Simple Guide To Selling Your Small Business [Infographic]

We write a lot here on Bit Rebels about the dedication, commitment and drive it takes to build a business, but one thing I don’t think we’ve touched on much before is how to start the process when you are ready to sell your small business. Just thinking about selling a business that you’ve put your heart and soul into to build and make successful might make you feel uncomfortable, I know it does to me. When you’ve turned your passion into your small business, it almost takes on human characteristics, and it feels like part of your family or another one of your children.

My mother started a balloon and candy store when I was a little girl so I wouldn’t have to go to a daycare after school each day while she worked a traditional job. Every day after school I went to her store and helped her. I learned a lot about being an entrepreneur from my mother. When I was at University, she sold her business, and to this day, it’s still there. As a matter of fact, that store just celebrated its 30-year anniversary. It’s now on its 4th or 5th owner.

From what I’ve learned over the years, creative marketing will not only help your small business become successful, but it will also help your small business become attractive to the right people when you’ve decided it’s time to sell. Just like when you are building your small business, when it’s time to sell, you won’t be able to create a buzz from just emailing everyone in your address book. It takes a lot more effort than that, and some out-of-the-box thinking, to be sure you find the right buyer.

This infograpic by Intuit called The Two-Minute Guide To Selling Your Small Business shows us the process in a very simplified format. If you are in the beginning stages of selling your small business, this can point you in the right direction and remind you of some details that might be easy to overlook. If you have some more advice on this, perhaps you could leave it in a comment below for others. Good luck!