Managing the Process of Selling an Online Businesses

WebsiteClosers.com is a boutique brokerage that focuses on representing savvy Entrepreneurial Sellers of online businesses.   This article segment will focus on the variables that come into play that can affect the sale of your company. When you consider all the time and energy spent years developing your company and creating a successful, valuable entity that others would love to have as their own, now it is time to capitalize on all of that sweat equity and your achievements.  Having been involved in the development, purchase and sales of companies for over 20 years, we have found that selling an online business is anything but a cookie cutter process. Every company has many moving parts, including the good and that which could be perceived as not so good. Part of packaging a an online business for sale is to represent as it really is from the beginning. Not to hide the blemishes but to disclose all issues up front.

When a company goes under contract, it must survive the rigors of Accountants, Lawyers and Due Diligence. These are smart professionals that no what to look for. The object is to control these events and manage expectations.   First there is the element of the contract. It is important to cover as many variables as possible up front in order to avoid a prolonged negotiation that inevitably wears both parties down.

The second recommendation we make is to use Transaction Attorneys. We have worked with many very good attorneys in the past, so we can provide referrals for those who excel in this part of the process. The reason we suggest this level of professional assistance is due to the fact that the alternative is that right up front each party hires an attorney and one will draw up documents that will incredibly favorable his particular client much to the detriment of the other side. The response will be equally onerous and unacceptable. This can go on for weeks and at a very large expense. Each party feels that they are being taken advantage of, and this can create ill feelings even before the closing. A Transaction Attorney does not represent either side. He represents the transaction as a whole. His job is to take the Asset Purchase Agreement and draw it up is at is he feels it has been written and craft it as neutral and fair as possible. He then submits these documents to each party and at that point they have the option to take the agreement to their own respective attorneys and other professionals, as recommended, and tweak it to fit their individual needs. Each party needs to feel comfortable with this process and it is fully up to them to choose this road. However, the process of using a Transactional Attorney has been employed thousands of times in the past, and it works.  

The third method of managing the sale of an online business is to use those who specialize in Due Diligence. When a Buyer takes the information he has been provided to his an accountant, in most cases that person is not qualified to process the data properly. The accountant will do the best she can, and in order to cover her bases, in the event that something goes wrong, she will throw in a few caveats such as the price is too high or the risk is significantly high. This leaves the Buyer uncomfortable and the facts are he oftentimes was not properly advised. The role of the Due Diligence expert is to not sugar coat anything, but to validate information and expose any impending problems. The difference in using an expert versus a standard accountant is that an expert is trying to get the deal closed. If he spots a problem he will offer a solution to mitigate the issue that hopefully will work for both sides. In the end more deals get done by Managing the Process.

Should you have any questions about how this process is managed by WebsiteClosers.com, please Contact Us and we will provide as much data as necessary for you to feel comfortable with our time-trusted processes.