2. You will likely have no backup buyers, as it is a monumental effort to handle just one interested buyer. What if your interested party changes their mind and you’ve done all this work for naught? It happens all the time, for all kinds of reasons.
3. Do you truly have any idea what a fair valuation is for your business? The truth is that it is impossible to know, because (a) you aren’t in the market every day, and (b) the market is what the market will bear, and the only way to find out is to approach multiple groups and create some competition for the deal.
Unfortunately, despite being on the wrong side of this equation, many LBM owners attempt to cut deals on their own. I can assure you that for every deal you hear about that works out, the vast majority don’t. The deals that do get done, aside from rare cases, the seller usually loses and might not even know it.
Owners laugh about finance types who come into the LBM space thinking they will teach us a lesson or two. How many have failed miserably? Keep this in mind as you tread into their area of expertise. These are people who have spent years learning how to cut financial deals that benefit the buyer, not the seller.
When you truly are ready to sell your business, my advice is to hire someone (even if it isn’t us) who knows what is going on in the LBM deal market, and who can bring a high level of deal-making horsepower to your side of the table. The cost to keep buyers honest and run a sophisticated sale process will pay for itself many times over.
Knowing that you got the best deal possible will feel better than telling your industry friends you did it all on your own. You (usually) only sell your business once in a lifetime. Get it right.