Buying & Selling a Business In Tucson Blog

How Long Does It Take To Sell A Business In Tucson AZ?

According to Tom West, in the Complete Guide To Business Brokerage, "a recent figure was that the time from listing to sale was (on average) 7.9 months or about 230 days." In 1978, the average was 56 days.  If that is the average, then it can obviously take much, much longer.

So what will that mean for your business?  The answer is, of course, it depends.  It depends on a number of things that we have discussed from time to time across this site and in this blog.  Many of the factors that influence how long it may take your business to sell are, fortunately, within your control before you even decide to list it for sale.  Let's review a few of them again here:

1. The Market:  by the market we do not mean the macroeconomic environment, which is what you may have been thinking. Regardless of the general state of the economy, it is always a good time to sell a business and there are always interested and qualified buyers.  The question is whether you as the seller are willing to accept how the market prices your business.  If you are, then you will have created the principal prerequisite for having a productive conversation with a potential buyer.  All you need now is the resources of a professional business broker to help you identify and market to a pool of such buyers.  Be very clear about one thing: if your expectations about the value of your business substantially exceed the value the market would place on it, for whatever reason, you can expect a longer than average time to sale, or no sale at all. 
2. Accounting:  if your books and records, going back at least 3 years, are clean and organized in accordance with widely accepted accounting practices, then this should not contribute to any delays in the sale of your business in Tucson. That does not mean it will speed it up either,  because from a buyer's perspective accurate accounting records is a basic expectation.  Wouldn't it be for you as well, if you were the buyer?
3. Layered Management:  Are you the only one that makes the wheels of your Tucson business go 'round?  Or do you have a team of trained and reliable people who would transition to new ownership and provide a degree of certainty to new owners that future growth projections were in fact attainable?  
4. Equipment & Facilities:  are your equipment and facilities clean and up to date, and in a good state of repair?  Or are they dilapidated and obsolete?   Can a new owner walk in and just get down to business, or will s/he be required to make additional investment of time, energy and resources to clean up and fix up the operation? 

These are not all of the factors that influence the salability of your business, but they can affect how long it takes to sell.  Over the years, the time from listing to sale of all businesses has increased.  Some of the reasons cited for this change include higher priced businesses, better educated buyers, greater regulations, the increasing involvement of lawyers, the paucity of escrow companies and attorneys with expertise in business transactions in many parts of the country, and perhaps even the changing practices of the business brokerage profession itself. 

Whatever the explanation may be, it behooves you to control the controllable when considering the sale of your business.  There are many factors that are beyond your control; being prepared and realistic are not among them.

If you'd like more information on this subject, please Contact Us.