The bigger you are the more you have to plan for the sale

[Clinton]

Selling a business starts long before you put your business up for sale. I've encountered hundreds of sellers in just the last couple of years and what strikes me is that most of them are not ready to sell.

To get the best value out of your business you need to plan well ahead, collect you stats, keep detailed records, keep copies of contracts, have operating manuals for all the moving parts....

Sellers of websites in places like Flippa very, very, very rarely have all of that.

And because they aren't properly prepared they lose out on the best deals. Buyers will pay more for a business that's properly organised and that is not reliant on the seller's goodwill for post sale "support".

James Caan of Dragon's Den fame is starting a business called Bluebox to help companies prepare for sale. Guess when they start preparing the business? Three years in advance! The larger the company the longer it takes, but even for the $10K or $20K site, spending a bit of time preparing will be time well spent.

[WSYSBroker]

I think this is a great idea! Im constantly telling clients to get their books in order so they can sell for top dollar. A system like this is much needed and I am sure it will take off.

[TryBPO]

Good points, Clinton.

Around 12-18 months ago we really started to view our entire business as more of a network of businesses and projects. To that end, we decided to start splitting them up in terms of accounting practices and reporting. It's great for us to be able to keep tabs on each individual piece of our business and look at which are growing, declining, more profitable, etc.

Shortly after that we started looking at AdSenseFlippers to at least consider our possible exit opportunities in the next several years. We decided the time to start tracking everything required for an acquisition/sale was NOW. Over time we've come to realize that it's too closely tied to the two of us and an unlikely acquisition target, so we've been focusing efforts on other tools and areas of our business that can act as standalone businesses to achieve the same end goal, even if it's broken up in chunks.

[KenW3]

Josh Patrick wrote an excellent article, published in VendingMarketwatch.com, titled Elements Of A Successful Business Exit Plan. The article explains the sale of a business as a process and not an event. This article lists 12 steps for the exit process itself.