Checklist to determine if now is a good time to sell a business online

The amount of reference material on the Internet has made it easier for business owners like you to research competitors and potential buyers to find out how easy or hard it would be to sell a business online. Unlike business owners operating companies three or more decades ago, you wouldn't have to rely solely on market researchers, statisticians, attorneys and real estate brokers to determine if your company has enough value to turn a profit should you decide to move forward and sell a business online.

Even if you've listened to your friends, people who also own companies, sit across from you at dinner tables sharing stories about business sell negotiations they've entered into, there's a good chance that you aren't familiar with the many action steps and decisions that go into a sell a business online process. To help you decide if you're ready to sell a business online and to help you become familiar with the steps involved in a business sell, following is a checklist that includes general process steps. The list is not all inclusive, but can give you a good starting point of information to consider as you start to sell a business online.

• Research the industry or market to determine if it's financially advisable to sell a business online (During certain economic conditions, it may be best to postpone a sell.)
• Determine if you have accomplished what you wanted as the owner of your business (You could refer to your business plan to measure whether you have fulfilled all of the reasons why you launched the company.)
• Find out the value of your company
• Pull together business tax returns, bank statements, SEC annual reports, etc.
• Decide the date by which you want to have completed all sell a business online action steps (Give yourself up to a year to complete this process. You might sell your business online in a few months. On the other hand, it could take eight months or longer to find a buyer and complete the sell. Business 2 Community recommends that you seek the advice of a CPA when it comes to handling financial records.)
• Think about whether you need to hire a business marketing specialist to get the word out to potential buyers that you're selling a business
• Learn about tax implications you'll incur personally after you sell a business online (Depending on the profit the sell brings you, you could end up owing several thousand or several million in taxes, which is another reason why you may want to work with a CPA.)

Other parts of the sell a business online process require you to sit down and tell your family members that you're selling your business. As previously mentioned, you're going to experience emotional ups and downs as the process unfolds. You're going to want to have someone to talk with, someone who will keep the details of the potential sale confidential.

To save yourself from having to deal with three or more different specialists (i.e. financial, real estate, marketing), consider working with an experienced business broker. For example, the Transworld online business portal connects you with potential buyers, documents you need to during the sale and access to brokers who have helped entrepreneurs start and close on several deals.