How to Buy or Sell a Business (PDF)

The decision to buy or sell a business requires careful consideration of the many factors involved. If you are a seller, these factors include preparing your business for sale and finding buyers. If you are a buyer, they include Due Diligence, pricing and financing your purchase. Every day ownership of thousands of small businesses change hands. How do the people involved - the buyers and sellers - go about it? The decision to buy or to sell a business is a crucial one; one that may affect the course of their future lives. Yet a surprising number of them rush into transactions without adequate preparation. They arrive at their decisions guided more by emotion than by logic. While there is no guarantee of success, there is a guarantee of failure, if, at first, you fail to do your homework. Buying or selling is a complicated matter. There are problems of setting the price, finding prospects, evaluating offers and closing deals in a safe, legal and fair manner. There are pitfalls all along the way especially for the buyer. This book raises some important questions relating to the process of buying or selling a small business. It is directed especially to the person interested in buying or selling a single proprietorship. However, it may be of interest as well to those concerned with partnerships or changes in corporate ownership.