Selling your Business: Financial Presentation

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How do your financials look? Last week we talked about financial performance and how that affects the value of your business as you’re selling it. Today I want to talk a little bit about presentation, because it matters. If your financials are messy, disorganized and you’re not using the latest tools and technologies, I’ve got to tell you, no one’s going to take them seriously. I’m not going to believe that you really know what your business is doing. So make sure that your financial statements are consistent year to year, very well organized, and as I mentioned that you are using the latest tools and technologies. Buyers are also likely to want to see projections. Now there’s a tendency sometimes when we’re making projections for a reason like this to over inflate them – that will show. So make them realistic, realistic projections where you can tell a story as to why you believe these are true. The next thing, the third thing I want to mention with your financials is you want to be able to clearly show any owners compensation. So this is payroll, but this is also things like your health insurance, your car , any other of your expenses that you’re paying through the business that will go away when you’re no longer the owner. So those three things on your, your financials, make sure they’re well organized, make sure you have projections, make sure you’re clearly showing the owners’ income. The other thing I want to offer to you is I did a video earlier this year on cleaning up your balance sheet. This is also very important as you get ready to sell your business and I’ll link to this video right here (https://youtu.be/qWJ-_ElKhH4). I’ll be back next week and we’ll talk about the team that you need to put together as you get ready to exit your business. If you have any questions or comments or anything else you’d like to say, please leave it in the comments and I’ll be back next week with your Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week.