A Business Makeover Can Help Sell Your Business
If you’ve ever watched a show about selling homes, you know that staging, or creating the right appearance, is important for attracting buyers. Businesses can use a tidying up, too. The process and practice may be different, but the result is the same. Helping your business look its best with the help of a few simple tips can generate a quick sale and extra income for you.
External Appearance
Just like when selling houses, curbside view is important. The first thing that a buyer sees when he or she approaches your business may be the imprint left on the mind’s eye, so you want that portrait to be a good one. Walk around the premises with a critical eye. If you see something that needs an easy fix, do it! While you are not going to shell out for new brick facing on a building, you can have your brick washed and cracks in the mortar re-grouted for a fraction of the cost. Wood window frames usually look better with a fresh coat of paint, and sealing around them can decrease utility bills for you and the potential new owner. When you are preparing to sell a property, landscaping can be extremely helpful. With your utility companies’ permission, you can arrange to have a wooden fence placed around unsightly utility boxes. A landscaper will be able to tell you where to plant trees and bushes to improve visual balance and draw the eye to the most desirable features of a building while concealing those that are likely to detract from sale. Remember to allow a few weeks after any large renovation project for the landscape to heal and the facelift to look natural. You do not want your potential buyer to be so distracted by the lines in your freshly laid turf that they miss an important selling feature.
Interior Clean Up
Staging and cleaning house is important on the interior of your business space, as well. If you own a manufacturing business, sell or remove all obsolete items or those that are poor movers. You may have to take a minor hit to do this, but taking that loss can look better on the books than having thousands of dollars’ worth of stagnant merchandise. This will eliminate any need to value old merchandise and can still add to your sales figures. Not only can this improve your financial standing, but also it will certainly improve the appearance of your premises. Sale preparation is also the perfect time to clean out old equipment. Spare parts and old machinery laying around idle decreases the dollars per foot generated on a manufacturing floor, an important indicator of worth. Cutting through the clutter will allow prospective buyers to see where they could place more equipment to generate more revenue. In addition, you can benefit from the sale of obsolete equipment, either through sale to another business as a useful piece or as scrap.
