Selling a marketing agency can be a difficult process. Since this type of organization is service-based, the employees are really what make and uphold the agency’s reputation in the first place. Any sort of infrastructure change can mess with the flow of the company, and depending on the deal, tamper the quality of the product itself. Since this process can be tricky, we’re going to give you a few things to keep in mind when trying to sell your company.
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1. Look at your company from a potential buyer’s perspective.
Sometimes you may not see what an outsider sees in your marketing agency, since you oversee its everyday operations. Maybe you’ve become so accustomed to a bad way of doing things that you don’t even realize it anymore. Take a step back and dissect every aspect of the company – the books, clients, employees, and prices. Make sure that you’d satisfy a buyer upon inspection.
2. Make sure that transition will be smooth.
As I talked about a little bit earlier, the fact that this is a service-based market means that it almost solely depends on human capital. Since the employees at the agency are truly what make it what it is, be sure that they will either be staying with the company or that there’s a way to maintain the same level of work that you’ve achieved in a different manner. This type of assurance is usually necessary in the preliminary purchasing periods when the company may or may not be purchased.
3. Don’t settle for a price that you don’t agree with.
If you know that your company is worth more than you’ve been offered, then stand up for your beliefs. Once that first offer comes in, you may want to sell at a lower price, but hold your ground.
4. It helps if you know the buyer.
There are certain things to running a company that you only figure out with experience. Selling a company to someone you either know or have done business with in the past allows you to easily share those “tricks of the trade” in a way that isn’t damaging to your current company or their future company.