Selling a business is the most popular exit strategy for business owners. In some cases, there are no successors who want to continue the business; in others, it was always the business owner's plan to convert the business into liquid assets at a certain point. Whatever the reason you want to sell yours, following these tips for selling a business will help ensure that you get the best price and that your business sells.

1) Sell at the right time for the right reasons.

The most common reason for selling a business is that a business owner falls ill or gets too old to continue to run it - the worst time to be selling a business. For one thing, it's going to be extremely difficult for you to deal with the additional stress of selling a business in those circumstances; for another, the buyer will use your circumstances as leverage against you.

So don't wait until then. The right time is when you're still hale and hearty and have a successful business to sell.

And what are the right reasons? Selling a business is very like selling a house in some respects. When you're selling a house, you don't say that you want to sell because the house is too small. You say that you want to move to be closer to work, for instance. When selling a business, you want to sell because you want to pursue a different opportunity or because you're seeking a different lifestyle (such as retirement).

2) Be clear about what you're selling.

Before selling a business, you need to consider what all the assets of a business are and decide what you are selling. Determine what physical assets you are selling and what other assets you have to sell. Selling a business often includes assets such as good will, trademarks or client lists as well as physical assets. The value of these will depend on their quality.

If your business is incorporated, you also need to decide if you are going to sell your business as an asset sale (where you sell everything in the corporation but not the incorporated company itself) or a share sale (where you sell everything including your incorporated company).