Write An Online "Business For Sale By Owner" Ad
That Works

Profile# 4365

Retail Furniture & Design Accessories

Location: British Columbia
Gross: $1,350,000                Net: $150,000
Selling Price: $150,000 + stock, leaseholds
Years Established: 17        # Of Employees: 4
Terms: Negotiable
Comments: High traffic location between a Wal-mart and a shopping mall with excellent lease . Boutique designer style store promoting quality with solid wood and real leather furniture, designer accessories and bedding. Easy operation with trained staff & point of sale computer inventory system. Large positive cash flow with protected product lines and established accounts. Established, loyal clientele creates lots of repeat buyers and referrals. Live and raise your family in a friendly tourism area. We are located in the foothills of the Rockies. The town is a crime free, recreation town with great schools and facilities. Owner is retiring after developing a successful respected business over the last 25 years.

* All the information in the "Comments" section is positive and informative without being too long winded. This is a great example of giving people just enough information to get them interested and wanting to know more.

*This business is located in small town in a relatively rural area so the owner has included a few sentences about the town and the lifestyle since it is possible the new owner will have to relocate.

*The owner has kept the location very general in order to protect his confidentiality. A buyer who is interested, but wants to know specifically where in British Columbia the business is located, would now have one more reason to respond to the ad.

Profile# 3085

Full Service Hair Salon

Location: South Florida
Gross: $123,715 YTD
Price: $35,000
Years Established: 11
# Of Employees: 8
Terms: Negotiable
Comments: Growing downtown location, plenty of parking. Long term lease in place. 4 stylists have been with salon for more that 7 years. Two Educators in the beauty industry on staff. Training, and consulting available; motivated current owner-stylist willing to stay with salon after sale.

Comments

*Here the owner has written a little shorter ad than the previous example but there is still a lot of positive items mentioned. Also, the sentences are short and to the point - remember viewers are scanning, not actually reading, so short sentences and phrases work best.

*With 8 employees, the owner wants the sale to remain a secret for as long as possible and so she has given just a general idea of the location.

*One very unique attribute is mentioned:

"motivated current owner-stylist willing to stay with salon after sale".

If it is your desire to stay on as an employee after the sale, I highly recommend you mention that in the ad. Many buyers will love the fact that you would be available to them on an ongoing basis. Other buyers will want to do things their own unique way and would be very uncomfortable with the previous owner staying on permanently. In either case, it's best to let them know up front if you want to stay on as employee.

Profile# 5096

Coffee Shop / Cafe

Location: Bennington,Vermont
Gross: $260,000     Net: $45,000     Price: $132,500
Years Established: 3        # Of Employees: 8
Terms: 50% down, balance @ Prime plus 1% for 4 years
Comments: Great turn key cafe with an existing client base that has consistently increased over time. Everything is in place to take over and take what has already been established and make it grow even more. We provide specialty coffee drinks, breakfast all day, hot and cold lunch items, salads, homemade soups, desserts in a great atmosphere which brings people back time and time again.

Comments

*This owner wasn't as concerned with confidentiality so he included the town's name.

*This owner has given specifics about the financing he is willing to offer. I recommend that you not lock yourself in to specifics and instead just say "Negotiable". But this owner is willing to offer very attractive terms and decided to let people know about it up front in the hopes of generating more response. If you are unwilling to offer any type of financing, that should definitely be in your ad - it's best to let them know as soon as possible that they must find their own financing

Profile# 3244

Archiving & Management Of Files And Documents

Location: Connecticut
Gross: $250,000     Net: 30%      Price: Negotiable
Years Established: 17        # Of Employees: 6
Terms: Negotiable
Comments: Business has been growing at the rate of 30% per year for the last six years. Business is available with or without the real estate consisting of a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse on 2.2 acres. Self storage is also a separate part of this operation and can be available with the file records operation. Market potential is unlimited. Provide services for all businesses and professionals such as doctors, lawyers, hospitals, schools, banks, manufacturers, etc. Many expansion possibilities. All documents are bar coded and managed via professional software. Transitional support available and key personal willing to remain permanently

Comments

*This owner has included some very positive information such as, "growing at the rate of 30% per year." One of the most attractive things you can say about a business is that it's growing. He also mentions, "key personnel willing to remain permanently " If your employees know about the sale and are willing to stay on after the sale, you definitely want to mention that in your ad.

* There is one flaw in this ad. The owner has listed the price as "Negotiable". You should have a idea of what your business is worth and should ask for that amount. Certainly you will have to do some negotiating but by listing the price as "Negotiable" you encourage people to low-ball you. Also, including a price will eliminate all those people who are not close to your price range

Effectively Handling Buyer Responses

Once your ad is up and generating responses, you will need some way to have buyers contact you while maintaining your confidentiality and not interrupting your busy day.

First of all, you need to decide how you want buyers to contact you. I would recommend that you avoid putting your e-mail address in the ad as the method of contact. Doing so will result in you receiving a lot of anonymous requests for more information.

This e-mail is typical of the responses you may get:

Hi:

I need a lot more information on your business. Please send me tax returns and Audited Financial Statements for the last three years as well as your current inventory and a detailed analysis of industry trends.

Thank you,

Bob

I'll admit, this is a little bit of an exaggeration ......... they almost never say please or thank you!

If you use a service other than TheBizSeller.com to advertise your business by owner, I suggest you include a phone number not connected to your business. Prospects can talk to you if you are available or leave you a message and you can call them back.

No matter how well your write your ad you will get some responses from unqualified prospects as well as business brokers and possibly even your competitors. By talking to the prospect on the phone, you have a chance to size them up not just based on what they say but how they say it.

In one good phone conversation you can often accomplish more than with 10 e-mails going back and forth between you and the anonymous prospect. And if the conversation goes well, you can move right on to the next step and send them a confidentiality agreement.

Side Bar

If you use TheBizSeller.com we can help solve the problem of wasting time on unqualified prospects (and a slew of business brokers who just want you to list with them). We require all buyers to complete a Business Buyer Registration form (Click here to view the form) where we collect not just their full name, phone number and e-mail address but also their amount of available cash, their time frame for buying, the geographical location the business must be within, as well as some basic information on their business background.

Of course, this is just a preliminary prescreening, but you would be amazed at how well this simple form separates business professionals with the ability to buy from the pretenders. You see the person with the experience and know-how you are looking for understands how important it is for you to protect your confidentiality and prescreen buyers. They happily cooperate. But the inexperienced prospect with no cash or credit history almost never cooperates and therefore never wastes your time.

Summary:

-Your "Business For Sale By Owner" ad should be short, to the point and always positive.

-It should include a selling price and 4-6 highlights of the business.

-If confidentiality is a concern, don't be too specific about location

-If you are willing to offer seller financing, this fact should be in the ad. But we suggest that instead of listing specific cash down and interest rate, that you just say "Negotiable".

-An e-mail address is not the best method of contact, a phone number is better. But the best system is one like we use at TheBizSeller.com that allows you to collect information about the buyer up front without compromising your confidentiality.

Whatever method you use, it is now time to discuss in more detail, how to handle that initial contact with the buyer once they respond to your ad. How do you determine if they are qualified? Exactly what should you ask them? How much information should you divulge?

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