Your Business With James Caan 2017 - 36

PROMOTION

Selling your
brokerage business

How yacht broker Alan Nash sold his
business with BusinessesForSale.com

A

fter working seven days a week
for almost 30 years, Alan Nash
decided to take a well-deserved
early retirement, which meant selling
the Boatshed Suffolk franchise he'd
bought six years previously. After
several recommendations, including
from the head office of Boatshed.com,
Alan decided to list the business on
BusinessesForSale.com.

Why BusinessesForSale.com?
The Boatshed franchise has had a lot of success
using the site in the last couple of years, making
it its go-to site for franchise resales, Alan told us.

Placing the advert
Alan was pleasantly surprised by how quick the
whole process was, from placing the advert to
completing the sale. He found it very quick, easy
to use and cost-effective. "Placing the advert
was very self-explanatory," he says. "It's just like
putting your car up for sale on Auto Trader -
even easier, actually."

Enquiries
Alan only encountered one difficult challenge
when selling his business: he didn't receive
any enquiries in the first couple of weeks due
to his pricing. As soon as he removed the price
and the business turnover from of the ad, "the
phone just went mad", he says.
After making the price more competitive,
Alan told us the response was better than he'd
expected. "I can't believe the response we got,"
he says. "We actually got seven enquiries," one
of which was from an international buyer.

Choosing a buyer
After whittling prospective buyers down to
three, Alan arranged a meeting with the buyer
who best met his criteria. "I wasn't going to sell
to just anyone," he says. "I wanted to sell the
business to someone who could improve it and
make use of the potential I knew was there."
"I worked very hard on Boatshed Suffolk
for six years and didn't want it to fall by the
wayside once I'd gone. I wanted somebody
to come on board with new ideas, who
could drive the business forward."

Alan was impressed
with the short amount
of time in which the
sale was completed
- he sold his business
in a matter of weeks
Long chats on the phone made it easier
to distinguish the serious buyers from the
time-wasters. Alan had a very quick result with
the eventual buyer, who enquired and wanted
to meet the very next day.

The sale
What Alan liked most about the buyer was his
enthusiasm. "He liked what he saw, I got on with

him very well and it was all done and dusted
within a week," he says. Alan has declared
himself "very pleased with the whole thing. I
got the asking price for the business, so that
was perfect."

The overall experience
Alan was impressed with the ease of use of
BusinessesForSale.com and the short amount
of time within which the sale was completed.
He told us he had allocated a year or two
to sell, planning to list the business for six
or seven months to start with, before trying
other selling channels. But he ended up
selling in a matter of weeks and didn't need
to use other websites.
"I can't believe how good the website
was," he says. "If I was in the marketplace,
I'd definitely buy or sell a business through
BusinessesForSale.com again."
http://www.BusinessesForSale.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Your Business With James Caan 2017
