3 Keys to presenting a business-for-sale in the material information buyers are looking for, while also retaining its confidentiality
But First, if you’ve come ready to Post a business for sale or to Advertise or Search for a business; if you know what you want to do and how to do it, just click Register or Login to get started.
However, if you’re just thinking about it or maybe not sure where to start; maybe looking for ideas or just to see what we’re all about, please continue reading this page to the end? Allow us to demonstrate for you how a good profitable business can be represented in the value of its own earnings; the information good buyers are actually looking for, both online and offline, and at the same time, how to retain its confidentiality.
Then also, under the Resources menu above, there is a library of information about business buy/sell processes and considerations that you might find helpful, and further, there is experienced assistance available to you at Business-Trader, should you seek it.
Buyers measure the value of a business in its earnings; past, present and projectable. Amongst the first things a buyer will want to learn about a business are of its sales and earnings; several years of sales and earnings, including the earnings from past years that are now retained on its balance sheet, for in that combination, for most buyers, resides its value.
Most business owners, concerned about the confidentiality of that information will tend to hold tightly to the very information good buyers are eagerly seeking, and will try to attract buyers with something less sensitive. But that something is apt to be less substantive as well, and a serious buyer looking for substance on which to begin to assess some level of interest, but not finding it, will very often just pass on by. Or similarly, when a buyer calls for more information and finds the business owner unprepared, nervous, fumbling and reluctant, that buyer might just move along also.
The fact is, a business broker or other third party agent is generally better positioned than is the owner, to make a good solid material presentation and keep it quiet and confidential, simply by issuing the information without identifying the business, and in that anonymity, is able to maintain the full confidentiality of that information to the sole benefit of the business and its owner.
Without such third party buffer, the owner of a business-for-sale-by-owner may feel exposed and may in fact be exposed while simply taking the first caller’s call. An owner fearing exposure to an unknown caller is almost certainly going to become tentative and uncomfortable when trying to respond to the caller’s questioning and or requests for more information … and that’s where the fumbling starts and from there, it will often continue until early and best opportunities have passed.
So, I purchased Business-Trader.com with a plan to redesign it for exactly the circumstance of that business owner, and we have recently relaunched in that newly designed format.
If you have a good profitable business you’d like to list and sell, and if you want your listing to be noticed quickly by best buyers, don’t diminish its presentation by withholding the very information your target audience is searching for, but retain its confidentiality in anonymity and present your business to in its actual sales, earnings and balance sheet. Below are 3 Key Elements to doing so.
1
Valu4Sale Ad Format
Designed to present the business online in its own, real and material information that good, serious buyers are actually looking for, while holding the identity of the business and its owner in anonymity in order to retain for the owner, the confidentiality of that information.
It should be noted, same anonymity is available in all Ad formats.
2
3rdPartyOnLine
Then, when a buyer inquires into the ad, and as the owner responds to the inquiry, all will be auto-mediated through Business-Trader’s 3rdParyOnLine, so that buyer and seller are free to communicate with each other, in questions, answers and in the exchange of additional information, all in that same anonymity and confidentiality for as long as the parties may choose; until such time, if ever, that the parties agree otherwise
3
BizBrokerOnCall
And then offline, a broker on call; available to an owner, with as much help or as little as may be needed. Feel free to explore the Resources menu (see upper right), where we describe the selling processes, all of which may be in your wheelhouse, but in case some may not, BizBrokerOnCall is a business broker available on call, ready to lend a hand.
Illustrated below are two online Ads representing the same business and providing a good comparison. If you were a business buyer looking for that good fit, which of these two ads would be more likely to grab your attention? If you click on them, they’ll open to full size.
Illustrated left is the ad presented in a Valu4Sale format in the ANONYMITY that frees the owner to reveal the real and compelling information the buyer is actually looking for, while at the same time, maintaining its full confidentiality.
To the right it is presented in an Ez4Sale format, in words and form typical to an ad found on a popular website.
You can open both by clicking on them, and within a few minutes, anonymity provided by 3rdPartyOnLine can be fully demonstrated,
Note: A member’s registration number is required in the intermediation processes. Thus, demonstration requires registration. Then, just follow the instructions at the bottom of each intermediated Ad.
