When going to market for the sale of your business, you want to give the best presentation of your business to potential acquirers. You can be sure that when you approach a buyer with an information memorandum, they will go beyond this and perform their own due diligence by looking at your branding, website, and tangible assets.
In this article, we look at what further steps you can take to make your business more attractive before the preparation of an information memorandum. All these steps will ensure that your business makes a great first impression.
Branding and Image
As defined by the American Marketing Association, a brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers.” Branding therefore represents the image of the business to outsiders.
There are several steps you can take to improve your branding such as:
- Making sure your brand colours and logo are presented consistently across your business such as your website, social media, uniforms, letterheads, packaging, etc.
- Create content which distinguishes yourself from competitors such as posting insightful articles on your website.
- Responding to any publicly visible criticism of the business such as social media pages or review sites.
- Ensuring any messaging from your company which is in the public sphere is appropriate and representative of the values which you wish to publicly convey.
Updating Your Website
A potential acquirer would most certainly look at your business’ website when conducting their internal research. In this way, the website can act as an extended piece of the information memorandum which you provide to potential acquirers.
It is normal for a business to change over time, including changes in staff, location, product and service offerings, and branding. Ensuring that your website remains updated with respect to these changes is essential. This will ensure that potential acquirers do not encounter any inconsistencies between their understanding of your business and the representation of your business through the website.
Given that your business website acts as a medium for key information which potential acquirers look at, it might be worth continually improving it to facilitate ease of website navigation by the users, and that the website contains simple content which is easy to understand for the target audience.
Upgrading Tangible Assets
The tangible assets in your business might become outdated, thus making the business unattractive for potential acquirers due to the additional capital they might need to invest for an upgrade. Tangible assets of the business include stock on hand, motor vehicles, machinery, electronic equipment, furniture, and any other physical asset important for running of the business. If the potential acquirer decides to physically inspect the business, the upgraded tangible assets of the business will help create the impression of a well-maintained business.
Find Out More
Groves & Partners are experts in providing strategic and operational advice to maximise business and company value prior to sale.
To find out more about how we can partner with you to achieve success in the sale of your business, contact us on 1300 892 717 (+61 2 7208 7970) or email info@groves.com.au.