When You Need to Sell a Business: Where to Start and How to Get Results

1. When You Should Consider Selling a Business

You should sell a business not when “everything is on fire,” but when it is still growing.

Buyers are not buying past achievements—they are buying future potential.

If a company has stable revenue, well-established processes, a recognizable brand, and a clear management structure, that is when it is most liquid.

Key signals that it’s time to prepare for a sale:

• Owner burnout—when motivation or inspiration is gone.

• A market or technology shift that requires major investment.

• The business has reached a ceiling and needs a stronger partner to scale.

• Strategic repositioning—for example, exiting a non-core asset.

In InVenture’s experience, the most successful sales happen when the owner plans the deal in advance—3–6 months before the actual exit.

2. How to Prepare a Business for Sale: From Numbers to Narrative

Before going to market, the business needs to be “put in order.” This is an internal due diligence period that includes three areas:

Financial preparation

• Align reporting: show real cash flow, profitability, and margins.

• Remove excess expenses or assets not related to core operations.

• Prepare analytics for the last 2–3 years: revenue, EBITDA, customer structure.

• Demonstrate stability—even if the market is changing.

Legal preparation

• Review the corporate structure, ownership interests, contracts, and licenses.

• Eliminate any risks: litigation, debts, land or lease issues.

• Ensure a clean ownership structure for an investor—this can reduce the deal timeline by several times.

Marketing preparation

• Present the business as an investment product: clear description, visuals, positioning.

• Prepare an investment teaser (1–2 pages) or an investment memorandum (up to 10 pages).

• Add key photos of production, facade, team, and product examples.

3. Business as a Product: How to Build an Offer

A business without clear positioning will not interest even an experienced investor. That’s why it’s essential to “package” the offer as an investment product.

A strong offer structure includes:

• short business overview (industry, format, specialization);

• financials (revenue, profit, EBITDA, margin);

• assets (real estate, equipment, trademarks, patents);

• market and customers;

• growth potential;

• deal terms (price, stake, sale format).

Example:
A confectionery business in Vinnytsia region was successfully sold through InVenture. The owner provided structured financial information, photo materials, and a customer list, which made it possible to quickly find a buyer for $1.4 million.

4. Business Valuation: How to Set a Real Price

Incorrect valuation is the main reason businesses don’t sell. Owners often overestimate the “emotional value” of the company, while buyers look only at the numbers.

Main valuation approaches:

• EBITDA multiple — the most popular method for operating businesses.

  • Small business: 2–3× EBITDA

  • Mid-sized: 3–4× EBITDA

  • Manufacturing or agribusiness: 4–6× depending on assets and market.

• Asset-based valuation — for capital-intensive businesses.

• DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) — suitable when there are long-term contracts and predictable cash flow.

In practice, the best results come from a combination: assets + profitability + growth potential.

5. Business Marketing: How to Capture Investor Attention

Your business is a product. It must be attractively packaged, clearly described, and precisely positioned. Every sentence should answer the investor’s question:

“What do I get if I buy this business?”

Key selling messages:

• a unique business model or niche product;

• a stable flow of customers and profit;

• operational autonomy (the team runs the business without the owner);

• potential for scaling or export;

• predictable investment payback.

6. Online Promotion: How to Find a Buyer on the Internet

The internet has become the first place where deal interest is formed. But it’s important to understand the difference between general classifieds and professional investment platforms.

Unlike general boards like OLX or RIA, professional platforms are seen by people who are specifically looking to buy a business. Key advantages include professional moderation, a targeted audience, SEO promotion, and investor newsletters.

Specialized investment portals

Platforms like InVenture focus on professional investors, entrepreneurs, and funds. They don’t just publish listings—they run full marketing promotion, including:

• promotion via an in-house marketplace (200k+ visitors/month);

• targeted campaigns on LinkedIn, Telegram, and Facebook;

• email newsletters to registered investors;

• publications in partner media and in the in-house magazine Investment Digest;

• promotion of video reviews on YouTube.

With this approach, even niche businesses get exposure to real buyers with check sizes of $100k–$5m.

7. Offline Sale: Negotiations, Brokers, and Face-to-Face Meetings

Selling a mid-sized or large business rarely ends online. The final decision is made offline—through personal meetings.

In practice, the process looks like this:

1. InVenture or a broker compiles a list of potential buyers (Ukrainian and international).

2. An NDA (non-disclosure agreement) is signed.

3. The business is presented, the asset is visited, and financials are reviewed.

4. A potential buyer submits an LOI (letter of intent).

5. Then—due diligence and preparation of the sale-and-purchase agreement (SPA).

Example:
InVenture supported the sale of an agribusiness with a 4,500 ha land bank in Chernihiv region valued at $4.3 million. The deal was made possible precisely through the combination of online promotion and offline negotiations with target investors.

8. Common Seller Mistakes

• Inflating the price without financial justification.

• Posting the business simultaneously on many websites/classified boards (reputation loss).

• Disclosing confidential information publicly.

• Lack of marketing materials or low-quality content.

• No negotiation strategy—when the owner “burns out” emotionally.

Remember: businesses are not bought “because of a discount,” but because of confidence in future profit.

9. How to Get Results: Practical Tips

• Start with preparation: financial reporting, audit, legal cleanliness.

• Build a marketing story: not just numbers, but a narrative—“what the investor will gain.”

• Use multi-channel promotion: portals, social media, newsletters, partner media.

• Involve professionals: brokers, financial advisers, lawyers.

• Manage reputation: respond fast, be transparent, don’t post the business on 10 boards at once.

• Be ready for negotiations: every investor has different motives—sometimes it’s not only profit, but also synergy.

10. Conclusion

Selling a business is not the end—it is a logical completion of one stage of development.

A successful deal does not start with “a listing on a website,” but with the right strategy: analysis, positioning, marketing, and trust.

When a business is prepared, the offer looks professional, and promotion is systematic—the result is inevitable.

Because in reality, what is being sold is not a company, but the opportunity to continue its story in new hands.

Selling a business in Ukraine — posting a listing on InVenture will help you sell your business faster