Recap of Inc. Exec’s Advice on Selling a Business

If you’re a startup, it’s way too early to be thinking about how you’ll sell your business someday, right? Wrong! At an event on April 21, entrepreneurs, students and financial advisers learned how they can plan from the beginning to sell their business one day.

Lewis Schiff, chairman and executive director of Inc. Business Owners Council, walked the audience through an engaging presentation about how to figure out what sellers really can net when they turn over their business. Schiff demonstrated that $10 million for a business can quickly get eaten up by adviser fees, payouts to loyal employees, old corporate debts and payments to one or more partners. Schiff provided advice about how business owners can calculate how much they need to sell the business so they can maintain their current income, and lifestyle. "Remember, you lose your job when you sell your company," said Schiff, noting you have to at least make up what you were earning in salary before selling the business.

Business owners should consider various strategies before they pursue selling the business: can they buy out a partner? can they turn cash flow assets into productive assets such as buying real estate with your profits? Schiff also noted there is an interesting dynamic in sales of businesses: sellers want to be paid for what they already did to make the company, while buyers want to pay for future earning. 

To view photos from the event, click here. Photos were shot by David Santos, IS/T assistant in School of Business.

The event was sponsored by Citrin Cooperman.