Recently, I sat down with Rita Coco to discuss the legal aspects of selling your business. It was recorded for WACA-TV, and if you want to know what is needed from a legal standpoint to sell your business, you can watch the episode here: https://vimeo.com/699551314
First, I wanted to thank Rita for having me on the program. Rita is a small business coach and consultant. For 21 years, she has made business owners more profitable. She has developed a True Business Ownership growth path with specific stages and best practices to get to each next level with ease. I highly recommend her to my clients and suggest you contact her at http://RitaCocoConsulting.com.
In the show, I focused on these points:
1) How to get your business ready to sell:
a. Get your finances organized and spend the time to work with a business consultant.
b. Get a valuation of the business to determine its worth.
c. Work with a business broker to find a buyer.
d. Hire me to ensure your governing documents are in order and assist you with the offer and sale process.
2) The sale process:
a. We determine if you are selling the assets or transferring the interest in the corporation or LLC to the buyer.
b. I draft the agreement and ensure that you have no further liabilities once you sell the business.
c. We discuss your staying on to consult/work and what a reasonable fee would be for that.
d. If there is a lease involved, that needs to be addressed and assigned.
e. We negotiate a non-compete and ensure it is not too oppressive if you want to continue in the same field.
3) Timeline:
a. The best practice is to involve me sooner rather than later, but in an emergency, we can work to get the closing done in short order.
I encourage you to watch the video to get a complete sense of what is involved in a sale. While this information just scratches the surface, I recommend if you have questions, or are thinking about selling your small business, contact me, and we can have a more detailed conversation.