Remember that selling a business is never as simple as selling your house!

Some agents, brokers and online brokers will try to dazzle you with fancy electronic programs for evaluation. The comps used in these programs can come from all over the country and do not necessarily reflect Las Vegas business values. We use the modern electronics too! But there is no replacement for years of experience when it comes to price evaluations, dealing with buyers, and closing out a sale in any type of business. Ed Smith is a trusted business advisor with over 5 decades of full-time dedication and experience! Choose Ed Smith, Business Broker, to list and sell your business! Time is never on your side in business sales! You need to call or email Ed now! 702-274-7320 edsmith@fcbb.com All contacts are strictly confidential!

Confidentiality with selling your business is a key feature when listing your business with Ed Smith, Business Broker.  We endeavor to keep all information from employees and suppliers at all times. In addition, each and every buyer, who requests information about your business from any source, is required to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA)!  NO EXCEPTIONS!  Literally, we have hundreds of registered buyers in our data base who have already signed the NDA and are ready to be introduced to your listing with us.

When Selling your business with Ed Smith, your listing appears in the top national and international business broker websites and he pays for front page exposure! Plus all the other agents in the office work on it!  Our calls come in from all over the USA plus from many other countries for legalized business citizenship visa purposes.  In addition, we have approximately 50 other offices around the USA!

A professional informational marketing package is created complete with color pictures for your business.  Included is a financial review showing the benefits of “add backs” (business write offs that financially benefit the business owner although legitimately deducted as a business expense, i.e. a car lease.)  Ed Smith, Business Broker, is able to legitimately enhance most true business income with this method!  Often this will encourage higher offers on the business.  In addition, we write up a “FAQ’s” type of page for that particular business in order to enhance the marketability of the business and generate more buyer inquires.  Other special specific supplemental pages are included to generate more buyer interest.

Contact Ed Smith, Business Broker, now for your free, no obligation seller’s required document list!  We will send you, at no charge, a list of documents requested in order to sell your business quickly, effectively and for top dollar.  Call or email Ed now!  702-274-7320

Email: edsmith@fcbb.com

Super Experienced!  The following tips are the opinions of Ed Smith, Business Broker, who’s licensed experience extends to over 50+ continuous full time years.  It is often said, if you need serious surgery, do you want the doctor with a few years of experience or do you want the doctor with many years of experience?  We all know that answer!!

Probably the single area of most importance in getting your business ready for marketing is assembling the last three years of annual Profit and Loss reports. The first thing business buyers ask for is that paperwork. Most business buyers won’t go any further with any possible interest in the business until they have had an opportunity to review the P&L’s as they are commonly known. Most business sellers have some form of P&L’s from their own QuickBooks or Excel programs. An accountant’s P&L is not necessary and if you have no P&L then you need to prepare them or hire a bookkeeper to create them. The final sales price of your business can vary upward by significantly large amounts with good quality P&L’s.

The second most required set of documents needed to sell you business are the last three years Federal Tax Returns for the business. Ed Smith, Business Broker suggests that you show the highest net income possible for the years approaching your anticipated business sale. Yes, you will pay some higher taxes, but usually the higher reported income generates the top dollar business sales by such a significant margin that the extra taxes paid are well worth it. We use a special worksheet to add back your deductions that qualify. This extra income is added to the reported net income and usually significantly boosts the bottom line. That revised higher number is taken to the market when we list your business and typically yields a higher sales price!

This question is the most often asked question to Ed Smith, Business Broker, selling your business. This varies with different types of businesses to pricing within the estimated price range for your business. Of course everyone can talk about the businesses we have sold in a very short time but we cannot assure that will be your results. There is no fixed or certain answer.

When discussing pricing, Ed Smith, Business Broker always sells from the seller’s point of view! Who knows the business better than the owner? However, we don’t suggest sellers pack their listing price with other debt in order to have the business sale pay off college loans, car loans, home loans, and other non-business related loans. We send market feedback to the sellers and adjust the price and terms as required. We feel the seller knows the business better than anyone else.

They seldom work and they cost much more! They have very little market experience of any depth in our specific market area and they require a very substantial upfront nonrefundable fee before they even get started. In my opinion, all they do is write a generic ad and put it into their national general website and then it is “adios amigo!”

Advice for those of you who wish to use website evaluations commonly found on the major browsing website—DON’T! These online business evaluations, in my opinion and proven upon individual reviews, are profit centers that ask for all of your pertinent important financial information without offering any nondisclosure protection! They will often give you a big flowery boiler plate report with an evaluation that is too often many times the true value of your business! Beware!

One of the services Ed Smith, Business Broker, performs is weeding out the tire kickers! There are many! Approximately 1 out of 30 inquiries is a true buyer in business brokerage! Quite unlike your home sales! Remember, everybody needs a home, nobody needs a business!

Selling a business is a mine field full of moving parts of which you, the seller, are very unfamiliar with for sure. Your time is more wisely spent running your business and keeping the sales up for the review of the buyers we introduce. This is very important!

When sellers attempt to sell their business on their own, they share all kinds of private important and personal information without the benefit and protection of a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA). This is so dangerous! Please never do this! We obtain the signed NDA or the inquirer is denied any and all information. You don’t even know if your so-called private buyer is a competitor’s brother-in-law!

If your lease has expired, or is going to expire soon, or you are behind in rent payments, we can be of assistance here as we sell many businesses under these situations. We can discuss your specific situation when we meet. Do not defer listing your business because the lease is going to expire soon! We work closely with landlords during this phase of selling your business!

