The entire process follows these steps:

1. Review the advertising and email MBA Business Brokers.

2. MBABB will send out a confidentiality agreement.

3. You complete the confidentiality agreement and return it to MBABB.

4. MBABB will send you the address and the financial information associated with the location. The financial information will be summarized from internal franchise operating reports. The reports include sales and food costs. They also include royalties and advertising expenses. The remaining costs, such as rent and utilities are pulled from leases, bank statements, etc.

For those of you considering the purchase of a food business, there are many factors to consider. These factors tend to be a complex matrix of trade-offs among the characteristics of the model.

First and foremost, prospective buyers need to consider the trade-offs associated with different food service business models. Bear in mind, that there is no “good” or “bad” aspects. There are simply trade-offs.

What’s The Difference?

In an effort to define the difference between a sophisticated investment banker and a small business broker, I stumbled upon a lesson for those selling their own businesses. In a nutshell, investment bankers take the time to prepare before marketing a business for sale. Most business brokers and some business owners begin marketing the business for sale long before the preparation is complete. The results are disastrous.

Preparing the Business For Sale

Buyers come in every shape and size. However, their behavior can be categorized based on what the type and size of business for sale they look for.

Private Individuals

Individuals will often look to buy a business for sale with their own funds or borrowed funds from friends, family and/or perhaps a friendly bank. These folks range in experience and acumen and are difficult to categorize. Individuals that have owned or been part of a core ownership team are more likely to be diligent buyers of businesses for sale. Individuals working within a large corporate environment may not have as extensive experience in reviewing all facets of a business for sale.

Many private investors tend to rely on emotional attraction during their business for sale selection process. Because of their emotional bias, they are most apt to overpay for a business. Most small business brokers play on this emotional bias in attempt to get a private buyer to purchase quickly and to overlook key aspects of the due diligence process.

Understand Your Customer

A shrewd salesman puts themselves in the shoes of their customer. By better understanding your customer, the potential buyer, you are more likely to complete the sale of your business more quickly.

In the small business world, the owner is the ultimate representative of their business, regardless of any broker representation or service that you hire to put between yourself and the buyers. The buyer is taking a lot of financial and emotional risk and is likely spending the bulk of his lifetime savings to purchase your business. He will want to be extremely comfortable with your business and unless he has a deep experience in running a business like yours, he will want to be extremely comfortable with you. As the owner of this business, you must be prepared and have the right frame of mind if you wish to move the business off the market quickly.

One of the Most Critical Stages

There are many stages in the process of selling your business for sale. Although they may vary based on the situation, buyers will move through the following stages:

1. Initial interest. In this stage, the buyer has seen an advertisement for your business somewhere and wants to learn more. His interest is fleeting. The more information that you can present to him rapidly, the quicker you can move him to a more advanced stage.

Initial interest is best capitalized on by immediately providing a concise financial summary of the business as well a short description of the products, services, customers and suppliers.

2. Package Stage. In this stage, the buyer believes that what the business does and what the business earns fits his requirements. He wants to review a package that describes all relevant aspects of the business in a detailed and comprehensive fashion. Generally, he will do his own analysis of the macro and market factors affecting the business, and will match the results of his research with the information presented in the business package.

Introduction

Confidentiality is an important factor to consider when selling your business for sale by owner. Too little or too much secrecy can cause problems. You must consider all the constituents of your business for sale and determine which to inform so that you can easily facilitate the sale. This includes your employees, banker, accountant, customers and suppliers. You must also be prepared to execute a Mutual Non Disclosure Agreement between yourself and the buyer. This protects your information and theirs. Finally, be sure to provide copies of any requested information to the buyer and ask to have that information destroyed if the sale is not consummated.

Sellers Need to Inform Important Constituents

Once you have committed to selling your business, it is important to notify those people around you of the decision. Bear in mind that most buyers are going to want to talk to your key employees and want references from a few key customers and suppliers. Finally, your banker will like to keep the business and may likely be the best source of financing for the buyer.

Introduction

Purchasing a car wash for sale offers many advantages over building one from scratch. This article outlines those advantages, some of the realities and the specific circumstances that make for an ideal purchase are related below.

There are several models of car washes proliferating throughout the country and the world today. However, they can be categorized into three general classes; self service, full service and express car washes. Understanding the differences between these models will be critical is defining your selection criteria as you evaluate car washes for sale.

Paint and Powder Coating

Introduction

There are a fair number of businesses in the light industrial area that are for sale at any given time. Light industrial businesses have some appeal because they share some unique characteristics. The barriers to entry are moderately high, because most light industrial endeavors require are $200,000 to get started. The costs of equipment, payroll, insurance, building lease, etc. will create a demand for capital that many individuals cannot meet. In this article, we are going examine coating related businesses for sale.

Most consumer products have many parts and most of those parts need to be “coated” in one way or another. Coating the bare metal, wood or plastic parts may be done to improve function, aesthetic appeal or durability. In the businesses I have performed due diligence on, I have reviewed metal plating, paint and powder coating. I can save prospective buyers a great deal of time when looking at this class of business. As the result of reviewing several companies in each category (plating, painting and powder coating) I have reached several important conclusions.