A serious buyer is almost surely looking for a business that is profitable; probably looking also for a certain type of business, one located within a certain city or region, one priced within a budget range and one able to return the buyer’s investment over a reasonable period of time.
From day-1 an experienced buyer is looking for a business “that fits” in those ways particularly, and good fit is important to the seller as well. Both parties will want that fit recognized as early as possible, if indeed good fit does exist, but if not a fit, that to be recognized quickly as well. The Valu4Sale format provides for the “potential fit question” to be answered to a major degree, on day-1.
Just one more comment with regard. If your business is not a good profitable business, the Valu4Sale format it is not going to change that reality. In fact, it is not apt to show well at all in the Valu4Sale format. It would probably be better presented in the Ez4Sale format, where you can highlight the information you think will most effectively represent what your business has to offer. The Ez4Sale format has lots of capacity in which to present whatever information you’d like. Ez4Sale is an open structure.
Creating a Business-Trader Ad
Posting a Business-Trader Ad is for the most part pretty simple, logical, and easily navigated. If you don’t know the formats, we suggest you take a look at Sample Ads. If you have not already done so, before you can post, you’ll need to Register.
- Then, click on My Dashboard, select the Ad Format you intend to post and begin entering your business information into the entry form.
- Certain of the information is *required information and are so indicated. Other is optional, depending on the Ad Format you may choose to present.
- If you come to an entry that you are uncertain about, click Help in the Menu bar to read about the particular entry.
- If you intend to include financial data in the ad, you will want your financial statements nearby.
- If the narrative will be lengthy, maybe rather than direct entry, you might find it easier to write it elsewhere (in Word maybe), then copy it into appropriate sections of the business-trader narrative forms. Either way is okay.
- With those entries completed, click Next and you’ll be on the payment screen where you can simply enter Promo Code Get12Free or Get19Free if you are a business broker.
Thank you and we would wish you good luck at this point, except, generally it won’t be luck that finds a buyer and sells your business.
Are you a Business Owner, a Business Buyer or a Business Broker or Agent?
Business Owner-Seller
If you are a business owner, the 1-2-3 section to the left, is offered specifically for your information.
In our opinion, the needs and interests of the owners of good profitable businesses; “better businesses” are underrepresented on business buy-sell websites.
If you’ve spent time on business buy-sell websites, you’ll have noticed relatively few “better businesses” for sale by owner, due in large part to the lack of confidentiality in which a business owner might present the business, without unwanted exposure.
So today, let us show you how you really can make a material presentation, online to multiple buyers, while at the same time, retaining its full confidentiality.
Business Buyer
If you are a business buyer, then, just as you will be looking for material information from a business of interest to you, the business owner will be looking for material information from you also; … a description of a good business fit for you; your background; your capabilities, financially, operationally, and otherwise; … an exchange of information enabling both parties to assess the potential fit.
A business wanted ad can present your good-buyer credentials to multiple business owners, in as little or as much detail as you will, all in the same anonymity and confidentiality as available to business owners presenting their businesses for sale.
Of course, other options are yours as well. You may not care about anonymity for yourself. In fact, if your name is well known, your name might be all that is necessary for business owners who know of you, in which case you might want to identify yourself and withhold confidential information.
Or, you might hold it all until you’ve found a business of interest, and then offer your credentials.
Business Broker or Agent
We offer benefits to business brokers also. Currently, we will post your good profitable businesses on Business-Trader for Free. And, if you’d like to display your listings on your own website as well, we will provide you the links to do so, currently also for Free.
We offer two presentation formats; Valu4Sale and Ez4Sale. Valu4Sale best facilitates the presentation of a profitable business in the material information good buyers are actually looking for and frankly our recommendation. An Ez4Sale listing is apt to provide a less material presentation and elicit calls from an array of buyers; maybe a good fit, and maybe not.
The format option is yours of course, but 20 years of brokerage tells us “buyers are truly frustrated with the usual non-material listing.” Good buyers looking for a good business really just want to find it and get on with it. In our brokerage experience, representing a good profitable business in its own real and material information has been very well received.
If you were a business buyer looking for that good fit, which of the two would you be looking at?
Special Introductory Offer
The original Business-Trader.com had become an obsolete technology by the time we purchased the site, and has since been down throughout its redevelopment. Today, we are more than anxious to return it to good service and we offer these specials to help us get it all up and going again.
