Business In A Box Deals With Buyers Seeking A Business That Will Be Easy To Run.
With few exceptions prospective buyers will find a business validly describable as a business in a box to be quite appealing. After all, who really wants to do something really difficult, if something less difficult will provide them the same results? And when this ease of operation is properly explained to them, they may even pay a premium for it.
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Despite this, there will be some buyers who want a fixer upper business. One without serious problems, that they can buy cheap, and improve. They believe that they can make significant money by improving a business.
Let's ignore these people and get back to the business in a box buyer. Put yourself in his shoes. What can you do to systemize your business to make it as easy as possible to run? You may want to review the A Buyer portion of this website, and the notes you made when studying it.
The short version is that a buyer seeking a business that is neatly packaged will want the convenience of having much of the heavy lifting already done. All those potential problems that can become time consuming and irritating will have been solved, and their solutions documented. That way the documentation will serve as the map for when they reappear. There will be no need to reinvent the wheel.
Most people will come to buy a business with some areas of strength, and with more areas of weakness. They will all have different backgrounds. They will be comfortable dealing with unforeseen challenges in their areas of strength. Their lack of comfort in their areas of weakness, will make a business in a box appealing.
As discussed elsewhere in this website, that's what makes franchises so popular as start ups, or in the form of franchise resales. You know that a neatly packaged business has appeal to a large buying audience. Your challenge is to position yourself in a buyer's shoes, and examine your business to see how closely it fits with what you as a buyer are seeking. Remember how challenging some things were the first time you did them. And how stressful you found doing them. After having done them several times, the process has almost become a habit for you.
Unless properly systemized, when these challenges recurr, they will become a source of stress to a new owner. Buying a business and taking over its operation will be stressful. You want to be able to assure your prospective buyer that you have taken measures to help him avoid additional, unnecessary stress resulting from events that he hasn't foreseen. The closer you can show him that your business is to a business in a box, the more easily he will find this to accept.
Be shameless as you approach this. Most of us are basically lazy, although few will admit it. You know enough to avoid telling a prospective buyer that the way you have packaged your business will appeal to his hidden lazy streak. However there is nothing to prevent you from building your business into a business in a box, and emphasizing how easy and stress free it will be for the buyer to run.
It is often said that repetition is the mother of learning. Work on your business to implement and document systems and processes that will deal with every conceivable situation a buyer will encounter. Regardless of how trivial. All to make it easier for a buyer to run the business. You may be surprised with the results while you still own the business. And properly presented, you will be able to use this to overcome some measure of buyer resistance.
Remember that almost every prospective buyer will appreciate useable documented systems and processes. Among other things it will cause him to put one more check mark in the pro column when he weighs the pros and cons of buying your business.
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