Your dreams and passion helped start your business.  You have worked hard, made all the necessary changes, and took advantage of every business opportunity needed to make your business successful.  But over the years the amount of work and stress has made you think that selling your business is the best option for you.  With the global recession affecting everything, it is still a good opportunity to sell a business. You might even consider waiting until you believe the economy has recovered but there are necessary steps to consider while you prepare your business for sale.  Below are some important things to consider while preparing to sell your business.

1. Address all outstanding issues.  All businesses for sale or franchises for sale need to immediately resolve all pending issues and problems within the organization.  Be sure to speak to all business owners regarding the upcoming sale of the business.  Also to ensure a smooth transaction when you list your business for sale, have a buyer’s agreement and seller’s agreement in place before the sale is completed.
2. Organize all aspects of the business’s accounting.  Get all the financial documents updated so that the financial information presented to a potential buyer for the business opportunity or franchise opportunity is as accurate as possible.  Another important thing to consider is all the negative items on the books that will affect the sale of the business.
3. To entice buyers to buy a business consider providing finance incentives.  Work with business brokers to help identify potential candidates that might be interested in the business for sale or franchise for sale based on their financial credibility and their history in successfully running a business.
4. An important item to review with your business broker is the amount you should be asking for your business.  They will be able to provide you with a realistic view of the market conditions and at which price point you can easily sell your business.
5. Actively participate in the sale of your business.  Constantly communicate with your business broker at every state of the preparation to the actual sale.  They will be able to provide you with the marketing information necessary to attract the buyers and the proper way to answer question regarding the negative items on your financial statements.  Most importantly, once you have accepted a bid for your business, they will help you structure the final sales transaction.

While you are preparing your for the business to sell remember to keep the business running as efficiently and profitably as possible, letting potential buyers know what can capitalize on once they become the owner.

BuyTradeBiz.com is internet’s newest businesses for sale and franchises for sale listing website.  Designed using the latest Web 2.0 concepts buyers and sellers are increasingly adopting the site as their favorite platform to buy a business and sell a business.  Privately held BuyTradeBiz.Com, was founded by veterans of the software industry, to create a new paradigm for the business marketplace.

With the April 15th deadline quickly approaching, there are many tax breaks small business owners should know about.

1. First year profitable businesses can depreciate cost of business property and equipment purchased in 2009 up to $250,000
2. First year non-profitable businesses can depreciate 50% of their office related property
3. General business credit limit has been raised for non-profitable businesses
4. Work opportunity tax credit is available to small businesses who have hired employees that fall into “target groups who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment”
5. NOLs carry back allows small businesses to carry back net operating losses for five years instead of the previous two years.

Be sure to contact your accountant and ask about all the tax breaks your small business qualifies for.

The Small Business Administration’s flagship lending program backed twice as many loans in the past three months as it did a year ago during the same time period.

In the second quarter, the lending program processed 16,558 loans, more than doubling the loans offered in the same time period in 2009.  Overall in 2010 the SBA has lent out $3.7 billion.

For those considering starting a business or buying a business for sale, now is the time!

When the recession hit a low point last year many small businesses shed their payroll and didn’t realize they would have to pay unemployment insurance tax.  The tax increases will impact thriving businesses as they expand their payroll because they will have to pay based on their growing wages.

State unemployment insurance taxes are paid throughout the year, as owners pay their other payroll taxes.  States typically have a base unemployment tax, which owners will pay according to the size of their payroll.  But as a company lays off employees, it develops a negative “experience rating” that can boost that tax.

According to a survey conducted by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies numerous states are running out of funds to pay for thier out-of-work populations.  With jobless claims swelling and coffers depleting, at least 35 or the 50 states are hiking unemployment tax rates this year.

“The business that has laid off folks gets hit proportionately higher because while they pay less in total wages, and therefore less in employment taxes, their experience rating will go up and it takes numerous quarters of no layorrs to get that experience rating back down.” says Henry Paula, a tax principal at Reznick Group PC.

Now that Congress has passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and is now waiting for President Obama to sign it into law, many small business owners are wondering, “How is this bill going to affect my bottom line?”

