Create your own data room.

In years past, a buyer’s lawyer would enter a private room at your lawyer’s office called a “data room.” Here, they’d inspect financial and employment records, as well as documentation regarding intellectual property ownership and previous and ongoing legal disputes. Most data rooms are now virtual and the professional teams acting for the buyer and the seller usually email documentation to each other. Create your own online data room as soon as you can and ask your accountants, lawyers and managers to submit updated reports every month. Delays in providing information can upset buyers — something you want to keep to a minimum.


Tip You don’t need to cure all the imperfections in your company before putting it on the market. A common myth among sellers is that buyers want spotless, perfectly run businesses. They don’t. All they want is a company they can add value to and Kazakhstan Telemarketing Data they expect a certain degree of imperfection. Running your business like nothing else is happening Once you’ve settled on an exit strategy for your business, don’t spend any more than 30 minutes per day on it, even if you have a deal on the table and it’s going through due diligence. Concentrate on running your business as well as possible to retain and build on the value you’ve already created. Buyers will expect this and they’ll be able to monitor if you’re protecting their interests from the updated information in the data room.



Proceeding with business as usual while simultaneously preparing for the future is the best way to be ready for a voluntary or involuntary exit. Bruce Hakutizwi contributed to this article. Mark Fairlie Mark Fairlie Contributing Writer at business.com Mark Fairlie has written extensively on business finance, business development, M&A, accounting, tax, cybersecurity, sales and marketing, SEO, investments, and more for clients across the world for the past five years. Prior to that, Mark owned one of the largest independent managed B2B email and telephone outsourcing companies in the UK prior to selling up in 2015.