Have a copy of your lease, assignment and other landlord documents affecting your tenancy for your business location. We will make copies of these documents as well as other financial documents for you. Ed Smith keeps a copy of all pertinent documents in his business listings files, so they are immediately available when needed for a business buyer.

Any and all back rent and other fees and expenses owed to the landlord will be required to be paid up at time of closing. If you have any issues with the landlord, please resolve the payment needs and requirements as soon as possible!

Federal Tax returns for the business should not be filed with extensions for the sales reporting year previous to the current year of listing the business for sale. Sellers need to be very conscientious about getting the previous tax year information into their accounting professionals as very soon as possible, so the tax return is available as soon as possible during the sale year. BUYERS WILL NOT CLOSE ON A BUSINESS FOR SALE UNTIL THE BUYER HAS A COPY OF THE MOST RECENT TAX RETURN!

Many businesses have special issues such as a new contract for their services, a sudden change in employees, a down year do to a temporary situation affecting the owner and many other situations. We suggest that you discuss these scenarios during a personal interview directly with Ed. Everything is strictly confidential.

So you are thinking about selling to one of your children? He or she just graduated and can’t find a job? He or she worked for you earlier in life and you would like them to have the business? Ed has advice for you. It is very simple. DON’T DO IT! Call Ed/email now to discuss the situation first! No obligation! 702-274-7320 edsmith@fcbb.com

Many businesses require special business licenses. We design the sale in order to reduce that time and we assist the buyer in that direction of completion. Yes, we deal with gaming, liquor, beer & wine, medical, Medicare & Medicaid transfers, construction, adult industry and more! There is no substitute for the experience of Ed Smith!

Business sellers will need to create an Equipment List for their business. This is usually not the seller’s favorite chore. Ed Smith, Business Broker suggests that the business seller or employee can hand write the list and we will type it for the file and sharing. This document can follow the listing agreement at a little later date. Everything on this list must be there at closing. The escrow company will not close without the equipment list.

Your business loans must be paid in full by closing to or the proceeds of the sale will be held in escrow until the loan satisfactions are presented to the escrow company. PPP1 and PPP2 loans will be held until your Certificate of Forgiveness from the bank is presented to the escrow company and your funds will be released if those two loans are the only outstanding encumbrances.

EIDL-SBA loans, unpaid sales taxes, past due rent, lines of credit, and other taxes and loan and liens must be paid off at closing. Be prepared to share all loan information with Ed Smith, Business Broker.

Business sellers need to identify and share all of your business loans with Ed Smith, Business Broker. Many business owners have business loans such as SBA loans, EIDL loans (SBA), PPP1, PPP2 and other business loans and leases on equipment. The PPP1 & PPP2 loans need to be forgiven. Be sure this is in progress after reading this website. All other loans will need to be accounted for with payment by time of closing. These loans cannot be passed on to the buyer. Ed can often have sale proceeds held in escrow until the seller can make additional arrangements for payment while closing the sale.

Ed Smith, Business Broker, encourages buyers to make offers on his listings! Once a buyer signs a contract with 10% down payment (no little $500.00 Earnest Money Deposits) the buyers are psychologically more flexible in their negotiating price limits! More money for the seller!

Rent, prepaid taxes, work in progress and other prepaid expenses are apportioned to the closing date. Closings are seldom rounded off to the end of the month. Deals close any day of the month as these are time of the essence closings which require immediate action. The escrow company has software to calculate all of these prorated charges and expenses. Escrow companies close businesses, while very few title companies will close a business due to much higher liability.

SBA (Small Business Administration) financing is one of the methods that can be used to purchase some businesses. However, most businesses don’t qualify for SBA financing. Generally, this doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with your business. More than likely it is because the financial paperwork would not be acceptable to the SBA for many reasons. Call or email for details and answers regarding your business. 702-274-7320 edsmith@fcbb.com

First Choice Business Brokers Las Vegas (FCBB), the home office, has approximately 50 franchised offices around the country! Sometimes these other First Choice offices will assist in the selling of another First Choice broker’s listing! The Las Vegas office is by far the largest business brokerage office in Nevada! First Choice Business Brokers, should be your first choice with Ed Smith! 702-274-7320 edsmith@fcbb.com

Commissions for business broker services run much higher than the sale of a home. The two industries are not at all the same and differ substantially. The business broker sale requires a much higher degree of business sophistication and business experience. It is considered the most challenging and difficult of all the brokerage types. There is no “throw the listing into the MLS”! That just doesn’t exist in the challenging mine field world of business brokerage.

There will be a Due Diligence period in the purchase agreement wherein the buyer has the right, for a limited time period to review all the financial records. Once your business is being marketed, we advise you to start assembling the current year and the last 3 years of financial records for the buyer’s review. On occasion, the buyer will want to deal with your accountant or have his or her accountant deal directly with your accountant. All of this is acceptable.

Seller Carry Notes are a very common part of many business sales. We don’t recommend this unless the cash component of the sale is a substantial amount of the price. Smaller amounts of Seller Carry Notes generally don’t pose much risk. First, the notes are recorded as lien on the business. The buyer signs the note corporately and also guarantees the note personally. They generally run for 1-5 years with equal monthly payments similar to a car payment. Interest rates are substantially higher than bank interest. Often these loans are prepaid early and often they can defer your income taxes into the following years.

In Conclusion: If you are serious about selling your business, then you must proceed quickly and diligently along the lines outlined herein. Remember, I do this for a living and you don’t! It is important to contact Ed Smith, Business Broker, now for selling your business! Cell: 702-274-7320 or edsmith@fcbb.com

Remember, everything is confidential!

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