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How The Service Works

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1. Setting Your Price-Range

Experienced Business & Franchise Brokers

Getting your price right is a critical component to selling a business. Too low and you undersell, but too high a typically buyers won’t make offers.
If you know what price your business is worth, that’s great. If not, we can help.
First request a few pieces of information about your business. Once received, we create and send to you your appraisal summary. This contains the breakdown of three different appraisal methods. We will then talk you through it.
 
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Absolutely, our brokers have decades of experience in business and franchise sales and they’re waiting to help. We provide a free no-obligation appraisal, just head on over to our Contact Page “Book Free Appraisal” or send us a message and we will be happy to call you back.

You sure can. But remember, meeting the market’s pricing is important, but the time it takes to sell isn’t always correlated with your price. Sometimes it’s just about finding the right buyer. Either way, we are here to advise you should you want to discuss changing your price. 

Firstly, you have a choice to advertise using one of the following pricing strategies.
• A fixed price on your sale ($xxxxxxx negotiable),
• Offers over price, (Offers over $xxxxxxxxx), or
• No price at all (Offers invited).

Generally speaking, having a price or at least a guide, like “offers over $x” on your advertising is best and will receive more enquires. It’s like going into a store and nothing has a price tag. Your buyers won’t know if they are enquiring on a $100,000 business for a $1 million business. Clarity is key. 

Remember, there is no one correct asking price but more a selling price range that you are likely to sell within.

Depending on how quickly you want to sell, and how strongly your business is performing, the range can be quite wide. Don’t worry too much about this because you will only accept the offers that make sense and decline the offers that do not. In the end, all offers are a good sign because offers lead to negotiation and negotiation leads to a sale.

When setting your price you need to choose a method that makes sense to potential buyers. Here are the three main methods we see most often used by buyers:

1. Return on investment analysis. This is where we calculate what the business is returning to the owner by adding back personal expenses and all other reasonable add-backs that are often included in the accounts, to the profit figure to produce an adjusted net profit. We then multiply this figure typically by between 1 and 3 times (depending on several factors). If you have at least 1 year’s profit and loss figures this is usually your best option.

2. Setup cost. This is an asking price based on the cost of opening the business in the first place. This works best if the business (and therefore the plant and equipment) are fairly new and you can demonstrate the cost of setting up. If the business is say, a year old and not profitable yet, and you can show a fit out of $xxxxxx then maybe this price minus a small discount is the best way to go.

3. Opportunity cost. This is setting your asking price based on what you think the business will earn in the next 12 months. If the business is likely to earn $xxxxxx in the next year and you can demonstrate this by showing rapidly rising sales, or by offering the buyer a trial period to see for themselves how the business is performing, this could be the best option. If the future profit is credible, you can set the price as a multiple of this estimated figure.

Overall, the price has to simply make sense to your buyers. It is best to price your business competitively if you want a fast sale, but if speed of sale is not important, price higher up the scale and adjust the asking price downwards until you start receiving a high volume of enquiries.

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2. Creating Your Business Profile Document

“Thank you for sending the business profile so promptly. Also appreciated the detail included, has been the best business summary I’ve received from a broker to date”

Nathan T. – Business Buyer

We create a customised business profile to present your business or franchise in the best possible light. To do this we just need a simple form filling out which will likely take 15-20 minutes. Your Business Profile will answer most of the buyer questions and educate them on the process of buying your business. It is designed to make your business stand-out from the your competition in the market and assist the buyer’s accountant, and bank manager should they need finance. If you’re a franchise, It will also contain a detailed run down of the brand and franchise recruitment process. 
 

Have you ever needed to make a decision on something that you just don’t fully understand? If you have, there’s a good chance the confusion led you to not go ahead with it. We need to remove this for your buyers.

When selling your business, buyers will request information to make an informed assessment of the businesses potential to meet their needs. Rather than deal with each buyers questions individually, it really helps to have prepared a comprehensive Business Profile, that answers as many of the buyers questions as possible. This also creates a smooth and efficient learning process for the buyer, increasing the likelihood of them progressing. 

