can remove a lot of the guesswork by partnering with an experienced and knowledgeable business broker who has extensive experience with everything, from getting business valuations down to carrying your business through the closing process. Setting the value of the business is one of the most important and first stages in the steps involved. Business values are based on the ability of the company to generate cash flow, its reputation and traffic, assets and relative risk of the business. A valuation takes all of the various factors into account.

 

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