Selling your business: 3 factors for leverage

If you can get these three things right, you have the opportunity to sell at the best price. The ideal time to sell your business is when:

• The economy is thriving
• The industry is growing,
• Your business is at its best.
  

When you look at 2009, none of the three factors looked very good – and so, this year was one of the worst times to sell a marketing/creative business. Only a handful of sales were made in the industry.

Yes, you can’t control the economy and the industry. But you can still keep up-to-date with what's happening there. If you know the trends, you can take advantage of them, and make sure that you position your business to reflect those.

For example, the trend for 2009 was social media – and one simple thing that every company can ask itself is this: how does your company reflect that trend? 

More specifically:

• Do you have clients buying services form you in the social media sector?
• Do you have clients who are aware of social media?
• Do you have people on your payroll who are focused on making sure you’re up do date with social media?

Rose Lewis works at Pembridge and has sold a dozen companies to date. These include Northbank Communciations, Razor PR, Lexis and Haslimann Taylor - all sold to listed groups. If you would like the benefits of working with Pembridge, please email info@pembridge.net or call +44 845 2600 344.