Top 10 Mistakes Made By Business Sellers

mistake

These are the top 10 mistakes made by business sellers:

  1. Neglecting the day-to-day running of their business with the reasoning that it will sell tomorrow.
  2. Starting off with too high a price with the assumption the price can always be reduced.
  3. Assuming that confidentiality is a given.
  4. Failing to plan ahead to sell / deciding to sell impulsively.
  5. Expecting that the buyers will only want to see last year’s P&L.
  6. Negotiating with only one buyer at a time and letting any other potential buyers wait their turn.
  7. Having to reduce the price because the sellers want to retire and are not willing to stay with the acquirer for any length of time.
  8. Not accepting that the structure of the deal is as important as the price.
  9. Trying to win every point of contention.
  10. Dragging out the deal and not accepting that time is of the essence.