Times now are not like they were in the good ol’ days. That holds true also for selling your company. “Back when I was your age” as my grandma says, selling a company was just about a handshake and passing over the office keys. Nowadays, everything seems to me virtual. It’s more online than offline.
I was just interviewed by a Times reporter who asked me to be a tech support resource for his article. He had great questions and will keep him anonymous because his article hasn’t been published yet. I am going to provide a boilerplate of items you’ll need to have ready for the sale of your company. This pertains to if you’re just looking to get out of your company or want to pass it along to the next generation.
Here are the 5 most important electronic info that should be passed along:
- Domain name – Your company’s URL. The ownership rights must be transferred from your domain registrar, i.e. Yahoo, GoDaddy. Also, keep in mind that the value your domain name
holds should also be factored into the overall price your company is being valued at. - Web host – Who hosts your website? It may be the same place who owns your domain name. Similarly, both parties must sign off on the ownership transfer. Don’t forget about this as it’s a pain to make changes without such rights. Further, if other sites link or forward to the main one, this should be divulged. You can check the best hosting services on Mango Media Matter.
- Network info – If someone is buying your computer office network, you’ll need to transfer ownership of the router, switches, Internet Service Provider as well as provide username and password info for such.
- Software licenses – Yup, you’re not in the clear yet. Any client access licenses, such as Windows 10 or Mac OS CD corporate licenses? To do it properly, you’ll need to transfer ownership of this as well.
- Operational software – Got a CRM, register app, credit card merchant transaction program? Whatever you use to make sales, this will also need to be transferred ownership–wise and authentication-wise.
This may seem daunting, but this is our world as we know it today. We might as well call this e-selling your company because we really need to be mindful of all the factors necessary to sell your company. As the seller, all this info, hopefully productive info, should increase the value of the sale. As the buyer, yes let the buyer beware of all this info, and this is the info you should be persistent to attain to make your purchase smoothly. Further, as the buyer, much of this intangible property is what is yielding the productive company you are looking to buy. So, make sure you get all e-property transferred over to you. As a buyer, the last thing you want is to chase down the seller to change web host ownership. This could prevent making website design changes or other significant improvements.