The most effective business brokers have an active, process driven approach similar to Vista Business Groups. The process we use to market and sell a business takes 6 months from beginning to end. The timeline works as follows:
- 2 weeks; Valuation; The Vista team will closely review the business and provide a valuation range that we'd expect most offers to fall within.
- 2 weeks; After the valuation process we will start preparing the Confidential Memorandum. We work closely with owners to be certain the information is accurate.
- 4 weeks; We market a new business every 2 weeks and spend the first 2 weeks focused on one specific business. After 4 weeks, we'll ask those with interest to provide us their Indication of Interest.
- 2 weeks; We'll review the Indications of Interest with the owners and help them pick the top 5 offers, then set up meetings with those 5 potential buyers. We then ask each to provide us a Letter of Intent.
- 2 weeks; The Letter of Intents are reviewed with the owners and after negotiations with the buyers a Letter of Intent is signed.
- 12 weeks; After the Letter of Intent is signed, the due diligence period begins. Due Diligence will be followed by Purchase Agreement Negotiations. Next both sides come to an agreement on the Purchase Agreement, we talk through transitional times and and Close.
Originally published 27 June 2023
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