Exit Planning Strategies

Selling a Vitamins and Food Supplements Retail Business

Few entrepreneurs relish the idea of selling a business in a struggling economy. Yet vitamins and food supplements retail businesses continue to be sold at a brisk pace, outperforming the sales of many other types of businesses.

Business-for-sale markets are less dependent on economic conditions than most sellers think they are.

The economy hasn't squashed the market for vitamins and food supplements retail businesses. Like always, unprofitable and poorly positioned businesses struggle to find buyers while sellers who have invested time and effort to prepare their sale are being rewarded in the marketplace.

Workforce Concerns

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. However, the longer the selling process drags on, the more likely it is that rumors will begin to circulate throughout your workforce. Consider informing your key employees first, followed by the rest of your workforce later in the process. Maintain a positive tone in your conversations and answer your employees questions as completely as you can without jeopardizing the sale.

Sale Costs

In a vitamins and food supplements retail business sale, pricing is based on a number of factors, including the costs incurred during the sale. Good brokerage takes a 10% success fee off the top of the final sale price. Professional consultations can also represent a significant expense during the course of a vitamins and food supplements retail business sale. Furthermore, your time has value, so you may need to include a personal compensation consideration in your expense estimates.

Before You Sell

There is a lot of work that needs to be done before you're ready to sell your vitamins and food supplements retail business. Perhaps the most important pre-sale consideration is to right-size your expectations to the realities of the market. After you have consulted with a business broker to right size your expectations, you'll need to add several items to your checklist, including financial statement preparation, pre-sale appraisals, financial planning, market positioning and other tasks designed to communicate value to prospective buyers.

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