Selling Your Agribusiness: What to Expect
How do I know if I’m ready to sell?
Selling a business you’ve built and grown is often more than just a transaction. It can mark a life change, one that has an impact on your employees, your customers, your family and your community. Many owners want to be confident they’re leaving behind a legacy they can be proud of.
For all these reasons, it’s important to be clear about your personal priorities going into the process.
By the time you read a resource like this, you’ve probably already been thinking about selling for a while. Asking yourself a few key questions can help you be confident you’re prepared to take the next step.
For more on getting ready to sell, check out this handy tip sheet from our friends at Moss Adams.
Want to avoid some of the biggest deal-killers when selling your business? Find out how in this helpful article by Aberdeen Advisors.
Ask Yourself
One of our measures of success at Market Maker Agriculture is that if we buy your business, you’re happy when the transaction is done. That’s about more than just the sale price: it’s about how the deal fits with your personal goals. In that light, here are a few key questions you may want to consider.
- Am I ready to hand the business over to someone else?
- Do I want to sell the whole business or just a part?
- Do I want a role in the business after I sell?
- What do I see myself doing after I sell?
- How does the sale factor into my personal financial goals?
- What do I want for my employees after I sell?
- What do I want for my customers after I sell?
- What will the sale mean for my family?
- Do I have expert advisors to help me through the process?
- To me, a successful sale would look like…
Choosing a buyer that’s right for you
As you work with your advisor to identify potential buyers for your business, it’s important to know which type fits best with your goals, priorities and expectations.
Market Maker Agriculture is what you might call a ‘strategic financial buyer’. We acquire established agribusinesses that complement our portfolio of companies and work to make them even stronger over the long term.
While some financial buyers ‘buy and flip’ businesses, retooling them and then selling them to achieve specific returns, we only ever buy for the long term. Our goal is to preserve and build on what makes a business great in the first place and make it stronger over time.
Because of that, we care about your post-sale goals and vision. If you want to stay on in an active role after you sell and earn income from future growth, we’re open to it. If your aim is to transition and move on to something new, that works for us, too. Our commitment is to the success of the business for years to come.
Common buyer types
Financial buyers
Financial buyers acquire solid, well-managed businesses they can evolve and enhance to be more profitable and attractive to future investors — without taking on responsibility for day-to-day operations.
Strategic buyers
Strategic buyers acquire companies to augment their existing products, services or customer bases, or to expand into new regions. They have operational experience and tend to buy for the long term.
Competitors
Competitors are a type of strategic buyer. They often buy businesses to consolidate their market share, and are often most interested in acquiring relationships with customers, vendors, suppliers and partners.