Selling A Business COVID19

Right now nobody can say with 100% certainty what affect COVID-19 will have on the business sale marketplace or over what period of time. 

We are monitoring the levels of buyer enquiry for businesses closely, but so far we haven’t seen a change following our highest month in two years, which was February 2020.  

We’ve had a couple of business owners ask us:

“is now the right time to go to market or should we wait and see what happens?”

Our answer is simple. 

First of all, would you like to sell your business, ideally within the next few months?

If the answer is yes, then you have to ask yourself:

“What harm will come from going to market today?”

Worst case scenario, while all this plays out in the marketplace over the next couple of months; you haven’t sold yet. But remember:

1) Your advertising with us, as with our entire service, is until your business is sold, so you are under no time constraint.

2) We refresh your adverts on an ongoing basis and supercharge your advertising after 90-days (read about our 90 Day Buyer Guarantee if you haven’t already),

3) Your adverts are anonymous. We only promote the opportunity, not your business name or specific location, so nothing is going stale from the buyers perspective, plus

4) We now have a list of interested buyers that have your business on their radar and may just be ready to buy in a few weeks time.

Nothing lost, but now it’s game time again and we keep pushing until we find your buyer.

Best case scenario, we find your buyer, put a deal together that works for you, and you walk away a very happy ex-bonza client (especially after paying only a fair low commission).

If your sales are being negatively affected by COVID-19

Then chances are other businesses for sale that are like yours are too (your competition when selling) so it’s an even playing field.

If you are selling based on your financials, when we talk to buyers over the next couple of months, the focus is on your last full financial year (18/19) and current year to date figures. If you wait a few months, you’re actually buying time for the reduction in sales to push through into your accounts further, which will then likely reflect in lower offers. 

So unless you’re willing to wait 18 months to allow the reduction in sales to wash out of your accounts, there really is no better time than now. 

So what should you do? 

Inevitably the decision is yours, however, there is a famous saying that we feel is relevant:

“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

If all goes well, we see that sometime in the next couple of months this will all have settled down, and people will be back to life/business as usual. We are already seeing this happen in China after just a few weeks. 

Remember, when you’re listed with us, you’re listed with a highly reputable (see our Google reviews here) small business specialist that commits our entire service until your business is sold. 

If you’re ready to sell, there is very little downside to going to market straightaway.