For starters, the bill does not require any business to purchase insurance for its employees, but does encourage small businesses to provide coverage.  For small businesses that do provide it’s employees with coverage, they will receive a tax credit worth 35% of a business’s hearth care costs through 2013, and half of those costs for the next two years, provided firms buy the insurance on the new insurance exchange that will begin operating in 2010.  Small Business Majority founder John Arensmeyer, predicts that the cost for insurance for small businesses would drop 20% to 30%.

BuyTradeBiz.com, internet’s best new entrant in the business for sale and franchise for sale online listing service, continued to increase in traffic to its site. The site broke through the 70,000 mark for US sites in Alexa within 8 months of launch of the site. In addition the number of unique and repeat visitors continues to grow rapidly.

The number of businesses listed on the site has reached 2,700 and continues to increase daily. The number of brokers that have listed with site has been increasing steadily. The number of franchise opportunities that are listed in the site has also increased in the site showing the effectiveness of the company’s very active marketing campaigns. In Nov 2009, we attended the IBBA show in Reno, Nevada for the first time and received a lot of recognition from the broker community.

In 2010, we started to roll out a new Marketing Campaign that helped increase our presence within Social Media and continually increase our search engine ranking. We have introduced a Winter Promotional Offer where Business Brokers can register and renew their membership for $199 which includes a full year’s Featured Broker Membership and all the benefits the featured membership offers.

“The sites increased marketing efforts are being noticed within the Broker community. We have noticed the increase in number of views and inquiries of our business opportunities we have posted on this site”, says a leading business broker. In addition, Franchisors appreciate the sites clean design and highly navigable interfaces. “With our organic search results increasing everyday, it is helping us drive more Buyer traffic to the site. We have also increased our marketing efforts to help generate additional traffic. Be sure to look for us at the Spring 2010 IBBA conference in Orlando, FL!” said Sweta Shah, Marketing Director for BuyTradeBiz.com.

BuyTradeBiz.com is internet’s newest businesses for sale and franchises for sale listing website. Designed using the latest Web 2.0 concepts buyers and sellers are increasingly adopting the site as their favorite platform to find a buy a business and sell a business. Privately held BuyTradeBiz.Com, was founded by veterans of the software industry, to create a new paradigm for the business marketplace.

Have you ever heard the cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words?  Online, that picture may be worth quite a bit more because of two interesting facts that most small businesses never consider when promoting their products or services online.

Google presents something called blended search results, which means they show images and videos alongside thext links for ANY search conducted through their site.  It is much easier to get an image to the first page of Google that it is to get any kind of text link or website.

If you consider both of these facts, along with the obvious fact that photos can tell a story about your business in a way that even the best written marketing language cannot, it should come as no surprise that having images as part of our web marketing of your business is quickly becoming imperative.

• Re-title your files: rename your image files to something meaningful like “business_for_sale.jpg.”  An image title that uses keywords is the first to optimize your images online.
• Add an image gallery:  The benefit of having these images directly on your website, is that they are linked to your main URL and this is beneficial from a search point of view.  The other positive is that you can link to share with anyone.  The other search tip for these images is that you should be sure to add “alt text” which is the text added in the code behind your image so that you describe it for those who cannon see it for any reason.  Search engines also read this text to understand what the image is of.
• Promote the images: you will want to try and share your images anyplace your business has an online profile.

Many small businesses have completely ignored online images area of marketing that could have a huge impact on their bottom line.

With more than 400 million users and increasing everyday, Facebook.com is one of the most powerful social media platforms around.  Facebook advertising platform is very similar to Google Ad sense; it displays ads on the right side of the screen allowing users to find out more information regarding the company/product.  There are a few more advantages to advertising on FAcebook, such as:

1. Target: The ad can be targeted towards the audience by gender, education, relationship status, workplace, and keywords.
2. Engage:  If you are promoting a page of event, Facebook will add the “Become a fan” or “RSVP to this event” button on the ad, therefor the users don’t have to leave their current page to engage with you.
3. Budget: Ads are shown based on cost per click model or cost per thousand model (pay per 1,000 ad views).  Depending on your ad the CPM model might work better for you.

Social media is evolving everyday, why not take advantage of it when you can and list your business for sale?

