How to Prepare for the Sale of a Business

So, you’re thinking about selling your business. Perhaps you’ve received an unexpected offer, or perhaps you’ve been courting a potential buyer for months. Regardless of the particulars, it’s always an emotional decision to sell the business you’ve spent the better part of your adult life building. How do you know when it’s the right time to sell, or if you’ve found the right buyer?

One of our founding Partners, Leslie Quick, has been in your shoes. Les’ father started a discount stock brokerage firm in 1974, called Quick & Reilly. Les joined his father in 1975 as the fourth employee and spent years building it into one of the nation’s leading brokerage firms. In 1998 he was central player coordinating the sale of Quick & Reilly to Fleet Bank (which was later acquired by Bank of America).

Les wrote this white paper to help business owners like you, and to share his experience and advice. In it, he outlines the steps his family took when preparing for the sale of Quick & Reilly, and discusses the key elements to selling a business:

• Knowing when it’s time to sell
• Working with the right team
• Tax considerations
• Family considerations
• Changes to your personal life