Who Will Buy My Business

I am often ask “How do I find a buyer for my business?” It’s an obvious question that I get when I tell business owners that we build businesses for sale and lifestyle.

Think about what it is that people are buying when they buy a business. There are three types of buyer;

(1) Investor buyer
(2) Lifestyle buyer
(3) Strategic buyer

An investor buyer generally buys a business with a “guaranteed” maintainable profitable cash flow with an opportunity to grow the business and sell later on at a profit.

A lifestyle buyer will buy a business to achieve a “sea change” in lifestyle. In other words they are often buying themselves a job (mowing lawns, cleaning cars, serving coffees, fitness trainer etc). They just want to be their own boss and enjoy what they are doing.

A strategic buyer will buy a business as part of a longer term plan – it’s strategic. It could be to gain market share, remove a competitor, asset strip the business, to get access to a product service or IP.

How you prepare your business for sale will depend upon what type of buyer you are trying to attract. Most business owners never consider the “type” of potential buyer – this is mistake. Who would be attracted to buy your business? Think about it and in future posts we will consider the buying motives of the different types of buyers.

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