Business Brokers: Finding the Right Buyer To Sell Your Business To

Entering the market as an owner looking to sell their business comes with a whole host of motivations that’re personal to the individual. Whether looking to exit the business to look toward new creative horizons, finding suitable owners to continue the legacy of what you’ve created, or simply looking to make a tidy profit, the entire process hinges on a buyer keen on settling.

But to sell your business, is there more than the simple act of changing hands? The motivations of your potential buyer can greatly affect how the process is handled, making the need to find the right buyer fit for your particular business a priority when it comes to achieving goals beyond their financial orientation.

Establishing Your Goals First

Before talking about finding a buyer for you, why are you selling in the first place?

The particular drive to sell your business in itself creates parameters for who you determine is your worthy buyer, and establishes conditions to satisfy before any other part of selling, legal or social, can proceed.

Most commonly, there’s a net profit that can be capitalised on by selling the business – whether this means cashing in on a high valuation, or exiting before a tumultuous financial forecast is set for the coming year of operations. Where selling purely for money is the only concern, the type of buyer that is willing to invest might not matter so much as the scope of highest bids are concerned.

What about owners who might still be tied to the business in some way or another, emotionally or operationally? For those wishing to scale their venture into something more substantial on the product side, or those wanting a more professional focus on their career, there might be a change in ownership, while continuing to retain themselves as an employee in the organisation. 

The buyer you sell your business to suddenly becomes a much more nuanced decision to consider, taking stock of business goals that should remain stringent even after your departure as an owner.

Types of Buyers

What types of buyers are there, then, to make sure these needs meet the spectrum of personal, structural or financial demands accomplice to sellers?

Financial Buyers:

Similar to sellers with a high prioritisation of capitalisation, financial buyers tend to focus on the potential of their return of investment by purchasing your business. Larger private equity groups or large-scale businesses tend to occupy these labels the most, framing business acquisitions as asset ownership to turnover for a profit over a given period more than anything.

Integration of culture means little to these buyers unless direct competition is concerned, which means for those keen on selling as an exit strategy – look elsewhere, because these groups will often maintain existing management for the company to continue functioning.

Strategic Buyers: 

Buyers in this category often accommodate aggressive purchasing strategies with the aim of filling weaknesses that they might be unable to fill in-house. Normally, this means targeting innovative startups at a point where their product has high penetrative value, but their business hasn’t established the surrounding infrastructure to match.

For those invested in the integrity and creation of value inherent to their business, strategic buyers might not be interested in sustaining the legacy of your company so much as its tech, products and intellectual property. 

Individual Buyers:

The most strategically liberated, individual buyers are those leveraging their own assets and networth to acquire a business, whether out of interest in entering a new field, or out of a perceived opportunity to successfully run the observed business itself.

For those concerned with how their exit could influence staff security and vitality of the business, this route is often the most organic – successors value the sanctity of the product the business produces, and is less concerned about giving the entire company a face-lift as opposed to succeeding in its practice, even if it might be on their terms.

Feeling a little clearer on who to look out for as a business owner? Business Brokers can help you out with taking the next steps – contact us for the service you need!