Selling your company can be a wise and lucrative business decision, however, mergers and acquisitions are always complicated endeavors for Texas companies. With the right legal advice and strategy, you can ensure a sale goes through with fewer complications and maximized profits. The following are some tips for selling your business and to discuss your specific situation, call The Weisblatt Law Firm today.
Know Your Goals
You can structure the sale of your business in several ways depending on the specific goals you have, as well as the goals of the buyer. Your sale could leave you with equity in the business, stock options, cash, or a combination of assets. In some cases, sellers keep some management rights, stockholder rights, or become a board member of the corporation. Depending on what you want your role and payment form to be, you can negotiate all of these aspects of the sale. First, however, you must determine exactly what your goals are and our business attorneys can help you weigh your options.
Prepare Before Finding a Buyer
Selling a business quickly can hurt your purchase price as you may not have everything prepared to attract the right potential buyers. If you take time to improve your financial records, customer base, business structure, and more, you may be able to substantially increase the value of your business.
Protect Confidential Information
Part of selling a business is revealing important confidential customer information, trade secrets, or other valuable information that demonstrates and supports the full operational value and potential of the company. However, it is always a possibility that a deal can fall through at any stage before it is finalized. To ensure your confidential information is not exposed by a potential purchaser after a failed sale, you should always limit what you reveal to a minimum. In addition, you may be able to include a confidentiality agreement as part of the letter of intent negotiations, after which you can reveal more detailed information.
Conduct Your Due Diligence
The due diligence process is most commonly associated with buyers of businesses. However, sellers must also perform due diligence to ensure they do not engage in careless selling or misrepresentations regarding the state of their company. Sellers who carelessly sell a business and cause stakeholders to lose money can face legal liability so it is important to ensure a buyer is creditworthy and the business is valued correctly.
The above are only some of many tips that business owners should consider when they are thinking about selling their companies. It is critical to discuss any additional considerations regarding your specific business with a highly experienced attorney.
Contact a Texas Business Law Attorney Today
The Weisblatt Law Firm regularly helps Houston businesses with every step of mergers and acquisitions. These are complicated transactions with a lot of money at stake, so you always need the right legal representation from the start of the process. We will evaluate your options and help maximize the success of your business. Please call today at (713) 666-1981 for a free phone consultation regarding the legal needs of your company.
Attorney Andrew Weisblatt
Mr. Weisblatt has practiced continuously since becoming licensed in 1992 and has represented businesses ranging in size from one person start-up ventures to multi-national corporations employing hundreds of people in multiple countries. From 2005 through 2009 Mr. Weisblatt was in-house counsel and chief operating officer of a multi-national corporation in the steel products industry. That in-house position provided valuable insight into how businesses work and what they actually need from their lawyers – both in-house and outside counsel. Attorney Bio
