How to sell a business

tkwad

Hi

Can anyone advise how do you value a self employed business for selling?
Vat registered business turn over over 100K

Thanks 

Nearlyold

The price you can get takes in many factors
Profit over the last 3 years?  How easy is it to enter the line of business you want to sell?
Are you selling assets such as plant/premises/stock/equipment/customers under contract or just a list of customers and some goodwill. 

Look at Business for Sale listings and look for something similar to your business to get a broad idea.

lincroft1710

If the business trades on the expertise of the owner, it will not be worth much without that expertise. Be careful of overvaluing assets. Turnover is not profit. 

Mistral001

Like anything you plan to sell, such as a house or a car, you need historical data on what similar businesses have sold for.  That is no mean task so look every resource you can find.  I would be prepared to do more than just trailing through the internet.  Look traditional newspapers and magazine classifieds.  If it is a bricks and mortar business then travel to the next town or city and by some of the local papers try to find out something from there.  If it is international business, then you might have to do some foreign travel before you get a total feel for what similar businesses are selling for.      

Grumpy_chap

tkwad said:

Hi

Can anyone advise how do you value a self employed business for selling?
Vat registered business turn over over 100K

Thanks 

From that limited information, unless you are selling yourself as a business asset, it sounds like the value of the business would be £nil.  If there is more to the business that means there is a value to be sold, that is not evident from the information provided in the OP.

martindow

Grumpy_chap said:

From that limited information, unless you are selling yourself as a business asset ...

At first reading, this sounds like slavery or prostitution !

Mistral001

martindow said:

Grumpy_chap said:

From that limited information, unless you are selling yourself as a business asset ...

At first reading, this sounds like slavery or prostitution !

Having been self-employed for over twenty years, I think it is a very good analogy.