Selling a business can sometimes be a complicated process that is made even more challenging if you haven’t done it before and you don’t have much experience dealing with the legal details involved. Whether you wish to sell your business because you want to start a different business, or because you just want to have more free time and avoid the stress of running a business for a while, the time frame required to sell a business can be quite lengthy, and it can also involve a lot of preparation work.

The first thing you have to do when you are managing how to sell your business is set up a strong marketing campaign with the goal of finding as many interested buyers as possible. Depending on the business, you can use online marketing, fliers, or even direct mail to get results.

As the price is set and buyers meet with the owner and do their research, checking to see all the details and information about the business and the business owner, the process can stretch over many weeks, sometimes only reaching a conclusion after months of deliberations. As a result, when considering that once the buyer and seller agree on the price, there is still much work to be done, the complete process of selling a business has been known to reach 6-9 months in some cases, although that time frame can still vary.