The good news is we do this for you as part of our Complete Package. We send you an easy to complete information request form (15-20 minutes to complete) and once we receive the information we get going! The Bonza Business Sales Experts have written hundreds of Business Profiles and can anticipate most questions that may be asked, better informing buyers and keeping you free to work on your business.

Although there is some time investment upfront to collection the information to populate your Business Profile, the pay off is an easier process and a higher likelihood of achieving the business sale you are after.

A good Business Profile will provide the key information to potential buyers answering their questions so you don’t have to. It also provides the process to the buyers on how they should make an offer your business.

The process of building your Business Profile with Bonza couldn’t be easier. All we need from you is our Information Request Form completed (typically 20 minutes), and we have what we need. 

The profile will include, but not be limited to, points like: 

  • Sales pitch – “The Blue Sky” of your business,
  • Reasoning as to why the asking price is what it is,
  • Lease information,
  • Operating information (hours, staff etc), 
  • Local area information – we research this,
  • Industry statistics – we research this,
  • Basic financial information, 
  • Offer form – allowing the buyer to make an offer.
  • The process to buying your business explained,
  • Pictures, and much more.

Not having one will greatly disable your businesses sale, but it is of course up to you. Another way of looking at it is that if there are aspects of your business that you don’t want to include, we can leave these out. But not having one at all will only hurt your sale.

Successful Business and Franchise Sales have taught us that the fastest way to lose a buyer is to be unprepared for their questions and requests.

There is nothing more frustrating to buyers than asking questions or requesting information and having to wait days for responses.

On the other hand if they have all the information from the off this gives buyers faith and confidence that the business they are buying is well run and organised and therefore worthy of their investment of time…and money.

3. Marketing Your Business or Franchise for Sale

Almost all buyers are now looking on the internet and not advertising these days would be like putting a for sale sign up for your house in your back yard.

First we request that you complete a simple Advertising Worksheet form (takes 5-10 minutes). From this our in-house copywriters will create a professional advertisements draft for you. When you’re happy with the advert, we place it on the top 8 major business and franchise for sale websites, plus our own, Facebook and out through our buyer database. We usually have you up and advertised within 2 business days of getting started with us. 
 
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We handle all of the enquiries for you.

When a buyer finds your advertisement, they can call us or make an enquiry there and then. Once received, we immediately send out a confidentiality form. Once signed, you get updated and we send them your Business Profile and follow up ever 2-3 business days to get all questions answered and assist the buyer to progress towards making an offer on your business. We do all the heavy lifting, so you don’t have too.

No. Typically it is not necessary to advertise your business name and location, but this is up to you. It is common practise and professional to be inconspicuous with your marketing. Your buyers only need to see enough information to enquire and no more. You will receive a draft version of the advertisement to sign off on prior to it appearing on any websites. If you don’t like it, we will re-write it. 

The key is to appear on the major business for sale websites that appear first when buyers search on the major search engines. Take real estate for example.

When looking for a house, typically your don’t Google search “3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house for sale”. You typically search “houses for sale”, then the search engines put you onto the major real estate websites.

It is no different for buyers and businesses. 

We advertise you on the following sites: 

https://www.seekbusiness.com.au/

https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/business/

https://www.businessforsale.com.au/

https://australia.businessesforsale.com/

https://www.businessandfranchisesales.com/

https://www.bsale.com.au/

https://www.businessesview.com.au/

https://www.anybusiness.com.au/

Plus our own website, social media marketing and buyer matching through our ever growing active buyer database.

There’s a couple of good reason to trust us with your business sale.

Access – some of the major business for sale websites require a business broker licence to advertise on, which means you simply cannot advertise there.

Value – advertising on the as many of the major sites individually is going to be expensive, and only choosing one or two is going to harm your enquiry levels.

