How to write an effective ad to sell a business confidentially

We will discuss some of the effective ways to write an ad to sell your business. If you are considering using the services of Synergy Business Brokers, it will give you an idea of our thought process. We work closely with our clients, so the more educated you are, the better off our collaboration will be. These tips can also be used if someone is selling a business that is too small for us to handle.

Selling your business can be a complex process, and our goal in the many blog articles that we write is to help demystify the process.  The goal of writing a great “business for sale” ad is to attract the right kind of buyers, but at the same time, you want to keep the sale of the business confidential.

You don’t want your employees, customers, and competitors to know that your business is up for sale. You can tell them at the proper time when the deal is completed.

The question of how to balance confidentiality with the best description can puzzle some business owners and brokers. As challenging as this task can seem, you won’t have to worry about it if you have proper guidelines. So, are you ready to learn more about writing an effective ad for selling your business?

Be Concise and Informative About The Business For Sale

As you can’t share specific details about your business (due to confidentiality), the ad must be fairly concise and direct. It is usually about one page.

Get straight to the point and provide valuable information.  As most good writers know, you want to lead with the most relevant and best information first.

The type of information you include in a business for sale ad is:

• The type of business, such as a manufacturer, software company, construction business, etc.
• Location: You can state a region or metro area or county. We normally don’t’ state a city unless it is a large city like NYC.
• Asking Price for the Business. You want to leave some room for negotiation but not price it too high to scare off buyers.
• Net profit and Gross Revenue. Usually, you state the most recent year or trailing 12 months.
• Describe the strengths of your business
• Point out Growth Opportunities for a new owner

A concise ad packed with crucial information will be scannable. Provide buyers with general hints about what your business brings to the table. This will help the buyers assess whether your business for sale ad might be of interest.

Keep in mind that the more general information that you include will be the larger pool of potential buyers that the ad will attract. But you don’t have to worry about this because an experienced business broker will require a buyer to sign a confidentiality agreement and provide information about their qualifications before any specific information is released to them.

Focus on Your Business’s Current Strengths

You need to give buyers a solid reason to purchase your business. Differentiate your business from others in that niche by writing about your strengths. The strengths you can write about is the long tradition that your business has, that your business is a profitable business, popular, etc.  Buyers are often looking for recurring revenue and long-term customers, so if you have this, we will want to point that out.

Growth Opportunities

You want to be specific about what a buyer can do that you may not have done to grow the business. For example, if you haven’t done any advertising, you can mention that someone new could grow the business with an advertising strategy.  Or if you have a new promising product in development that hasn’t been marketed yet, you can mention that.  General things like writing about how your business has unlimited potential isn’t the type of information buyers are looking for as much.

Explain Why You Are Selling the Business

If buyers see an ad for a business that sounds amazing and profitable, they might think, “what’s the catch?” Why are you selling the business if it’s so great?

Eliminate their distrust from the very start by shortly stating why you put the business up for sale. Of course, don’t go into detail.  You can say something like “owner retiring” or “owner wants to relocate.”

Providing buyers with an explanation will make them more comfortable about their decision to contact you or your broker. However, if you are just plain tired of the business, we may not put that in.

Include The Business Asking Price

It is best if you have a reasonable asking price but, at the same time, one that doesn’t leave money on the table. We can provide you with a recommendation based on your financial information, strengths, weaknesses, and what comparable companies sell for. Having said they, we try to maximize the value of your business by positioning it properly.

Create an Attention-Grabbing Headline

The headline makes the first impression on the buyers. If the headline doesn’t evoke their interest, some buyers won’t even bother to click on the ad. Or, some other ad with a better headline will steal their attention.

What you should focus on when writing a headline is:

• Make it short
• Use the main keywords.
• State what your business is
• Add an alluring strength combined with the type of business.

The strengths we discussed above can come in handy for crafting an effective headline. For example, rather than using “Manufacturing Company for Sale” for the headline, write “Highly Profitable Manufacturing Company for Sale” or “Growing Manufacturing Company for sale.”

Describe your business as an investment-worthy of buyers’ time. What you’ll gain from this is that you’ll evoke their emotions or, to be more precise – a sense of urgency.

Don’t Oversell Your Business

While you want to attract buyers’ attention, it’s essential that you are somewhat moderate in your description. Using language such as “this place is a gold mine” will detract from your credibility and repel some buyers.

Buyers can distinguish facts from overly salesy phrases. Describing the business as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” or “the best offer on the market” will make you seem desperate.

Instead, rely on facts and details. You can share that your business is growing, has talented employees, or repeat customers. That type of information will get buyers excited about the possibility of purchasing your business.

Help the Buyers Determine Whether They Are a Match

You’ll save a lot of your time and the buyers time if you help them self-qualify themselves. Giving them the information that can help them assess whether they can handle your business will be very useful.

You want to get in touch solely with the people who are capable of buying your business.

For example, the information on your annual revenues will tell them if your business is too small or too big for them. The asking price will let them know if they can even afford to consider buying your business.

If there are requirements such as licensing or specific experience required, you can mention that in the ad.

Keep this information relevant but don’t disclose the details that will compromise your identity.

Edit and Proofread Your Business Ad

Writing mistakes can be a huge repellant for potential buyers. If you aren’t able to post an error-free short ad, how attractive will the business be?

Don’t click that publish button until you are sure that your ad is free of grammar and spelling mistakes. Use online proofreading and editing tools such as Grammarly to check for mistakes and check the ad’s readability score to ensure that it is comprehensible.

Hopefully, these tips will help you create an image of what the ad for your business should look like. Remember to aim for the balance between informative and confidential. Once you write a great ad, your assignment will be to speak with the best buyers and wait for the best offer to arrive.

Synergy Business Brokers

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the benefits of writing the best ad for selling your business. We are experts in this with over 17 years of experience. In addition, we have a 15 step sales process designed to sell your business quickly and for the highest price.

We only sell businesses in technology, distribution, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, services, engineering, education, and transportation. If you have a profitable business in one of these areas with revenues of $700,000 to $70 Million, we offer a confidential consultation.

Simply complete our online form, and one of our Senior Business Brokers will contact you.