How To Sell Your Transportation Business

If you are considering selling your transportation business, you should have all the relevant information you need to do so successfully. Whether you want to sell a trucking company, trailer business, aviation business, or a medical transportation company, there are a few steps to follow.

There are many factors to consider in selling your company, and we have the strategy at Synergy Business Brokers to help you succeed. If you own a transportation company with yearly revenues between $700,000 and $70 million, we have many potential buyers and can provide a free valuation and confidential consultation. Below are some of the steps to take when considering selling your transportation company.

Get a Valuation

How to Sell My Transportation Company

There are many ways you can sell a transportation business. Just as there are multiple routes you can take when transporting goods, there are multiple routes you can take in selling your company. You can try to sell your company on your own, or you can hire a transportation business broker that specializes in your industry. We know from experience that selling transportation companies is a lot of work and requires expertise and planning. Make sure you sell your business effectively by following the steps below.

1. Contacting Transportation Business Brokers

Synergy Business Brokers has a database of more than 40,000 potential, active buyers, several of whom are interested in businesses in the transportation industry. We can discuss the process of selling your transportation business, including the advantages of your business and some of the challenges that you might face. Our goals are to learn about your business to position it correctly and get the right potential buyers for your business. We have potential buyers for subsectors of the transportation industry, including:

2. Free Valuation and Consultation

One of the first steps is to provide you with a possible asking price for your transportation business. We will review your transportation company’s financial information and, with your assistance, examine your salary, benefits, and perks to calculate your owner’s net cash flow. We will also review your revenue trends to determine whether your business has been trending up, going down, or remaining stable. Our focus is on selling transportation companies with net owners’ cash flow of $250,000 to $15 million.

When you have provided us with information on the last three years’ profit and loss and the current year-to-date profit and loss, we can give you a possible asking price for your transportation company. You won’t pay a fee for our services until we sell your transportation company. Synergy Business Brokers has won several awards in our Business Brokerage Practice, and we have a team of brokers that can meet with you for a confidential consultation.

3. Marketing and Maintaining Confidentiality

With your input, we will create a marketing document for your transportation business that we will use to get buyers interested while at the same time protecting your company’s confidentiality. Potential buyers must sign a non-disclosure agreement and provide information regarding their financial qualifications before we offer specific details on your business. From there, we usually need to speak with many potential buyers to determine who is interested enough to make an offer on your business.

4. Meetings With Potential Buyers

Next, we have potential buyers sign confidentiality agreements and provide us with their qualifications. At this point, we begin narrowing down the list of potential buyers to those who are most interested and qualified. We will then provide them with the details of your particular services, products, and location so we can move forward with the most interested buyers. We will answer their questions regarding your business and get an idea of their motivation and timeframe.

Then we will provide you with information regarding each potential buyer’s background and interest before setting up a phone call or meeting. This gives both you and the buyer a chance to collect more information, and this meeting gives you the opportunity to meet with the person who may be taking over your business.

5. Offers for Your Transportation Business

After meeting with the potential buyers, we’ll identify those who are serious enough about purchasing to make a written offer. The goal is always to get several offers, which would give us the best chance to get you the highest possible price for your business. We will discuss each offer with you, including the price, due diligence requirements, terms of sale, the buyer’s interest, whether the buyer needs financing, and how likely we believe the buyer is to close on this deal.

Once we present you with the offers and discuss the details, we can negotiate terms with the best potential buyers. Along with the price and payment terms, we will discuss the transition period the buyer wants, their plans for running the business, and the due diligence that will be performed. After the offer terms are agreed upon, both parties will sign a letter of intent.

6. Due Diligence

The next step of the process is performing due diligence. Due diligence is intended to verify what the seller and broker told the potential buyer about the company. Due diligence also includes identifying areas that could cause issues for the new buyer, like canceled contracts and pending lawsuits. How much due diligence is required can depend on a variety of factors, such as:

The buyer’s background
The size of the deal
The available information
Whether bank financing is involved

For example, if bank financing is involved, the bank will need due diligence information. Typically, the buyer’s accountant will also review the information and may request information from the seller or the seller’s accountant. The buyer will also want their lawyer to review contracts that the seller’s company has with employees, customers, and suppliers.

7. Purchase Agreement Negotiations

Finally, your attorney will draw up a contract and submit it to the buyer’s attorney, who will review it with the buyer. They may then request changes to the purchase agreement. This give and take is typical between buyers and sellers as final terms are negotiated. If the attorneys are unable to agree on how to proceed, an experienced business broker can arrange a meeting or conference call with all involved parties to resolve the issues at hand.

After you and the buyer come to a resolution, the closing date can be set. The purchase agreement may be signed before or at the closing.

Where Should I Sell My Transportation Business?

Transportation companies are different from other businesses. Your transportation business’s location can interest buyers. If a business located in New York wants to transport its product throughout the United States, a transportation company located in Pennsylvania or Tennessee is extremely beneficial compared to a transportation business located in Maine.

So, where should you market your transportation business? At Synergy Business Brokers, we help you sell your transportation business locally, nationally and internationally. No matter where the buyer is located, we will seek out qualified and interested buyers.

Transportation Business Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are common for transportation companies. This is because transportation companies appeal to many businesses that are looking to widen their market reach. To successfully facilitate mergers and acquisitions, you need Synergy Business Brokers on your side. Contact us for transportation mergers and acquisitions (M&A) services.

How to Sell My Transportation Business