Whether you're ready to retire or are simply in the market to sell, it's important to ensure you can sell your automotive business quickly and to the right buyer. Securing the best possible deal requires a few critical considerations.
Here, our experts at AutoCenter Sales will go through some things to consider while making a deal so you don't fall victim to two main reasons for business deal failures: miscommunication and misunderstandings.
Over Communicate Everything
When attempting to sell your business, ensuring that all information is in the open is important. Even if you believe that certain nuggets of information are unimportant, you should still disclose everything from unfortunate circumstances to misunderstandings. By doing this, you are completely transparent and can earn the trust of potential buyers instead of making them believe you are withholding information. Lay out all information, no matter how inconsequential you may believe it is.
Stay on Top of Your Business
Until your business sells, you should be actively maintaining your business practices to stabilize and increase its value. By staying on top of marketing, promotions, management, and business practices, you can work to ensure your business doesn't suffer during the selling process, which can scare off potential buyers. Until the day your business deal closes, you should be actively managing your business.
Prepare For Everything
As with most things in life, owning a business means preparing for the unexpected. Certain events can happen suddenly, and it's important to have plans in order. Business deals are similar to running a business. The unexpected can happen at any time, so it's important to always think ahead and anticipate anything to happen. It is useful to have an experienced broker on your side when you're in the process of a business deal to ensure you're covering all your bases so the sale does not fall through.
Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Automotive Business
The majority of pitfalls and challenges owners experience during the selling process can be avoided with in-depth education, which our team works diligently to provide. Which mistakes can wreck your business sale?
Poor Pricing: Do You Know Your Business's True Worth?
If you're selling your automotive business, chances are you'd prefer doing so at top dollar, right? Unfortunately, many shop owners simply aren't aware of their business's value. Instead, they operate from more of an emotional perspective when determining price. While you no doubt take pride in your business, and you might believe it's worth top dollar, the reality is this: Your business's true (monetary) value is based on quantifiable data, not an emotional valuation of its worth.
Ask yourself this: Would you purchase another seller's business at your intended asking price if that business had identical financial data? If that's a no, you may want to consider reconsidering your asking price.
To price your business properly, you and your automotive business broker must fully analyze your financials. If you're hoping to boost your asking price, you'll need to determine where your expenses exceed industry norms and brainstorm methods of increasing sales so your business is a more attractive prospect for potential buyers.
Focusing on Minimizing Taxes Rather Than Maximizing Profits
The more cash flow you can present to prospective buyers, the higher the asking price you can command when selling your automotive business—it's as simple as that. Unfortunately, though, the majority of business owners—and their financial teams—focus on minimizing taxes rather than maximizing profits. This can be a huge mistake if you're looking to sell your business for top dollar.
Here's the good news: When you work with an experienced automotive business broker, you benefit from industry-specific sales experience. A knowledgeable broker will have reviewed hundreds of automotive business financial statements and industry normative expenses. As a result, your broker can help you avoid recasting financial statements that might make it appear that your business generates less cash flow than it does.
Selling at the Wrong Time
If you happen to get lucky, you might sell your business at just the right time. But, if you're like most business owners, it won't happen at the perfect moment. Selling takes time, and there's no guarantee of how long you might wait. Unfortunately, far too many business owners wait until the last minute to list—when they're already severely burned out, their lease expiration is looming, business is slowing down, or they have a financial emergency. Don't make that mistake!
The best time to sell your business is before you really need to sell it, not when circumstance necessitates a quick sale. If business has been slow for months or years, you might want to offload but don't make that mistake, either. The slower the cash flow, the lower the true value of your business, so finding an eager buyer could present quite a challenge. Instead, focus on boosting your marketing and generating more profits before you put your business on the market.
Need help figuring out how to maximize your business so you can get top dollar for your sale? Our team at Auto-Center Sales provides industry-leading brokerage services and business education, so you can sell your business confidence and put more of your hard-earned cash back in your pocket.
Contact AutoCenter Sales Today
If you want to discuss selling your automotive business or purchasing an automotive center, contact AutoCenter Sales today to talk to an expert. Our team will listen to your history and aspirations and help you determine the best steps going forward. For more information on our services, give us a call at 1-800-874-5793 or message us on our contact page.