Getting Ready for Sale
Selling Your Business – Some helpful hints
Maximise the selling price of your business before you list it for sale. Listing your business for sale without checking the things purchasers will look for first will cause you problems. The sale will fall over or you will have to accept a lower price. Maximise your sale price and safeguard your sale from falling over by properly preparing your business before you sell it.
Here is one example: Mr A wanted to buy a business. The name on the contract was not registered. This meant that the business name could not be transferred because the seller of the business did not own it. Was the business registered as a trademark ? No. Worse, there was an existing registered trademark (not the seller) almost identical to the name of the business being sold. This effectively meant that Mr A could not register the business name as a trademark after purchasing the business, because of an pre-existing almost identical trademark belonging to some one else. The lease also had less than a year to run with no option to renew.
What should the owner have done? Getting their trademark registered would have been a good idea. If not possible with the existing name, re-branding and registereing a business name an trademark. Approaching the landlord for a new term on the lease, preferably with an option. Make the best possible deal you can and then sell ito to the purchaser.
A purchaser does not want to buy a business and then have to worry about registering a new business name and trademark and negotiate a new lease. These are things that the seller is better placed to do. They have known the landlord for longer and presumably have a bit of good will up their sleeve.
When someone buys the business, they expect to have ownership of the name and a decent amount of time left to run on the lease.
About Kalde Legal.
What would you stand to lose if the advice you received was given by an inexperienced or junior lawyer? You would not have the benefit of experience and expertise. The man who founded this firm still administers the advice. That is a rare thing in a world where lawyers employ underlings to do their menial work. Unless you are a ‘big’ client you can be overlooked and given junior or inexperienced lawyers to look after your work. We promise not to do that to you.
Eric Kalde has been principal solicitor of Kalde & Associates Commercial Lawyer since founding the firm in 2001. Prior to that Eric worked in several large commercial law firms in Sydney , and as an in-house lawyer for a large private company.
Over the years Eric has advised entrepreneurs, business leaders of new start up enterprises, and helped manage the affairs of established public and private companies. He brings his wealth of knowledge to his legal practice, books and seminars.
Whilst Eric continues to guide and advise clients on their businesses via his role as principal solicitor in the law firm, he has also begun to share his knowledge via e-books practice guides and seminars.