Below are explanations for the various fields you will be filling out when creating your for-sale ad.
*Required Field Ad Name WILL NOT be displayed in the Ad Posted.
In 30 characters or less in length, enter a short description or phase or name that you will remember and/or recognize. It will not be visible in the Ad but is intended for your convenience. Choose easy to remember key word or key words to search the website for your own Ad.
*Required Field The Headline WILL be displayed in the Ad Posted.
In 100 characters or less, enter a Headline Introduction to your Business-for-Sale. A search for a certain type of business will often produce a list of businesses introduced by Headliner only.
Example: Mechanical Contractor: $5,187,000 price includes $3,325,000 working capital and 33% seller financing
You may not have the detail ready right now to create the right Headliner. In such case, for now just Enter a place holder (such as the words “Place Holder” for example), then after you’ve completed your ad and have the info you want in your Headliner, just come back to this point and complete the Headliner.
*Required Field Advertiser Information WILL NOT be displayed in the Ad Posted.
The User’s/Member’s/Advertiser’s Profile has already been entered in Member Registration and will auto-populate this section. Otherwise, simply enter Advertiser’s Contact Information here now.
This information is necessary for site administrative purposes only and WILL NOT appear anywhere in the Ad you post.
*Optional Field
If you are an Independent Seller; a Business Owner selling your own business, simply leave Broker detail BLANK.
If you are a Business Broker or Agent for the Seller, and if your Agency or Brokerage Contact information has already been entered during the Registration process, just click “Copy Profile” and the Broker Detail will auto-populate. Otherwise, enter the Brokerage or Agency contact information here now. You may overwrite any entry in this section.
*Required Field
If Lead Contact information has already been entered in User Registration, just click “Copy Profile” and Lead Contact will auto-populate. Otherwise, enter Lead Contact Information here now and you may overwrite whatever may be here now.
IMPORTANT Lead Contact info WILL be displayed in the Ad. If you are a Business Broker or other Selling Agent, we suspect that you will want your Contact Information disclosed, BUT, if you are the business owner/seller of the business, you probably WILL NOT want your name to appear.
Business Owner/Seller: To preserve CONFIDENTIALITY, we suggest that you complete the Lead Contact section as follows:
- Name: Rather than your name, Enter “Business Owner”
- Email: We suggest that you obtain a new email account that will not be recognized by anyone and will not identify you or the company or the business; an “@gmail.com” account or an “@yahoo.com” account perhaps, just for this purpose.
- Phone: Provide a telephone(s) number no one will recognize; a new cell phone perhaps, just for this purpose.
Optional Field
If Alternate Contact information has already been entered during the Registration process, just click “Copy Profile” and Alternate Contact will auto-populate. Otherwise, enter Alternate Contact Information now and you may overwrite whatever may be here now.
If you do not intend to provide an Alternate Contact, simply leave Alternate Contact BLANK, or cause it to be BLANK.
IMPORTANT If entered or copied, Alternate Contact info will be displayed in the Ad. If you are a Business Broker or other Selling Agent, we suspect that you will want your Contact Information disclosed. BUT, if your Alternate is associated with the business, you probably DO NOT want the alternate’s name to appear.
To preserve CONFIDENTIALITY, we suggest that you complete the Alternate Contact section as follows:
- Name: Rather than the alternate’s name, Enter “Business Owner”
- Email: We suggest that you obtain a new email account that will not be recognized by anyone and will not identify the alternate, the company or the business; an “@gmail.com” account or an “@yahoo.com” account perhaps, just for this purpose.
- Phone: Provide a telephone(s) number no one will recognize; a new cell phone perhaps, just for this purpose.
Optional Field
Business-Trader.com identifies each business-for-sale listings with an ID such as S-41000123, as an example.
If you are a business owner/seller who is listing your own business on Business-Trade.com, when you receive response you will obviously know “what business” assuming you will have only one business listed. Thus, you will probably have no need to enter anything here.
On the other hand, if you are a broker or other selling agent, you could have several businesses-for-sale at any given time. When you receive response you may not know “what business” unless it is identified, and the Business-Trader ID system, such as S-41000123, may not provide most immediate recognition. In such case, we suggest that you add (enter) your own unique ID for this business.
Example: If your own unique ID for this business is 1234abc, then, the extended ID will become S-41000123-1234abc
Optional Field
There are two business sale structure options; Asset Sale or Share Sale. If you already know which of the two is right for you, simply make that selection here now.
