Grooming

Good comment from the floor at our recent seminar on Business Exit Strategies.  We were discussing grooming for sale.  This should be an internal as well as external thought process.  So make sure the likely buyers are aware of you long before a sale.  This might mean advertising in trade magazines that reach them rather than your customers, and doing other PR related activities to ensure that you are known in your trade.   That way either they will approach you at a time strategic to them, and if you’ve been grooming the business you’ll be reasonably ready to make a good impression, or alternatively they will respond positively when you approach them.