Business Exits By Industry

Selling a Christ Centered Church

Few entrepreneurs relish the idea of selling a business in a struggling economy. Yet Christ centered churches continue to be sold at a brisk pace, outperforming the sales of many other types of businesses.

With planning and patience, most Christ centered churches can be sold for a fair price in the current business-for-sale marketplace.

Yet what many sellers don't appreciate is that a down economy can present the perfect opportunity to sell a Christ Centered church.

Preparing Your Employees

As a business owner, you want to keep you employees informed about your plans; as a seller it's in your best interest to keep your employees in the dark for as long as possible. You're concerned about confidentiality, and rightfully so. But sooner or later, employees will begin to suspect that something is up, especially when you start parading prospective buyers through the business. So at some point you will have to resign yourself to the idea of telling some or all of your employees that you have listed the Christ Centered church on the market. Your employees will undoubtedly have many questions about their future with the company. Try to answer their questions to the best of your ability, but avoid making any promises that you are not authorized to make.

Advantages of Hiring a Broker

A good broker can offer several benefits to business sellers. Right out of the gate, brokers know how to help their clients properly prepare their businesses for a sale. More importantly, brokers have the ability to identify serious buyers and maintain confidentiality throughout the sale process. Brokerage isn't cheap. But even though you can spend as much as 10% of the sale price on a good broker, you'll likely achieve decent ROI through an improved final sale price.

Pre-Sale Checklist

The upfront time you investment in the sale of your Christ Centered church will pay big dividends at closing. Perhaps the most important pre-sale consideration is to right-size your expectations to the realities of the market. Once your expectations are in the ballpark, you can move on to making your business presentable to prospective buyers.

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