Why is confidentiality so important? Many deals do not succeed when confidentiality is breached. Confidentiality plays a critical role when selling your business. In this article we will take a look at why selling a business is a process that depends upon confidentiality.
What Happens When Confidentiality is Compromised?
Failure to maintain confidentiality can lead to negative reactions from a range of parties. If vendors or suppliers find out that your company is for sale, it can have a negative impact on your business. Vendors can begin to change the terms they have established with you. Even a small change might end up not being minor at all. It could impact cash flow. The same can be said with your creditors. They could also suddenly change their terms.
Your employees and customers might begin to worry if they find out your business is for sale. Employees could start looking for new jobs. More significant is the fact that the loss of key personnel could cause your buyer to have cold feet. Your customers might stop using your business.
You don’t want your competitors knowing that you are selling your business. If your competition gets wind that you may be looking to sell, they may take advantage of the situation and start attempting to steal your customers.
Business owners may set out to sell their business on their own. This decision can put them at higher risk for confidentiality breaches to occur. A business owner is much more likely to accidentally reveal who they are. This will start to cause things to go wrong. When you are in the process of selling your business, you will want everything to appear as steady and reliable as possible.
Keeping Up Appearances
When you are in the process of selling your business, you will want everything to appear as steady and reliable as possible. When a buyer is assessing your business for a potential acquisition, you don’t want anything showing up on the radar that could give them pause. It is important to show that the business is operating in a successful manner and there have been no recent changes.
EBIT Associates has a proven strategy that will keep the news that your business is for sale confidential. We evaluate all prospective buyers. EBIT uses a reliable confidentiality agreement that will protect your best interests. A confidentiality agreement will help maintain secrecy during negotiations.