Timing The Sale of Your Ad Agency – How to Sell on a High Note
When to pull the trigger on the sale of your digital agency is key to getting top dollar. As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts about the right, wrong and just right timing for selling your digital marketing firm, if nothing else, you want to keep your pedal to the metal and show as much earnings as possible.
But with so many things to think about, there are several other items you need to get in order and have prepared before you put your ad agency on the market.
Here’s s short check list to help you begin to get organized.
Pre-Diligence – Checklist
If you get only one thig from this website it’s that when you sell your business matters. A lot. As I have mentioned before, you cannot just wake up one day and decide to sell. It takes advanced planning, in some cases 1-3 years to get your books and tax returns in order.
Use this checklist as a starting point to help you get organized:
- General corporate information: Description of the company’s business operations and history Legal information
- Legal Information: Summary of patents, licenses, and trademarks
- Leases: Copy of office lease, lease terms and other related agreements
- Disputes: Summary of current and past disputes in which the company has been part of
- Product information: Description of the company’s products
- Customer/client Base: Overview of key customers and competitors, normally top ten
- Market Position: Overview of market share and market position
- Pricing: Information about your pricing structure for your products and services.
- Financial Statements: Financial statements for the past three to five years, complete with the board’s and auditor’s reports. This includes Federal Tax returns and assessment papers for the past three years
- Budget Projections: Budget for the previous year, as well as the coming years
- Assets: Overview of corporate assets and values (balance for the past three years and per latest available date). Include the valuation of the company and its assets.
- Employees: List of all employees, including name, position, salary, and other conditions. Include copy of employment contracts, bonus and collective agreements and a copy of employee handbook if available. Be sure to include salary and bonus overviews for the past year as well as a summary of the number of employees and turnover for the past 2-3 years. Be sure to also include an organizational overview of management and other key employees.
These are all things you will need to think about, describe and be able to commuunicate to any prospective buyer.
