Advice on how to prepare your newsagency business for sale

Selling a retail business is like selling a house, you need to prepare it so that it looks appealing to prospective purchasers. Selling a newsagency is more challenging because of assumptions about the channel and what a newsagency is can could be, especially today in 2024.

If you have control over the timing, start work on preparing your business for sale six months, preferably a year, out from putting it on the market. This enables you to make changes, benefit from improvement in performance and thereby achieve a better price.

Here are steps I recommend on preparing a business for sale.

1. Make it look and feel appealing. While there are people who will look for a challenge, a fixer-upper.  Most buyers will want two see a business they understand and feel they can run. It needs to look easy for them. They need to be able to imagine themselves as the owners.
2. Eliminate dead stock. Dead stock looks bad on the shelves and looks bad on the books. Purchasers should not pay full wholesale for inventory more than six months old as your poor buying or management is not their obligation. Our view is that anything older than six months is dead.
3. Streamline operations. Make the business look easy to run by ensuring it is easy to run for you.  This means:
   1. The best opening hours.
   2. An efficient roster.
   3. A structured goods inwards operation.
   4. A streamlined sales counter.
   5. Tight back office management.
   6. Job descriptions so everyone knows their responsibilities.
   7. Good internal communications.
4. Maximise profit. What anyone will pay will depend on actual profitability of the business.
5. Be happy. Owners who talk their business down will find it harder to sell the business. be happy and make the business look happier.
6. Keep your social media presence up to date. Today, many people check out a business online prior to looking at it in-store. Maintain up to date Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere.
7. Get your paperwork in order. Early on, get business documents together:
   1. Premises lease.
   2. Equipment lease.
   3. Employee records.
   4. Product forward orders.
   5. Franchise documents.
   6. Supplier agreements.
   7. Details of all forward orders.
   8. Any other documents relating to the operation of the business including manuals for any equipment items.
8. Choose a broker for your circumstances. This could be a local because of the likelihood of a local buyer or a specialty broker to attract someone looking for your type of business from afar.

Success at selling your newsagency business depends on the work you do to prepare it for sale. Focus months, even a years, out can make for an easier and better sale.