What to Consider When Restructuring or Selling Your Business?

In a difficult and challenging business environment, if you're considering a significant change, your mind is no doubt brimming with questions. What are the factors to consider when restructuring or selling your business?

Okay, I decided to restructure my business. What's the best way to do this?

It's true that restructuring is never easy but if it's necessary to keep your business thriving, then there's a process that you could follow to keep the stress to a minimum.

• Create a proposal outlining the reasons why roles need to change for the business to be succesful.
• Inform the employees that you're proposing a restructure and invite them to a meeting at least 2 - 3 days later to learn more.
• During the meeting, discuss your proposal on how to implement the restructure. It's significant for the staff to feel that they're part of the process so encourage participation by asking for their feedback. If a redundancy is a possibility, it's important that you show an open mind as to what should be done to promote the business's objectives.
• Proposed amendments to an employee's terms and conditions must be documented and provided to the employee with notification that they're entitled to seek independent advice. They must be given a reasonable opportunity to seek that advice.

I want to sell my business. How to make it ready for sale?

Selling your business involves a lot of homework. You need to get it looking as "shiny" as possible before getting it valued by an accountant. Here's how to do it:

• Sell assets that you’re not using, stop investing in long-term projects and put together a realistic financial forecast.
• Prepare a business plan that includes how well the business is running and your plans for growth. When you book a Business Planning Session with us, we will discuss and set the business goals for the next 12 months. We will also discuss action plans with strategies to support achievement of the goals.
• Sort out any legal issues or staffing problems.
• Bring health and safety, cloud solutions, and bookkeeping software up to date.
• Get your website and social media active and updated.
• Talk to us about ways to boost your sales revenue and pre-sale profit margin. Remember it’s the last two or three years’ profit, and future maintainable profit, that determine the value.