Business Owners Get12Free: Post your good profitable business-for-sale-by-owner for 12 months at no charge or until the business has been sold or until you discontinue the ad, whichever is first.
Business Buyers Get12Free: Post your ad in search of a good business, for 12 months at no charge or until you discontinue the ad, whichever is first.
Business Brokers Get19Free: Throughout the balance of 2019 and throughout all of 2020, post as many of your good profitable businesses for sale as you’d like, at no charge, and if you’d like, display them also on your own website, also for free.
Post your ad for free: Enter Promo Code Get12Free or Get19Free (as defined above) when you’ve completed the ad and have come to the payment screen.
Please Notice: We emphasize “better businesses” or good profitable businesses, because honestly, that is what we’re asking for. Lesser businesses already dominate other websites and that is not what we want for Business-Trader or for its Members, though it will mean fewer ads. Our mission is not a great many ads, but good businesses bought and sold.
These are limited time offers that will be withdrawn at some time, which withdrawal will not affect the terms of any of those already participating at such time, but will discontinue the offer thereafter to others. Such may occur at any time without notice, by deletion or modification of the above Offer(s).
Resource Menu
Business-Trader.com, a BC business buy/sell website since 1999
In the grey column to the right of this page, and every page, please notice a list of topics. Some describe options and features, some offer suggestions, and others simply outline how certain processes are apt to unfold. In all, we attempt to provide answers to questions we anticipate buyers and sellers will be wondering about. If you are a first time business seller, these are particularly meant to help you think and work through the entire process of selling a business, which is really quite unlike any other selling process. We trust you’ll find practical value in the how-to and how-not-to suggestions here simply for your information.
In particular, good serious buyers will be looking for and asking for material information, right from the start, much of which will be considered confidential information business owners will be reluctant to disclose at the start. Nevertheless, such is the very information that best represents your business and in the Why So Much Information topic; the first topic on the menu, we describe how to provide such information in anonymity through 3rdPartyOnLine intermediation, in order to at the same time maintain the full confidentiality of that information entirely for yourself.
For business sellers, we offer three different business-for-sale presentation formats, and for business buyers, we offer a new business-wanted presentation format. Once you have reviewed the Why So Much Information topic, the next topic; Sample Ads, will provide you with a visual illustration of each of the ad presentation formats mentioned.
And again, particularly if you are a first time business seller, we encourage you to invest a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the topics, and to think through the entire business selling process. The information, recommendations and suggestions offered throughout the topics come from real experience and are simply meant to help you to consider and navigate issues that you may not have encountered elsewhere. And then, if and when, if ever, you may want additional hands-on assistance, we are available and able to help you develop a plan and to implement it, and we invite you to Contact Us.
Business Valuation: In the Business Valuation topic, we describe and discuss the business valuation processes, balance sheet value, earnings value, multiple of earnings, goodwill valuation, etc., and through our BizBrokerOnCall program, we provide business valuation services; … your option of course.
The Buy/Sell Processes: Under the Buy/Sell topic, we discuss eight separate topics (as listed to the right) for your information and consideration. Click on The Buy/Sell Processes and you will find an introduction to each of the eight buy/sell topics, with each more fully described under each individual topic.
Seven Selling Steps: In our brokerage experiences, we have found a very logical and deliberate process to be beneficial and we describe that beneficial process in Seven Selling Steps. Click on Seven Selling Steps and you will find an introduction to each of the seven topical steps, again with each more completely described inside each of the seven individual topics.
Business for Sale Suggestions: In the business for sale topic, we describe and discuss the material business information buyers will be looking for, with suggestions as to how to provide such information in anonymity, both in the online ad presentation and thereafter. Topics under Business for Sale Suggestions include business-for-sale demo ads and the set of Help Topics for each of the ad formats.
Business Wanted Suggestions: In the business wanted topic, we describe and discuss the buyer’s material information sellers will be looking for, with suggestions as to how to provide such information in anonymity, both in the online ad presentation and thereafter. Topics under Business Wanted Suggestions include business-wanted demo ads and the applicable set of Help Topics
Resources
Buy Sell Process
Seven Selling Steps
Business For Sale Suggestions
Business Wanted Suggestions
To the Listing Site
Let’s get started creating your first Business-Trader Ad or find your perfect business!
Click Here