The BizSales Business Sale System
A tried and tested system for selling your Business

The BizSales Business Sale System has been tested again and again and has proved to be an excellent system for selling businesses. It has been used in dozens of sales and has been fine tuned to provide a simple yet effective method of selling Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs).

What Makes The BizSales Sale System So Successful?

Consider the Sales Process in Most Successful Businesses:

1. You promote your products or services to as many potential buyers as possible to generate enquiries
2. You then sell your products or services to specific individuals, negotiating the terms of the deal as appropriate
3. Finally you deliver your products or services.

The Process of Selling a Business

Selling a business is probably the biggest sale that most people make in their lives but the steps to do so are essentially the same as those set out in the preceding paragraph:

1. Promote your business as widely as possible and generate a lot of enquiries
2. Negotiate the terms of the deal with a number of serious buyers
3. Complete the deal with one chosen buyer

What Distinguishes BizSales?

Many professional firms can help you complete a deal. They can help produce "Heads of Agreement" and help you through "Due Diligence". They can help you produce a "A Sale Agreement". BizSales staff are also experienced and expert in these matters but we bring something extra - we are excellent at promoting your business and at generating prospects.

When you are selling a house the more people you have bidding to buy the house the better the deal. It is exactly the same when you are selling a business. The more buyers bidding against one another, the better the deal you will get.

That is what distinguishes BizSales. We can bring more prospects to the party, to help you get a better deal.

And something we forgot to mention - because we specialise in selling businesses we have practical experience of dozens of business sales. That experience can be used to help you negotiate and complete the best deal for you.

The Main Parts of the BizSales System

There are many steps during the sale of a business and the following can only be a brief summary.

1. Initial Seller Meeting: Initial seller telephone and physical meetings are conducted by the BizSales Broker to discuss the motivation for selling and the process of selling a business.

2. Listing Agreement & Data Collection: A Listing Agreement is filled out by the BizSales Broker and signed by the seller. The Broker collects detailed information about the business from the seller, so the Broker can answer queries from prospective buyers without constantly referring back to the seller.

As soon as possible after signing the Listing Agreement, the seller provides the broker with the following:

3. Pre-Sales: The BizSales Broker puts a valuation on the business and develops the "Sale Collateral" - important promotional items including the "Information Memorandum".

4. Marketing - A Crucial Activity:

• If the seller wishes, we publish details of the Business For Sale on our BizSales web site
• We send emails to thousands of buyers who have registered on our website (About 7,000 in Ireland and about 1,800 in Nothern Ireland; c 500 in overseas countries.)
• We send out personalised letters to a minimum of 200 targets in the same business sector as the business for sale
• We send letters to contacts in all medium and larger accountancy and solicitors' firms to see if they have any prospective buyers among their clients
• If the seller wishes, we advertise the Business For Sale in the Trade Press and in provincial / national newspapers.

Together these marketing activities normally generate a significant number of enquiries.

5. Enquiries: Enquiries are logged and potential buyers are required to sign a "Confidentiality Agreement". Typically serious buyers will ask for increasingly detailed information about the business. It is our job to facilitate these requests without revealing any trade secrets.

Potential buyers may visit the business covertly and discuss the information with their advisors. Meanwhile BizSales will be qualifying the buyers to ensure they have the resources to buy the business.

6. Negotiations: The BizSales Broker sets up meetings between potential buyers and the sellers to discuss details of the business and if applicable, the basic outline of a deal.

7. Letter of Intent: The Potential Buyer discusses the outline of a deal with the BizSales broker who facilitates the production of a Letter of Intent and formal offer to the seller. The offer must include a refundable reservation deposit (1% or £1k), held in trust by the BizSales Broker. The BizSales broker will present all offers to the seller.

8. Consideration/Counter Offer: The Seller will review the offer and decide whether to accept it or to engage with counter offers. When an offer is accepted the buyer and seller will agree the "Heads of Terms" and the buyer will be given "Exclusivity".

9. Due Diligence: The buyer now has a fixed period to examine the details of the business as presented by the seller - a process called Due Diligence. While Due Diligence is taking place advisors to the buyer and the seller hammer out the details of the "Sale / Purchase / Share Purchase Agreement"

10. Contract: Provided nothing irregular is found during Due Diligence, the sale and purchase can progress to the contract stage. All the details of the sale and hand-over plan are included In the Sale & Purchase contract . A final contract is agreed upon, signed and a Completion date agreed. A non-refundable buying deposit is paid by the buyer and held in trust by BizSales.

11. Completion: In the weeks prior to completion, both the buyer and seller work through the hand-over checklists until the Completion date (or earlier by consent). On Completion day, the remaining items such as keys, alarm codes, supplier lists, recipes etc are handed over, with the balance of the monies.

12. Close: On or shortly after the Completion date, the BizSales broker presents an invoice to the seller and receives payment.

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