Advertising is the easy part – the reality is there is a lot more that goes into selling a business that just advertising. Finding buyers has never been easier, preparing your business for sale and handling the enquiries in the correct order to get a sale across the line is another. 

We commit to selling your business until the job is completed. Advertising, along side the rest of our service, is until sold. 

The level of enquries varies from industry to industry, but don’t worry, its all relative.

For example, café’s generally attract high levels of enquiry as it is a popular industry for first time buyers. In this case we may handle 20-25 enquiries before finding “the one”.

A business requiring specific experience, like a mechanics for example, is likely to attract a lower level of enquiry but enquiry that is more qualified. You should expect 10-15 enquiries in this case for example.

Your advertisement is critical as it’s the face of your business sale.

It’s the only thing standing between a buyer enquiring or moving onto the next business listing.

A professional written advertisement will bring in higher levels of enquiry, essentially leading to a quicker sale.

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4. Bonza Handle All Your Enquires

All calls and email from your potential buyers will be handled by Bonza responding within 1 business day at the latest.

All buyer enquiries come in through us (telephone, email, website message). We have created a FAST processing system that responds to your buyers within 1 hour, providing them with a confidentiality form for electronic signature before finding out the name of your business. Once this is submitted your professionally prepared business information is provided to the potential buyer within 24 hours. We then follow-up with every buyer to gauge their level of interest, at least three times, using different communication mediums. 
 
 

We handle it all for you. Our system will keep you updated with each enquiry and we make first contact with your buyers immediately with a confidentiality form and will then contact your buyers every 2-3 days once signed.

We assume all buyer enquiry is serious until proven otherwise. That’s why we continue to follow up all of your enquiries until the buyer either progresses to an offer, or it is safe to qualify them out as not moving forward.

Serious buyers are ones that reply to requests in a timely fashion, ask “buying questions”, have ideally being searching for a business a little while, and have the funds to purchase.

No. Firstly because we handle them for you. But our system also allows us to measure buyer activity so even we can focus our energy on your warmest buyers.

We also ensure that the majority of questions a buyer will want to ask are answered by your Business Profile. Saving everyone a tonne of time and energy.

Any buyer that progresses from enquiry, through confidentiality, and receiving your business profile, then has further questions is a buyer worth dealing with. Granted, before making an offer a buyer will likely want to chat with you but let us do the panning, so we only put you in touch with the golden nuggets. Once that is over, we take the reins again throughout negotiations until sold. 

All buyers will first have to sign a confidentiality form before receiving even your most basic business information, including finding out who you are and your business name.

Prospective buyers are also informed about what actions are appropriate, and which are inappropriate (buyer code of conduct) within your Business Profile.

It is completely your call. With Bonza at your back, you are 100% free to pass the buyer enquiry onto us, and sit back whilst we handle it. 

Remember, finding buyers is usually the easiest part. It is how they are handled that matters most. 

5. We commit to your sale!

You can relax knowing experience professionals are handling your entire sale.

Believe it or not, the most crucial part of a sale comes after your buyer has been found. Every single one of your buyers will go through our proven system to keep the ball rolling as efficiently as possible. 
 
Each buyer is filtered, we handle the negotiations and manage the entire sales process until you can sit back and celebrate a successful business sale. 
 

Generally a buyer will make an initial non-binding offer, such as an “offer form”, to agree general terms with the you before proceeding to due diligence and contract. This is a good sign of a serious buyer. The offer form can be found with your Business Profile document allowing serious buyers to make the next step easily. 

 

Although a solicitor is not mandatory, we always recommend that you seek legal advice before entering into the contract of sale. The decision of course is yours to make, but if you would like a solicitor we have professionals we can put you in touch with when you need it. 

 

This is always open for negotiation. However it is normal for a buyer to pay a deposit of 10%, held in a trust account by the sellers solitor. This is refundable if the business does not pass due diligence. The balance is then payable on completion.

 

What's the next step?

The best first step is to get an idea of the likely sale price for your business and get your questions answered.

Make Contact for a No-Obligation Chat

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