How can I sell my business for profit?

I need advice on creating an effective exit strategy for my business. Here are my questions: How should I set-up my business to attract buyers? What are legal requirements in selling my business? How can I sell my business for profit?

Answer: Here are three factors to consider that will help to determine if your business could be sold:

1. Business structure: An LLC is a suitable structure when developing a business for a future sale. However, it also important to note that many small business purchases are structured as asset-only sales, which means that an eventual buyer might not want to buy an LLC entity. The structure of the business being sold (assets or equity) also affects the paperwork and legal requirements.

2. Legal requirements: When you are ready to sell, your lawyer can advise you on the sales contract, regulatory filings, and the other potential paperwork and legal documents required to sell your business. The following information explains the potential legal, financial, and other due diligence issues in business sale transactions:

• Buying a Business: Due Diligence Checklist: findlaw.com
• Buying Existing Businesses: sba.gov
• Sample Due Diligence Checklist: t-tlaw.com

3. Selling a business that turns a profit: The basic way to build the value of a business is to grow the sales, profits, and cash flow. Also, the sales trend, business asset values, quality of the customer base, long-term customer contracts, quality of the employee staff, competitive status, and other factors can affect a business value.

4. Business exit strategies. Selling a business is one exit strategy; however, the following are example articles on other business exit strategies to consider:
Getting Out: sba.gov