“If I talk to a hundred sellers this month, 95 of them will have a higher opinion of the value of their business than what the market does,” Terry offers. “I get it. It was their blood, their sweat, their tears, their investment capital, their 70-hour work weeks, right? The dirty little secret is that buyers don’t care about that. They aren’t interested that you had to finance it on a credit card when times were bad or that you broke your hand moving a piece of equipment or whatever. They care only about learning how the business is performing now.”

Looking through this lens helps identify how business value is affected by various growth and risk factors reviewed by buyers, and business owners can then focus on these to maximize the value for eventual sale.

“That’s why it’s a process,” Terry says. “When you start early, you can build your business to not only take care of you now but to be the type of business that looks right to a potential buyer.”

Another area Terry talks about is confidentiality — both internally and externally. Externally, when customers, suppliers, and others hear of a potential sale, the immediate reaction is the business is in trouble Terry says. Internally can even be worse.

“The employees start thinking they might not have a job so they better start looking,” he says. “Or, worse yet, the employees stick around and become apathetic.”

He encourages business owners to keep confidentiality even though many feel a tug to make their dedicated employees aware. Terry shares examples of why this is so important in his presentation.

“It’s your business and you have to sprint to the finish in order to maximize value,” Terry says. “Until you sit across that table and somebody hands you that big fat check and you turn your keys over them, whose business is it?”