Most corporations are distinctive, intricate enterprises that want a thorough comprehension of how the total is greater than the sum of its parts. You’ve owned a company for a while and are proud of your accomplishments, but you decide you need to sell your business for various reasons.
Why would you need a business plan if you want to sell your business? There are numerous answers to such a question. In some instances, your buyer himself might ask for a business plan.
Alternatively, a commercial bank might ask for a business plan to approve a loan that would pay for the purchase. Franchisees might also frequently ask for a business plan. Many investors agree to invest only in deals where they can review a solid business plan and only make a decision after that.
Start with an all-inclusive executive summary. Include how you will fund the acquisition, explain what you sell, and the details you want your buyer to know about your business.
Read on to see how to construct an organized business plan:
Products and Services
It matters what your business offers for sale. While you don’t want to divulge confidential information about your goods or services, you nevertheless desire to give your customers enough info. Hence, they fully comprehend what you have to offer.
If you run a restaurant or a store, this is the ideal place to display images of certain foods or products. Of course, how to run a service business and flourish is essential, but you need to also think about how to sell your service business smoothly. Tell your audience if you’ve considered expanding or adding additional things to your existing products or services. This can inspire a buyer to make a purchase. Maybe you’ve wanted to extend or expand a service or product line but had the funds to accomplish it properly.
Sales and marketing
Respond to these inquiries for your potential buyers:
- How do you spread the word about your company, its goods, and its services? Tell about the tactics you use.
- What are your brand’s positioning and definition? Remember that your brand is a valuable asset, so give it lots of thought.
- Do you use Social Media? Its significance is increasing with each passing year. Do you have an Instagram account running for your business? Any other social accounts? Does social media showcase some value to your customer?
- Are direct sales the primary source of revenue for your company? Do you use a specialized sales team? Is it efficient and working well? Exist any sales tactics that you could modify or incorporate later if you were to purchase the company? How about incentives for salespeople or bonuses?
- Are there any marketing techniques you haven’t previously employed that, if implemented by your new buyer, may benefit the business?
If this sounds like a bit too much to handle by yourself, we recommend you ask for help from a specialist to create a tailored business plan for selling your business.
Financial Reporting
To start your financial conversation, you should offer your actual balance sheet and income statement with understandable data visualization examples for the previous two or three years. Including an interim balance sheet and income statement might be wise if you are in the second half of a calendar year.
Using a balance sheet template, you can easily handle your numbers and ensure that you have all the information you need to monitor your company’s finances and stick to your budget. Some entrepreneurs will offer “adjusted or restated” statements that exclude their pay and benefits so that the buyer can see how the company operates without them.
Market Potential
Obviously, you’ll want to highlight the many beneficial features of your company in your business plan. The market potential is one crucial factor. The following questions should be addressed while discussing the market opportunity with your buyers:
- Why is the sector that your company operates in a good one?
- Why is your market expanding so quickly now, and why will it continue to do so?
- Who are your ideal clients? Do they represent customers or other companies?
- Are your market’s demographics significant, and if so, why?
- Describe how specific barriers to entry will keep you competitive.
Location
Do you have a single location where clients typically visit you, or do you have many areas? In such cases, you should describe your places, give addresses, including inside and exterior photos, and include maps. The same problems will arise when selling a piece of commercial real estate, like an apartment complex or a self-storage facility. You want the property’s location to be apparent to your audience. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how big a place is or what it contains. These kinds of details are crucial most of the time, though. We suggest you try and find the best task management software to gather, compare and contrast some questions.
For instance:
- How ample is the space?
- How many units are there?
- How about parking and proximity to the main thoroughfares?
Typically, each of these characteristics is significant. However, a fixed location is unnecessary for online enterprises and work-from-home firms and should be avoided.
If the property is rented, it’s crucial to provide information regarding the existing lease, such as how long it will last, how much it will cost, and other essential terms and circumstances.
Operations
Your business plan’s operations section will be crucial to your prospective buyer. The kinds of information that you should provide include:
- A thorough list of your equipment includes the types, brands, quantity, age, size, cost of replacement, and other information your buyer will want to know. Here, photos will be handy. Include the furniture, fittings, and computer hardware.
- Intellectual property and technology. Regarding technology, you should identify the software programs you subscribe to and how and why you utilize them. If needed, adjust and enhance your website software. For product businesses, it can be adding extra visuals. For a service business, you can add a virtual events calendar.
Your intellectual property contains things that are exclusive to your company or, in some cases, to you personally and that nobody else is allowed to use without your consent.
- If your facilities are extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, or crucial to your business, you should go into much more detail than you could have in the Location section. A single-purpose facility created just for your firm would be an excellent example.
- Your company might benefit from logistics. If your method of providing goods or services to clients gives you a competitive advantage, you should share that information.
- Other topics like product design, engineering, or manufacturing can be helpful if they apply to your industry.
Conclusion
Your business plan should represent the success and professionalism of your company if you are happy to own it. It should be just as professional as your company has always been.
We advise hiring a professional writer to write your selling memorandum or company strategy. Make it something of which you can be proud.