Moving Business For Sale

What’s the exit strategy for your moving business when you are tired of it or ready to retire? Ask most entrepreneurs and the top answer is “Sell it.” However most businesses aren’t built to be sold. Before you create an online ad saying “Moving business for sale” you should stop and evaluate the structure of your business and make sure you can get top dollar for the business.

What makes a business sell-able?

At the surface most business owners will say things like “profits, assets, market share,etc.” While they are right, to fetch top dollar and prevent an earnout your company structure and employees are just as important.

Interchangeable parts

Your business needs to be structured so that you the business owner can be replaced without impacting the business negatively. Many business owners are too integrated in the business and haven’t passed responsibilities off to employees properly. For Instance if 60% of the revenues are from the business owner taking calls the business looks a little scary to a potential buyer, at best case you will get an earnout deal where you will have to work in the business for X years to transition the company over and reach certain goals to receive a portion of the deal.

Next the business operations need to be well documented. If any of the key staff leave in the transition the company needs to be able to keep going. Ideally you shouldn’t need people with Super Hero abilities, you should be able to teach anyone to take over the job.

Big Accounts

A few clients representing large portions of your revenue is a red flag to buyers. If one client that represents 20% of their revenue leaves due to the transition that’s a big problem. It is preferred to have a lot of little client.

Lack of focus

Another red flag is to have too many service offerings. It’s preferred that you have a narrowly focused offering that is perfected and replicated. Other services means other distractions.

Take a good look at your business and imagine you were looking to buy it, would you?