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With all of the online options at our fingertips these days, it is easier than ever to sell things. You can buy everything from a couch, to a car, to a house just by listing them online. In these days of the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) posts, wouldn’t it just be easier to try to sell your business this way and save yourself some money on broker commission? Since you’re still reading, you probably have a nagging feeling that the answer might be “no”. Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Selling your business needs to be confidential so that you don’t disrupt your business and harm it’s value. Employees, vendors, customers, and competitors all get nervous when they hear you are in the market to sell. Not sure how to maintain confidentiality if you are doing a FSBO deal online?  Us either.  For a more detailed explanation of why confidentiality matters, check out this previous newsletter.
2. It can greatly impact your business’s value. About a year ago we valued a business and, while appreciative, the owner decided to go the FSBO route and work on their own to try to find buyers and sell the business that way. They grabbed a megaphone and shouted it from the electronic rooftops. Unfortunately, they weren’t successful so they came back to us and we valued the business again. The value this time? 30% less than the previous year. The owner had spent so much time trying to sell the business that they weren’t able to put the usual amount of effort into running and growing the company. When you partner with a business broker, it is our job to make the process of selling as easy as possible on you so that you can keep the business healthy which attracts potential buyers.
3. Selling on your own can drastically increase the amount of time it takes to sell the business. As brokers, we have access to all of the online business sale websites that you are probably thinking of and many more resources to find buyers that non-brokers don’t have. Not to mention that many savvy and sophisticated buyers have been burned working directly with sellers who don’t know how to sell a business, so they simply avoid those listings. The average length of time on the market for a Murphy Business listing is 9 months (much faster than other brokerage groups, and much, much faster than FSBO).

When you’re ready to sell your business, contact us. We’ll do what we do best so you can keep doing what you do best: running your business.