The Complete Guide to Selling a Business

I have an earlier version of this book and absolutely swear by it. I turned to this book originally because the attorney I hired to write the contracts did a terrible job understanding what we wanted. I ended up selling my business using the contract templates included in the book as well as many of the checklists. I'm not a lawyer and I easily understood everything that went into our contracts. In fact, the buyers of our business were impressed that we did all the paperwork ourselves and their attorney approved all of the contracts. Personally, I don't think I would ever take the "DIY" route again - but I know what it takes now! I don't recommend selling (or buying) a business without an attorney or CPA. However, read this book first and you will have a much more informed conversation about what you do and don't want in your contracts when you do go to your attorney and CPA. Use the information from this book to help you interview and hire the right professionals to assist you. I keep this book on my shelf as a great reference and have recommended it to many clients. I refer to this occasionally when a client needs to design their exit strategy. The price of this book is well worth it. Consider it the pre-requisite education you need before spending hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars being educated by a lawyer!

This is an excellent nuts and bolts, basic guide for selling a small company. Fred does a solid job of walking through the basics. The book is geared more towards the "technical" aspects of selling a business - ie contracts, forms, etc etc. Overall, good back ground book.