Can You Get a Top Price for Your Business In a Down Economy?

You didn’t get to be the owner of a successful private company by following the crowd.  You instinctively found opportunities to prosper within every crisis you faced.  Now, you are considering selling your company to perhaps, spend more time on Cape Cod or restoring that ’55 T-Bird that’s been collecting dust in the back of the shop for years now.  But, with the economy in the shape it is, doubtless best to put any plans of selling on hold for awhile until things turn around. Right or wrong?

Good News
Our experience selling businesses more than 2,000 businesses over almost thirty years through the best and worst of times is that private companies’ valuation methods do not change during a recession. In fact, a down economy might be the best time to sell a good company!

Here are some of the reasons why:

• Savvy individual and corporate acquirers understand that the best way to grow is through acquisition of profitable companies that will help their core business prosper.  They realize they must take advantage of an opportunity when it’s available or risk losing it altogether.
• Fewer profitable companies are on the market in poor economic times primarily because business owners who, under normal conditions, would be selling their businesses are deferring a sale because conventional wisdom dictates that “you can’t get a good price in a down market.”
• Serious buyers are constantly in search of quality acquisition opportunities.  The number of Main Street and middle market business buyers increase as more and more people are laid off and/or outsourced.
• You can get tomorrow’s price today for your business if you choose a buyer who recognizes the opportunity your business represents and considers expectations of future profitability when assessing value.

In order to obtain an optimum price for a business, regardless of the economic condition, one must attract the type buyer who will recognize the opportunity the business represents.  In real estate, optimum value is determined by the entity that will recognize highest and best use of a property.  Business prices typically reflect an acquirer’s perception of future earnings under their ownership. Therefore, the optimum value of a business is determined by the buyer who recognizes the most opportunity the business represents.  A business can be considered worthless to one yet be worth millions to another.

How to Identify Your Ideal Acquirer

There is no substitute for real world experience when it comes to differentiating between buyer types and determining how various issues surrounding your business and industry will impact their perception of value.  Public companies call upon their Investment Banker to obtain the pre sale intelligence required to make informed decisions.  Private companies can call upon their Business Intermediary to obtain the same kind of information.  The first step is to engage a Business Intermediary (Broker) who is familiar with the marketplace for your size and type business.  This professional will employ a two step approach to the process i.e.:

Step One – Provide you with:

• An overview of marketplace dynamics, a description of the different buyers, how they think and how their thinking impacts the value of your company.
• A summary of what buyers can be predicted to pay for your business,
• A list of recommendations both long and short term to enhance and increase your company’s value – in other words, be sure that a satisfactory outcome is obtainable before you bind yourself to a contract to sell.

Step Two – Once satisfied that you can obtain your price, even in a down economy, you authorize marketing efforts to begin.

• Marketing and Due Diligence materials are created and assembled
• Advertising and other marketing strategies are implemented to attract your ideal candidate
• You will know everything of importance about your candidate before they know your company’s identity
• Your business is sold at your price, typically with three or less exposures

In Summary:

Business pricing methods remain unchanged even in a down economy; fewer profitable companies are on the market, the number of serious buyers in the marketplace increases in a down economy, savvy business owner’s know Only the Right Buyer will pay the Right Price and; you should not attempt to sell unless you are sure you can get your price no matter what the economy.

Author: Theodore P. Burbank, FIBBA, CBI

For many mom-and-pop shops with no ad budget, Twitter has become their sole means of marketing.  It is far easier to set up and update a Twitter account than to maintain a web page.  Twitter is a way for small business owners to talk directly to customers in a way that they were able to do only in person before, this helps to shorten the emotional distance between businesses and their customers.

Twitter is the digital manifestation of word of mouth, allowing users to broadcast messages of up to 140 characters in length, and the culture of the service encourages people to spread news to friends in their own network.

Twitter is not just for businesses that want to lure customers but it can help find both suppliers and customers nationwide.  It can give a small business national presence in a way only large marketing and advertising budgets have allowed in the past.  Twitter is also a great place for information.  For example you can learn business tax tips from an accountant, marketing tips from a consultant in Tennessee and start-up tips from the founder of several tech companies.

Click here to create your free Twitter account today and start connecting!