In my mind, a coffee shop has to be one of the greatest businesses to own and operate, just because of how good people feel when they’re in their favorite coffee shop. You make some wonderful friends, and the environment is often upbeat and inviting… just the kind of place people want to be. However, you may find yourself either needing or wanting to sell your coffee shop, so this article is designed to give you a few pointers on the best way to go about doing that.

The same things that make owning a coffee shop so great are what can help make it easy to sell. There are always plenty of buyers out there, people who have the dream of owning a great cafe or coffee house. These people will become your prospects, and your goal should be to do two things…

1. Package your retail coffee business for sale in such a way as to appeal to these serious buyers.
2. Put your ad or listing in front of as many of them as possible.

Let’s take a look at the first goal. How can you package your business to appeal to the greatest possible number of serious buyers?

Get Your Books In Order

First, make sure your accounting and books are in perfect order. The number one thing interested buyers want to see is the numbers that indicate where your business stands regarding revenue, expenses, and profit. Whatever you do, don’t try to cook the books, or in any way exaggerate It will only come back to haunt you later in the form of lawsuits over misrepresentation and fraud. The simplest way to sell any business is to make it easy for a prospective buyer to get the information they need to make an informed decision, and having your books in order is the best way to do that.

Clean and Freshen

Second, give your store a basic clean up and face lift. I’m not talking about a major renovation here, or spending a lot of money. But, similar to the way you might stage a home you were trying to sell, make sure your business is putting it’s best foot forward, so to speak. Clean, freshen, and brighten up everything, including your unseen prep and storage areas. You wouldn’t try to sell your used car without at least running it through the car wash, would you?

List Strengths AND Weaknesses

Finally, list your coffee shop’s five greatest strengths and five greatest weaknesses. Listing the strengths is an obvious one – you do that so you will know what features to stress when it comes time to advertising and communication with prospective buyers – but why in the world would you want to list weaknesses? Simple… so you will be as prepared as you can be to overcome your buyer’s possible objections. The more ruthless you are in this self examination, the better prepared you will be to deal with these objections as they arise. You may even find some things you can easily correct, so don’t skip this important step.

Now that you have gone through these preparatory steps, it’s time to think about how to get your coffee shop for sale in front of the greatest number of serious, qualified potential buyers. We’ll deal with that in another article. Apply these tips and sell coffee shop ideas, and you will position your business to command the highest possible price in the fastest time possible.