I have tried to sell my companies twice, once successfully and once unsuccessfully. Previously, I thought that this is how to put a bike up for sale, describe how cool everything is, what things are done, what works well and what goodies the buyer can get and put it “on display” and wait. The first time I was very wrong.
My first attempt looked exactly like this. I outlined the situation, highlighted the main goodies and turned to all competitors with an exclusive offer by making a mailing list. They responded to the offer, and we even held 4 meetings with different potential clients, but the only problem was that, in fact, none of them were interested in the company and simply researched how everything was arranged at the competitor and made some vague other proposals in style: let's try to cooperate, and let's work under our brand and so on. I spent a lot of time on all these meetings and communication by mail and in the end we just closed, because time was against us then.
After such an experience, I realized how difficult such transactions are. Nobody wants to buy the “old story” and there can be many risks associated with this. After the first negative experience of selling a company, I realized how difficult such transactions are. In addition, for many, everything does not look as rosy and cool as you imagine, because only you know how difficult the path was, and for outsiders, these are just a few seconds of heard words that cannot be compared with the hours spent on work. In addition, the practice of buying and selling still has a high probability of success in large firms. Yes, the company being sold may have problems there, but the service or cash flow will not collapse in one day or a week (although today, due to the corona virus, you cannot even be sure of this). Large firms can grow into a separate living organism, because there can be more strong people who keep the business. In small and medium-sized businesses, everything is more chaotic and operational things are even more dependent on the owners. When they leave, that critical support also goes, so deals with smaller companies are doubly difficult.
Therefore, I realized that the second time I needed to act more precisely. You need to independently work out the options for those who may be interested in buying and study the company and their pains in more detail. The second time, I first made appointments without any mailing or notification of the agenda. We discussed everything on the spot, people immediately understood that this was really an exclusive, since we had already met and all things had been worked out for them in advance and there were answers to all questions. In fact, I made 2 calls, followed by a meeting leading to a deal.
From there I drew my own conclusions. Small and medium-sized companies cannot be sold by putting them on a showcase, website or other platforms if there is a desire to get a result. Although there are always exceptions.
You can also find out more on our website, how to invest in cryptocurrency?