The sale strategy (for your business)
There are several options for selling your business. Which one is best for you depends on your professional and personal ambitions. For over 25 years, Marktlink has been guiding entrepreneurs through this process. Together, we assess your personal situation and determine the best sale strategy.
Determine your own sales strategy
Your thoughts on business succession and the role you want to play largely determine the course of the sale process. Retirement is on the horizon, you're ready for something new, or you see an opportunity to secure part of the capital while remaining involved for a few more years. Once you've decided to sell the business, you need to think about what your next step will be and what type of buyer suits you best. Most entrepreneurs have an idea, but it's important to explore multiple options. We identify three types of potential buyers: | Individual buyers: someone from your current management team (management buy-out), a family member, or an external candidate looking to acquire a stake (management buy-in). Strategic buyers: competing or adjacent businesses in the industry looking to increase market share and gain synergy benefits. Investment companies: external capital is used to achieve short-term growth potential or a strategic transformation. |
Complete the Marktlink Multiple and receive a reliable estimate in just one minute, based on over 40,000 calculations and 150 successful transactions per year.
Getting exit-ready as part of your strategy
Successful business sales start with an initial thought or step toward why you want to sell. You only get one chance to do it right. How do you ensure that your desired sales strategy becomes a reality, and that potential buyers truly take note of your ambitions? To start, both you and the business must be fully exit-ready. In the lead-up to the sales process, you work on more than just running your business: your business records must be in order, there must be a clear future outlook, you need a solid management team, and there are other parameters that have a positive effect. Your personal reasons and motivations also play a significant role. A prerequisite for safeguarding the continuity of the business is that you truly step back from the company. Our Exit Ready advisors specialise in preparing businesses for sale and significantly increasing their business value
The best time to sell
Various indicators play a role in timing when to start the actual sale process. On a personal level, we advise you – as contradictory as it may sound – to start when you still enjoy it. Because the process requires patience and time. Preparations for a business sale come on top of your daily work, and the potential buyer naturally wants to see evidence. Therefore, it's crucial that you understand how the business, the industry, and competing businesses are performing. This not only involves a lot of paperwork and documentation but also requires patience. Every step you take in preparing to determine the sale strategy contributes to a higher business valuation. Altogether, you create the ideal starting position for a successful sale.
Exit-ready test
Take the test and optimise your business value.
