If you own a business and wish to sell it, there are a few ways you could make this sale occur. We will examine the different types of business sales that you might want to engage in.

Full Sale:

A full sale of your business is the most common type of sale. It means that you are selling everything you have in that business to the potential buyer. You will not keep anything. You will be completely out of the business once the sale has gone through. You also get the most profit from the full sale. If you have intellectual property, patents, and other similar assets they would need to be included in this type of sale.

Partial Sale:

Under partial sales there are numerous options. The first one is a sale in which you sell just the inventory, brand name, and business plan. In other words this sale does not include any property. You may also retain the intellectual property, though this is not necessary. The person buying in this situation would have to find their own location. There are two ways this type of sale is useful. One is that you never owned the building you were in; therefore it is more like a full sale because you have no property to go with it. The second way is that you want to retain the property based on the fact that you have another business or use for the property your current business is in. You may also enter into an agreement with the new owner.

For instance, you may want to retain the property, but you do not mind letting the business remain in the property. Therefore, you allow the new owner to pay you a rent for the building. They have the option of paying the rent or moving the business out.

Another partial business sale is where you actually keep an interest in it. You may share the profits of the business with another investor. There are two reasons this type of sale occurs. The first is that you want to retire, but still want a part of the profits the business generates. You turn over your ideas to the investor who will run the business. This investor is often an employee who is slowly buying the business from you and running it for you. The second option is that you need an investor to help advance the business. You are still going to be running it, but you have gained a silent partner.

As you can see there are a few ways to sell your business. You need to determine which option will be right for you. You also need to see if the market can handle one type of sale or the other. If you want to fully retire with no hands in the business, is it possible? It might not be possible if an employee is going to be buying the business. On the other hand you may not be able to make a partial sale.