Otherwise … If you don’t know which to select, or if you’d simply prefer not to specify which, then don’t select either. Simply leave the selector at “select one.”
Briefly however, for your information …
In a Share Sale you will actually “Sell the Shares of Capital Stock of a Corporation.” If the business HAS NOT been legally incorporated, then it is not a corporation, and therefore there will be no such Shares to sell and the sale will by default be an Asset Sale.
So, whether it is to be a Share Sale or an Asset Sale is really only a question when the business is a Corporation.
Share Sale means to sell the corporate entity itself complete with its balance sheet, which will account for every tangible thing the corporation owns and owes at the time of the sale. The owners of the corporation are the shareholders and in a Share Sale the buyer is simply buying out the shareholder(s) while the corporation remains intact and in position to continue its business activities without change, except it will be operating under new shareholder ownership.
Asset Sale means the corporate entity or other entity, or person(s) who own the assets, will be selling the assets of the business to the buyer.
There can be good reason behind either structure; generally tax reasons, and if you are unfamiliar with the issues surrounding this decision, we suggest that you make no decision at this time and that you seek advice of a qualified tax accountant.
Optional Field
If you know what year the business was founded, enter that year here now. If you don’t know the exact year, but do know approximately, then we suggest that you enter the year you think it was and that you clarify that date to be “approximation” in a later entry field called “Ownership and Reason(s) for the Sale.”
If you have no good idea when the business was founded, then just leave founding year blank, and we suggest also that you address that later in the “Ownership and Reason(s) for the Sale” entry field.
Optional Field
If the current owner(s) are also the founders, then enter the same year in both ownership fields. Otherwise, enter the year that current ownership came into ownership of the business.
*Country and *State/Province are Required – Others are Optional
Select the Country and State or Province in which the business is located. Those two selections are required, but thereafter, neither City nor Region nor Relocatability are required.
IMPORTANT Provide the closest proximity as will be SAFE to provide BUT, if you wish to keep the business anonymous at this point, take care that you don’t define the location so closely that location on its own or in combination with other information might provide the identity of the business.
Relocatability Your business might be one that a buyer would be interested in if it could be relocated. We suggest that you indicate if and to what extent you think your business could be reasonably and successfully relocated.
*Primary Business Sector is a Required Field – Others are Optional
Many businesses will be engaged in activities within more than one business sector or sub-sector.
In such case, we suggest that you select the business sectors and sub-sectors that have been and are currently material to business sales and earnings, but suggest also that you limit selections to just those that have been material to the business so as to not overstate and over complicate the business.
To complete the next section of the entry process will require some financial information from the Company’s Financial Statements:
- Annual Sales Revenue and Net Profit figures for each of the 5 most recent years. If the business is not 5 or more years old, then for as many years as it has been in business, and;
- If it has been 6 or more months since most recent Fiscal Year-End, we suggest also year-to-date Sales Revenues and Net Profits as at the last day of the most recently completed month.
Optional Field but REQUIRED if you want to incorporate the Sales and Earnings table and the associated graphic in the Ad posting.
Select the date of your most recent Fiscal Year-End.
If you select NO DATE the Sales and Earnings table and graph WILL NOT appear in the Ad posted.
Optional Field, but REQUIRED if you want to incorporate the Sales and Earnings table and the associated graphic in the Ad posting.
If you DO intend to incorporate year-to-date Sales and Earnings into this Ad, select the date of the most recent Month-End Year-to-Date.
If you DO NOT intend to incorporate year-to-date Sales and Earnings into this Ad, select the date again of your most recent Fiscal Year-End.
These two date selections will automatically provide the dating to the Sales and Earnings table and graphic.
If you select NO DATE the Sales and Earnings table and graph WILL NOT appear in the Ad posted.
Annual Sales and Annual Earnings Fields are Optional
If the two dates are selected, and if you have 5 years Sales and Earnings, or 4 years plus 1 year-to-date to report, then enter them beneath the appropriate dates in the Sales and Earnings table.
You can enter Sales and Earnings for fewer than 4 or 5 years provided there are consecutive most recent years, (or year-to-date).
If no entries are made to the Annual Sales Fields, or if either of the two date fields have not been selected, the Sales and Earning (ebitda) table and graphic WILL NOT appear in the Ad posted.
Selling Price and Balance Sheet Value Fields are Optional
To incorporate Selling Price in your Ad posting, simply enter it here.
