Direct Talk

. If you want to sell your business five years from now, the decisions you make today will have more impact on the sale price and the smoothness of the process than anything you do in the final year before you list it. Most small business owners do not think about selling until they are ready to exit. By then, several years of avoidable problems may have accumulated, and the best time to fix them has passed. This post is for the business owner who is not ready to sell yet bu

When a seller signs a purchase agreement, they are making binding statements about the business. Those statements form part of the foundation the buyer is relying on to close the deal and pay the purchase price. If those statements turn out to be false, the consequences can be significant. It is common for the seller’s owners to make those representations and warranties personally.

The purchase agreement is the document that makes a business sale real. It is where the deal gets reduced to binding obligations, and where the negotiated details get locked in as enforceable terms. For buyers and sellers alike, understanding what should be in a purchase agreement, and what to watch out for, is essential before you sign anything.