When you’re thinking about selling your insurance agency, a lot of questions go through your head. Curiosity about the future and self-doubt are natural feelings when you’re faced with a big decision. You will spend a lot of time making sure that the sale goes through correctly, that you sell to the right buyer and for the right amount.
In order to help you to make the right decisions and help you to focus on the right questions, we have compiled a list of 5 important questions you’ll need to answer before you sell your agency.
When Should You Start Planning for the Future of Your Agency?
We can answer this question for you. Put simply, the sooner you start planning for the perpetuation or sale of your agency, the better.
Why Do You Want to Sell Your Agency?
This is a question only you can answer. If you’ve already made up your mind to sell, it’s important that you understand why you came to that decision. There are a lot of stock answers to this question. Agency owners say they want to grow the business, they want a new challenge or they simply want to retire.
There are times when these answers are true. There are others, when an owner has lost their passion for the business. Whichever answer you give to your colleagues, your wife or your buyer; it’s important that you are honest with yourself.
Where Do You Want to be After the Sale?
This question is linked to the ‘why’ above, but it’s a valid question on its own. When you decide to sell, you should have a picture of where you want to be afterward. That ‘where’ might be still in your office, working with new partners, or it could be working on your bucket list. It really is up to you, but it’s important you’re open with yourself and your buyer about your plans. Most buyers will expect you to remain involved unless you make your intentions very clear during the negotiations.
What Will Happen to the Agency After You sell?
This question will be most important to your staff and your clients, but it should also be important to you. When you’re negotiating with buyers, you’ll get an understanding of their plans for the agency. Your clients and staff will have to work with these plans; so you should be happy that they’re the right step for the business.
Who Will Benefit From the Sale?
You may have an obvious, one-word answer for this question, one that begins with ‘m’ and ends in ‘e’. That’s just one of two ideal outcomes most owners strive to achieve. You’re the one selling so the minimum requirement is that you benefit from the sale. The ideal result of any sale is that everyone benefits, and selling an insurance agency is no different.
When you’re thinking about selling your insurance agency, you’ll have a lot of questions to ask and more to answer. A financial advisor can help to answer your questions. Finding your own answers starts with the five ‘W’s above.
If you are consider selling your insurance agency you may want to read our free whitepaper discussing the indicators of value to your business.
