Curb Appeal

It takes the same amount of time for someone to form their first impression of you as it does for you to read this sentence.  It doesn’t take much longer than that for someone to form their first impression of your business.  What impression does your business make?

When we’re having guests over to our home, we clean the house.  When we will be driving a potential client to lunch, we wash the car beforehand.  If the kids have picture day at school, we try to make sure they look their best.  Often, when I talk to a business owner about selling his business – probably one of the major events of his life – it turns out that there hasn’t been much thought put into how it looks to a potential buyer.  Aside from getting the financials which will establish the value of the business, here are a few things you can do to make your business more attractive:

1.       MARKETING:  A huge marketing budget isn’t required to establish a solid look and feel.  A professionally designed logo with business cards for all the key members of the business is essential.  A basic brochure or informational piece explaining your business is something that should always be on hand.  These should NOT be thrown together with Microsoft Paint and printed on your ink jet – they need to be professionally designed and printed. The sign on the building should be clean and visible.  These marketing components will leave your prospective buyer impressed and proud to show their friends and family what they are considering.

2.       WEBSITE:  In this day and age, if you don’t have a website your business is largely irrelevant to a large portion of the population.  Potential buyers want to do research on you before investing the time to get to know you.  If you don’t have a website and a similar business for sale does – you will probably lose.  You don’t have to go so far as to be selling your product or service over the Internet, but it’s definitely not enough to just be listed on the local phone directory type of sites.

3.       CONTACT INFORMATION:  If your email address ends in @hotmail.com or @gmail.com, you’re telling potential buyers that you’ve not invested in your brand enough to even purchase a domain name.  If you need help, ask just about anyone under the age of 25.  It’s a surprisingly inexpensive way to make a big difference in the eyes of a buyer.

4.       BRICKS AND MORTAR:  Your building doesn’t have to be fancy – just clean, uncluttered, and well-maintained.  If you have equipment that doesn’t function, old chairs or desks that nobody uses, or a printer that’s been out of commission since the 90s:  Get rid of it.  If it’s collecting dust, it doesn’t add value and a potential buyer will feel frustrated at the thought of having to get rid of it themselves.

5.       CLEAN UP:  No buyer is impressed by boxes of cancelled checks from the 70s.  Shred ‘em.  They’re also not impressed by accounts receivable on the books that will never be collected.  Either collect or charge them off.  Clean up your office, file cabinets and financials to the point where a buyer can envision him/herself easily walking in and picking up where you left off.

If you expect potential buyers to take your business seriously, you must impress them.