When you sign up for a valuation of your transportation business, conducted by The Tenney Group, we hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised by our estimation. However, this essential part of setting a price includes no guarantees. In fact, business owners often inadvertently do things to lower the value of their business just when keeping the value high is in their best interest. In order to maintain your business’s value during the time when that stability is of utmost importance, The Tenney Group recommends that you prioritize these 3 basic elements:
- Confidentiality
- Smooth Operations
- Updated Records
Confidentiality
ConfidentialityWhen customers and employers hear that you intend to sell your business, they may understandably fear the unexpected, and that won’t bode well for your business. Your customers trust you with their business, and if they fear that major changes will interrupt the consistent quality service you’ve provided, they may go elsewhere instead of taking what they perceive to be a risk. Likewise, your employees trust you with their livelihood. If they catch wind of a potential buyout, they may fear a layoff or decreased wages or benefits, causing them to seek employment elsewhere. By extension, this kind of unstable environment can provide just the opportunity a competitor has been hoping for, allowing for further devaluation.
Smooth Operations
If it were possible, it would be ideal to keep your plans for selling a secret even from yourself. When business owners are planning an exit strategy, it’s easy for them to allow regular operations to suffer. Between the time-consuming details of the sale process and the focus on what lies ahead, sometimes it’s hard to keep your hand on the proverbial (or literal!) wheel. This is just the time to pay that extra attention to ensure efficient operations. If you know you simply can’t do it all, make certain to have a management team and policies in place to keep the business running smoothly when you cannot manage it yourself. Customers will stay if they continue to enjoy the kind of service they’ve received in the past, but don’t bet on the hope that they’ll stay even if they receive sub-par support.
Updated Records
Updated RecordsJust like selling your business can easily distract you from maintaining daily operations, it can also be a time when keeping up with paperwork can be a struggle. Bookkeeping needs to be up to date in order for potential buyers to feel secure regarding valuation and integrity. Your documentation should ideally be even more thorough than it has been in the past, for your own purposes, since serious buyers will want to be able to review records in order to make important decisions regarding their new acquisition.
When keeping all the balls in the air is already a struggle, it can be especially difficult to ensure that your business is running smoothly while you’re taking extra time to handle selling details. That’s one of the many reasons finding a reputable professional transportation business brokerage service can be a great idea.
Leave a Reply