Rethinking Business Strategy
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It is important to pay attention to your premises and ensure that all equipment and stock is up to date, that your office looks neat and professional and all unsold or out of date inventory is moved on. First impressions of your business count so it's important you make a good one.
You should also use this period to begin looking at your company accounts. Many small businesses are set up to minimize tax but this method of accounting leads to lower valuations as many offers are made by applying a multiple to yearly profits. If you are able to adjust your accounting methods or at least build in a framework that shows the business' true profitability this will eliminate much of the time wasted haggling over the business' value.
It is a good idea to look at the situation with your debtors and reduce the amount of bad debt on your books. Buyers are weary of purchasing businesses where it seems the level of bad debt is too high or businesses where the customers take too long to settle accounts. You should use the preparation period to reduce the amount of bad debt and possibly restructure how certain accounts are paid.
