Selling a business is not as simple as selling products and services. You will need to take a lot of things into consideration to make sure that you'll sell it at a fair market value. Here's what you need to do:

People to Hire

For your own protection, hire an experienced appraiser, a lawyer, and a certified public accountant. These people can offer you expert advice to make sure that you'll land a good deal. Your appraiser will help you identify the real value of your business.

The lawyer will help you draft contracts especially if the deal involves a huge amount of money. Lastly, a certified public accountant will help you prepare an adjusted balance sheet, tax returns, and statements of your income for the last 3 years. These are some of the documents that your potential buyers would want to see to get their needed financial information.

Documents

Before you sale a business, make sure that you review and organize your incorporation papers. These include leases, licensing agreements, permits, and vendor and customer contracts. These documents must be readily available and they must be current and in order.

Plan for Smooth Turnover

Your buyer will most likely to need your help in running the business once they bought it. For your own protection, I recommend that you draft a contract stating until when you are going to help them out. It would also work to your advantage if you can just assign some of your managers to do the legwork for you.

Get the Word Out

You would want to attract more potential buyers as much as possible. You can do this by advertising your business using marketing mediums that will allow you to reach out to those people who are most likely to make a good offer. You can create and distribute press releases or you can announce it on TV, radio, and newspaper. Make sure that you give your potential buyers enough information that can entice them to at least consider buying your business.