If you DO NOT wish to post your Selling Price, enter nothing into the Selling Price field, and in the Ad, Selling Price will be “Not Specified”
Selling Price is often or typically calculated on the basis of a multiple of earnings, and will often or typically consist of two value components; Balance Sheet Value and Goodwill Value.
To distinguish Balance Sheet Value from Goodwill Value within the Selling Price, enter Balance Sheet Value here and Goodwill Value will be auto-calculated.
If you do NOT wish to distinguish between Balance Sheet Value and Goodwill Value, enter nothing into the Balance Sheet field.
Balance Sheet Value simply means the net value of the Assets to be included in the Selling Price, minus the liabilities to be included (assumed) within the Selling Price.
- In a Share Sale, net value would typically be the book value of such Assets to be included in the Selling Price, minus the book liabilities to be included (assumed within the Selling Price), both as properly recorded on the Balance Sheet.
- In an Asset Sale, Balance Sheet Value may instead be the net of the Fair Market Value of the Assets to be included in the Selling Price minus any Liabilities that might be included in the Sale. Balance Sheet Value in an Assets Sale may or may not be the same as in a Share Sale.
- Goodwill Value represents the “Blue Sky” value of your business; the intangible value of the business operation’s ability to do business and earn profits vss. the tangible value of its Assets.
If you DID NOT post your Selling Price, then in the Ad, Selling Price will be “Not Specified” and there will be no mention of Terms of Sale, and in such case, simply skip the next Terms of Sale section
Otherwise ….
Terms of Sale are Optional
If you DO intend to offer Seller Financed payment terms (or Vendor Take Back) ) to a qualifying Buyer for some portion of the Selling Price, and if you DO wish to make the terms offered part of your Ad presentation, enter the amount of the proposed Seller Financing here.
If you DO NOT intend to offer Seller Financed payment terms for any portion of the Selling Price, or if you DO NOT wish to disclose the terms you are prepared to provide, leave this field BLANK.
If you leave the Seller Financing field BLANK, the Terms of Sale fields will NOT be present in the Ad you Post.
Now, if you wish to add comment with respect to the financial aspects of the business, such as about is sale history or future sales projections, or about the company’s earnings or about the Selling Price or Terms of Sale, this section provides you pretty much free reign to write what you would like the reader to know and understand.
The final entry fields are open text sections where again you will have pretty much free reign to, in your own words and to the extent you think appropriate, introduce the business and/or the activities of the business to potential buyers.
Your comments will be unrestricted by number of characters or by any other pre-set size constraint, but we suggest you keep your comments brief and to the point.
These remaining entry fields include …
Business Description is an Optional Field. If you enter nothing into this section, “Business Description” will not appear at all in the Ad posted.
In this section you may want to introduce the business to its potential buyers. If keeping the identity of the business CONFIDENTIAL is important to you (and we believe it usually should be kept confidential), take care not to say what might inadvertently identify the business.
Included & Excluded is an Optional Field. If you enter nothing into this section, “Included & Excluded” will not appear at all in the Ad posted.
This is where you can enter (to the extent appropriate) the specifics about the Assets to be included with the Purchase at the Selling Price, as well as the Liabilities (if any) to be assumed with the Purchase at the Selling Price.
This is also where you might also want to describe certain Assets and/or Liabilities, (if any) that are to be excluded from the proposed Purchase and Sale transaction.
Market Description is an Optional Field. If you enter nothing into this section, “Market Description” will not appear at all in the Ad posted.
In this section you may want to describe where and how, in general terms, the products and/or services of the business are marketed. If keeping the identity of the business CONFIDENTIAL is important to you (and we believe it usually should be kept confidential), take care not to say what might inadvertently identify the business.
Ownership & Reason(s) for the Sale is an Optional Field. It is two-part.
Ownership: If you answered ‘Business Founded’ and ‘Current Ownership’ questions earlier, that information will now appear in this section.
Firstly in this section, add anything that you may need to clarify the ‘founding date’ or ‘current ownership date’ you provided earlier.
Reason(s) for the Sale: Secondly in this section, simply tell why current owner(s) is now seeking to sell the business, – such as retirement or illness or burnout or disinterest or whatever the reason(s).
But it’s Optional, and you may choose to say nothing.
Other Comment is an Optional Field.
If you enter nothing into this section, “Other Comment” will not appear at all in the Ad posted.