Selling a business, particularly an online one, requires knowledge, experience and hard work. Most business owners simply don’t have the time or the resources available to successfully sell their businesses on their own, which is why if you’re considering selling, working with a business broker can be the ideal solution. When you enlist the help of a business broker, you can leave the work to a professional with experience brokering these types of deals, and because brokers get paid when you sell your business, you can be certain that they will do everything in their power to facilitate the sale.
One thing that is sometimes discouraging to business owners investigating broker services is the exclusive listing agreement. Required by all reputable business brokers, this agreement states that you will only work with that firm for a period of 6 months to a year without approaching other brokers about the sale. To sellers, this can often seem like a trap. They worry about the risks of being locked into just one broker’s firm, fearing that the broker will be unsuccessful and the business will go unsold.
Experienced business brokers have heard the concerns of sellers about exclusive listing agreements many times, yet still, those who are true professionals in the field continue to use them. Why? Because the process of selling a business requires large investments of time, money and energy, and brokers need to ensure that they are paid for their efforts.
If sellers have the freedom to list their business with multiple brokers at one time, the brokers run the risk of finding a qualified buyer and putting in work to begin a deal only to have the perfectly good opportunity fall through. With no way to recoup the time and money spent, brokers face considerable losses, and their reputations become tarnished among buyers.
Exclusive listing agreements aren’t just good for brokers; they are actually beneficial for business owners, too. When you are in an exclusive agreement with a professional broker, he or she will be fully invested in making every effort to facilitate the sale of your business within the time frame of the agreement. This ensures that he or she will stay focused on finding truly qualified applicants and on closing the deal.
If you do some investigative work before hiring a business broker by researching the firm, you shouldn’t have to worry about signing an exclusive listing agreement. These documents will help to protect both your interest and your brokers and strengthen your working relationship to ensure a successful sale.
