One of my favorite questions to ask a seller is:
“If this earn-out disappears tomorrow, are you still happy with the deal?”
exit
7 Costly Mistakes Tampa Business Owners Make When Selling
SOPs are the “owner’s manual” for your business. Relying on “tribal knowledge” (employees just knowing what to do) makes a buyer nervous. Having a digital library of SOPs ensures the business can survive employee turnover, which represents predictability—and predictability earns higher multiples.
Costly Mistakes Florida Business Owners Make When Selling Their Business
If you’re even thinking about selling in the next 2–3 years, the time to fix these issues is now.
The Co-Brokerage Question: One Answer Tells You Everything About Whose Side Your Broker Is On
Follow up with: have you co-broked on closed deals in the past year, and can you give me an example? Asking for a real transaction turns a policy conversation into a track record conversation, and track records are harder to fake.
The “Exit Readiness” Quiz: Is Your Business Sellable Right Now?
Whether you scored 18 or 5, there is a clear path from where you are to where you want to be at closing. The difference between the owners who get the deal they deserve and the ones who don’t usually comes down to one thing: how far in advance they started asking the right questions.