How to Sell a Niche Market Business

Selling an Environmental Health and Safety Services Business

The decision to sell your environmental health and safety services business isn't something that should be taken lightly, especially these days. If a business exit is on the horizon, you'll want to check out our suggestions for staying ahead of the market.

In a down economy, many environmental health and safety services business sellers wait to list their businesses until they see signs that the economy has rebounded, making it difficult to accurately evaluate the number of environmental health and safety services businesses that are actually for sale.

There is no simple way to sell a business. But the most prepared environmental health and safety services business sellers are achieving fair market value and more for their companies through persistence and the application of sound selling techniques.

Buyer Concessions

Most environmental health and safety services business sellers realize they will need to offer concessions to sell their businesses. But for every concession you grant, there may be an opportunity to obtain a concession from the buyer. Although this scenario frequently plays out around seller financed deals, it's possible to push for a higher sales price or other form of compensation if you agree to mentor the buyer for a specified period of time. Like seller concessions, buyer concessions should be addressed during negotiations, before the preparation of a Letter of Intent.

Sale Documents

In an environmental health and safety services business sale, the Letter of Intent contains the vital elements of the deal between the buyer and the seller . By the time the deal reaches the final contract, many of its features are set in stone. So after consulting with your broker and attorney, make sure you're comfortable with the terms of the Letter of Intent. If not, everything you do to close the sale of your environmental health and safety services business may be a waste of time.

Finding Prospects

Whether you know it or not, prospective buyers for your environmental health and safety services business are all around you. In fact, there is a good chance you already know several individuals or companies that might be interested in buying your business for a decent price. We frequently see qualified buyers emerge from the seller's network of business and personal acquaintances. In other cases, sellers take a proactive approach to finding likely buyers and contacting them directly. Competitors may seem like natural prospects and they are. The downside is that they won't pay top dollar and will probably absorb your company into their own.

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