Succession Planning is a Process Not an Event When is the best time to sell your business? Business owners are more likely to maximize the price they can get for their business when the following three conditions are in place: 1) market conditions for transactions are favourable, 2) the business is well positioned for a sale, and 3) the owner has put in place strategies to maximize their after tax proceeds and is ready to sell the business. Market conditions are prime for selling a business right now; there are many buyers, both strategic and financial, looking for opportunities to acquire quality businesses. And, credit markets are also quite favourable. This will not always be the case, though. Think back to 2008 and the Great Recession. Lenders were not lending and there were far fewer buyers looking for businesses to buy. The volume of transactions dropped. Many business
owners that were planning on retiring in 2008 to 2010 had to delay their plans or risk getting far lower sales proceeds than they were expecting. Timing the sale of a business to coincide with favourable market conditions can make a significant difference to the selling price that is obtained. Business owners should assess if their business is well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunity to sell. If it is not, they should start to groom the business now for transition. A clear 3 to 5 year plan for succession will help determine the best time to sell, how to maximize value and how to best transfer that value to a new owner. Despite the prevalence of articles and books dealing with “succession planning,” many business owners often don’t consider strategies to increase the salability of their business until they are forced to. By then, the
SUZANNE C. LOOMER MACC, CPA, CA, CBV
SUCCESSION PLANNING SEMINAR JANUARY 16, 2019 We agree succession planning is a process, however you also need to be connected.
Join the St. John's Board of Trade for an informative discussion on succession planning. Contact Rhonda for details solutions@bot.nf.ca
On sale now! #growstjohns February 6, 2019
Delta Hotels St. John’s Conference Centre
Motivational Speaker DARCI LANG
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Sales Expert FATIMA ZAIDI
WINTER: 2019
