You couldn’t run your business without them. Sure, some are more valuable than others, but they’re all part of the team you’ve assembled to help you run a successful transportation business. For transportation business owners like you who’ve worked hard to create a positive workplace environment and truly care about your workers, you’ll want to carefully protect them during the sale process. Of course, there are many different ways to handle the sale scenario. As transportation business brokers who have seen many businesses thrive while others fizzle away during the transition period, we want to share with you what we’ve seen to work well.
Keeping Secrets
Especially if you’ve fostered an especially close-knit relationship with key employees, you really need to keep your plans to sell as well as prospective buyers hush-hush for a while. Often, when employees catch wind of an impending sale, their motivations change. In a stable environment, the potential for promotion and praise are motivating factors. However, when the future is unknown, they can sense instability and focus on their own survival. Often, this kind of thinking leads to pursuing other employment, leaving the business owner with a less-than-valuable business he can’t sell and doesn’t want to try to run.
Protecting Assets
With employee stability and business momentum at stake, it’s imperative that business owners take steps to ensure that others involved in the sale process maintain confidentiality, as well. Tools such as confidential offering memorandums and non-disclosure agreements can keep changes from being leaked to employees and other key players, such as suppliers and competitors. Having these documents drawn up is a small price to pay, compared to risking decreased valuation.
Screening Buyers
If you’re truly concerned about your employees’ future, you’ll want to carefully screen potential buyers regarding their long-term goals and staffing plans. Evaluating buyers’ motives and their desire to capitalize on the unique experience of your existing staff can be a huge part of the process. Making sure buyers are trustworthy and qualified to run your transportation business well can also help make sure your legacy will continue, benefitting your employees in the process.
Enlisting Help
Perhaps all the details of selling your transportation business seem a little overwhelming. You’re not alone; most business owners sell their business only once, and once they have that singular experience, they have no need to use it in the future. If you enlist the help of business brokers, you can and your employees can benefit from the expert advice that comes from years of helping sellers list and sell their businesses effectively. Since The Tenney Group specializes in transportation industry sales, we’re uniquely equipped to work with the specific situations that you encounter. We can help you through this transition period to continue giving your employees the kind of care you’ve given them through the years.
Leave a Reply