Nothing good happens when the work gets out that your company is for sale. Letting the word out - Confidentiality in the business sale process is crucial. Sometimes they become so focused on the next version release that they are lax in financial record keeping. Keep this in mind when contemplating the sale of your business. That's not silly at all! Locking in a contract at below market rates could actually cause a discount to your selling price. Mistakes at this juncture have a huge impact.What if your head of systems development gets skittish and entertains offers from other companies and leaves while you are selling? The buyer wants your top people and they represent a significant portion of your future transaction value. It can be a big drain on employee morale and productivity. 

Get a good accountant to do your books. Bad employee behavior - You need to make sure you have agreements in place so that employees cannot hold you hostage on a pending transaction. Pretty silly, right? And yet we hear countless stories about a competitor coming in with an unsolicited offer and after a little light negotiating the owner sells. Business valuation firms are great for business valuations for gift and estate tax situations, divorce, etc. The second is to attack transaction value with adjustments. Is it centrifugal pumps Manufacturers a better deal to structure some of the transaction value as an earn out based on post acquisition sales performance? Do you understand the difference in after tax proceeds between an asset sale and a stock sale? Your everyday bookkeeper may not, but a tax accountant surely does. I know this is a shocker, but the buyer is trying to pay as little as possible and he is trying to get contractual terms favorable to him. If your competitors find out, they can cause a lot of damage to your customers and prospects.

 Are your employee agreements well written? If you hired outside programmers, was their agreement specific in ownership of their output? The concern of the buyer is that once it becomes public that the deep pockets company is owner, previous disgruntled employees or contractors may resurface looking to bring legal action. Where a services business may sell for between 75% and 100% of last years sales, for example, technology companies are all over the map. These goals are not compatible with yours. In the first meeting with us, he told us of his company's under funded pension liability. Before your firm is turned inside out and the buyer spends thousands in this process and before the other interested buyers are put on hold - reveal that problem up-front. Going it alone - The business owner may be the foremost expert in GUI interfaces, but it is likely that his business sale will be a once in a lifetime occurrence. You may want to be pre-emptive with your buyer and minimize any damage your employee might cause.

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