Prepare to Maintain Confidentiality.

To maintain privacy throughout the selling process, take these steps:

Have a confidentiality agreement ready for presentation to serious, qualified buyers.  Be sure to include a clause that ensures mutual confidentiality and an expiration date that allows the confidentiality assurance to expire, usually after two years.

Establish a private email account for use exclusively with prospective buyers. Otherwise, you risk tipping off employees and causing concern within your business. Instead, invite buyers to send a confidential email to a non-business address, which you set up exclusively for the purpose of business sale communications. Don’t use your personal name, as it’s too easily traceable, but rather create an address that disguises who you are. For example, plumbingoffer7@gmail.com or even a line-up of random letters and numbers.

Direct calls to a non-business phone number, and be sure to answer the phone or offer a voicemail message that conveys appropriate greetings to business buyers. Keep in mind that your home phone may not be appropriate here, as employees, vendors or competitors who know you personally might recognize your phone number or your identity on your answering machine.

Even with a signed confidentiality agreement, until you have a letter of intent or a buyer’s offer in hand, don’t share proprietary processes, trade secrets, client lists, or financial details about your business.

Your sale offering likely listed annual revenues and owner’s cash flow, along with asking price. Don’t share further financial details until the prospective buyer has demonstrated clear ability to purchase and pledged to maintain confidentiality. Be prepared for questions from employees and associates, who may suspect your sale intentions.

You can be truthful without spilling the beans. You can say you’re developing an exit plan to ensure future stability for your business; you can say you’re talking to potential partners or successors without out-and-out announcing they’ll be replacing you near-term. If people ask, “Are you thinking about selling,” you can follow the suggestion of Appraiser Glen Cooper and answer, “Sure, I’ll always talk to someone who wants to buy me out! Did you bring your check book?”