Selling Your Digital Agency? Why an Owner’s Flexibility is Key to Sealing a Deal
When you are looking to sell your digital agency, negotiating the sale will take time. That time will require more than just patiently waiting on the sidelines. It will require a back and forth that will see most owners giving way at some point, be it with regards to the selling price. Also payout terms, or the time it takes to complete a deal. Staying focused on the goal of completing the deal – rather than staying focused on a timeline or a price tag. Also will help ensure a successful transaction.
Your Transaction Doesn’t Live in a Silo
As promising as the performance metrics on the books may look. Also the growth trajectory of your agency is taking place in a complex environment comprised of many players. There will always be a market reality outside of your agency. And a buyer scanning the market will be well aware of this reality. It’s important to show you understand this in practical terms by adjusting deal terms. Also pricing in line with what the market suggests is feasible.
Your Agency Has More Than One Type of Buyer
While you may have your mindset on a specific type of buyer, market shifts mean that not only are price and deal terms a dynamic part of the equation, but the buyer type continues to evolve as well. Larger agencies looking to acquire your client portfolio may have been a classic buyer type in the past, but they are far from the only one nowadays.
Solo-preneurs, in particular, have reshuffled the deck. These high-net-worth experts are sitting at a corporate job or a large agency and are looking to apply their know-how and their network to scaling something they don’t have to build from the ground up. Keep an open mind as to who will be steering the ship following your departure and you will be sure to up your shot at getting the deal done.
Take It One Step at a Time To Sell Your Digital Agency
Flexibility won’t go far if you don’t have a healthy dose of patience when you go to sell your digital agency. Keep a leveled head as negotiations inch forward and continue to be calm post-transaction as well. Staying flexible with respect to how long you will be needed after the date of a transaction will help ensure smooth sailings beyond the moment of signing. Putting in the bare minimum of just 30 days to cash out fast is never recommended. A 90-day minimum that is ideally extended into the range of 6-12 months is optimal to make sure all parties’ best interests have been served.
One Step at a Time
An agency sale is not complete on the occasion of signing the deal. It’s important to understand what happens in the run-up and the post-sale and what sort of attitude can help all involved feel like they’ve hit a home run. Just like a solid workout demands a warm-up and a cool-down, no transaction is complete without buyer scoping, due diligence and transition period in the stages before and after a sale. And just like that workout, your sale will fall into place one step at a time. Staying flexible along the way means that you will be prepared for what the process will inevitably throw at you – and ensure sure that you’ll be there to answer the door when opportunity knocks. Ready To Sell?
