Advice on Niche Market Exit Planning

Selling a Transit Lines Business

Planning and execution can dramatically influence the price you receive for your transit lines business.

Selling a transit lines business? You'll need to be prepared to address a variety of challenges that are common in the business-for-sale marketplace.

Transit Lines Business

You'll always have an excuse for not putting your business on the market. Selling a transit lines business isn't easy, but we believe sellers can achieve their goals in any economic environment.

Working with a Professional Accountant

Accountants lay the financial groundwork for a business sale. From a seller perspective, an accountant can offer personal financial assistance, especially when it comes to handling the disposition of sale proceeds. You may also want your accountant to assist in the preparation of professional financials to present to serious buyers. In many instances, your accountant will be invaluable in evaluating prospective buyers' financial position and buying capacity.

Sale Preparation Timeframes

There are no effective shortcuts for selling a transit lines business. Buyers want to see growth trends, healthy profits and other variables that increase the likelihood of long-term success. You'll also need to create financial reports, operations manuals, and other documents to create the perception of a turnkey transit lines business operation. Since all of this takes time and effort, a transit lines business can rarely be ready for the marketplace in less than six months. If you can afford to wait, we recommend investing a few years in improving your business's financial position before you put it on the market.

Buyer Concessions

In a tight economy, seller concessions are the name of the game. But that doesn't mean you can't push for buyer concessions to achieve a more favorable outcome in the sale of your transit lines business. 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.

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