selling a business?

[brent]

scared to even write this. but how does one thinking into retirement list or sell an office machine company? 32 years and I am tired. my dad had it since 1987 ish.
craigslist lol any thoughts on this also I seen another thread but it didnt say too much

thanks

[Larhal]

You can look in your area and see if a competitor is looking to expand.

[brent]

You can look in your area and see if a competitor is looking to expand.

the closest competitor is 46 miles away roughtly lol but yes I have been in contact with a couple different ones
but wasnt ready at the time

thanks

[copiertec]

Contact a business broker or two before you sell your business to make sure you know what it's worth because if you go to a competitor in the area they will offer you pennies on the dollar. You are selling your contract customers, basically, nothing more nothing less. Know the numbers of your business gross, net, losses, etc.. Also, it would not hurt to hire a good business attorney as well, so if competitors are interested and have questions your attorney will handle all of that, basically keep your mouth shut about territory, amount of employees, and the size of your business, etc. In the world of business you will be picked apart by what may seem like harmless questions, but it will bite you in the ass if not handled by your attorney and the proper legal paperwork, especially a good confidentiality agreement. Be smart, know your #'s and remember the old saying, " loose lips sink ships", that ship is your business and your future so any money you spend on attorneys and business brokers is well worth it.

[BillyCarpenter]

Years ago I was approached by a large dealership about buying my company. The dealership was in Baton Rouge, La., which is a couple of hundred miles away. They were mainly interested in our customer base. Eventually we made a deal but it was a pain in the ass.

It's been a while but some of the things they needed were:

- Profit./loss report
-- Customer List
Rental Report
Service Contract List
Current inventory report

[Mako]

The real questions are, what do you have to sell and who will buy it?

25 years ago the company I work for had three strong local competitors. One sold to Icon for $20 million at the peak. The second got into trouble and sold to a conglomerate of Toshiba dealers.

The last one was located about 10 miles from us and the owner died suddenly in his late 50s about 4 years ago and his sister was left to deal with the estate from 200 miles away. The employees tried to keep things going the best they could without leadership. We would have been interested in buying the business initially but as a year or more drug on their customers were already abandoning them and coming to us as their service response declined. After quite some time their business broker reached out to us and we looked at their facility, inventory, and book of business and it honestly the book of business wasn't even worth $150k to us and we had no interest in their facility or dwindling inventory. Ultimately we didn't even make them an offer, the business was shuttered and the majority of their customers have come over to us. Had they reached out to us to buy it right away we probably would have been a buyer.

When we looked at that business the key things we looked at were who the customers were and the age of the fleet of machines. What we found was they had few multi-machine accounts that we considered desirable who we weren't confident would come to us over time anyway. Worst of all, most of the remaining accounts were bottom feeders with ancient equipment we wouldn't want the service contracts on anyway.

My suggestion would be to reach out and work with a nearby dealer, reach out to a young IT guy in your area who might want to get into the business. Lastly you might want to work out a way to sell it to an employee if you have a manager or sales rep competent enough to run the business and if you own the commercial real estate, keep it and collect rent..

[BillyCarpenter]

The real questions are, what do you have to sell and who will buy it?

25 years ago the company I work for had three strong local competitors. One sold to Icon for $20 million at the peak. The second got into trouble and sold to a conglomerate of Toshiba dealers.

The last one was located about 10 miles from us and the owner died suddenly in his late 50s about 4 years ago and his sister was left to deal with the estate from 200 miles away. The employees tried to keep things going the best they could without leadership. We would have been interested in buying the business initially but as a year or more drug on their customers were already abandoning them and coming to us as their service response declined. After quite some time their business broker reached out to us and we looked at their facility, inventory, and book of business and it honestly the book of business wasn't even worth $150k to us and we had no interest in their facility or dwindling inventory. Ultimately we didn't even make them an offer, the business was shuttered and the majority of their customers have come over to us. Had they reached out to us to buy it right away we probably would have been a buyer.

When we looked at that business the key things we looked at were who the customers were and the age of the fleet of machines. What we found was they had few multi-machine accounts that we considered desirable who we weren't confident would come to us over time anyway. Worst of all, most of the remaining accounts were bottom feeders with ancient equipment we wouldn't want the service contracts on anyway.

My suggestion would be to reach out and work with a nearby dealer, reach out to a young IT guy in your area who might want to get into the business. Lastly you might want to work out a way to sell it to an employee if you have a manager or sales rep competent enough to run the business and if you own the commercial real estate, keep it and collect rent..

There's a lot of good stuff in there. You're either a manager or owner.

One thing I would add, if you're unable to find a buyer and you plan on going out of business, I would suggest trying to find another dealer to take care of your existing customers. And work with your customers to help make the transition.