If your business has been a success, you've probably had to pour most of your time, energy, and money into it for what may seem like forever. You may see your company as an extension of yourself, and it may be hard to even imagine life without it. In some cases your entire family may have depended on the business, discussed it endlessly around the dinner table, used it as an education and a proving ground for the children, and practically made it into another family member!

On the other hand, your business may have been only marginally successful, and something you can't wait to get rid of. Or, perhaps you entered into the business with the idea that it would be a short-term opportunity and that you'd sell out whenever you got a decent offer.

Whatever your situation, selling your business will be one of the most important things you'll ever do, because unlike virtually every other business decision you've made over the years, you'll only do this once. You get a single chance to put a price tag on possibly years and years of effort — and once you sign the sales documents, it's over.

You'll come out way ahead, both financially and personally, if you make an effort to understand the steps in selling, formulate your plan carefully with the help of your professional advisors, and, when the time comes, take the time to negotiate a price and terms that satisfy your reasons for getting out of the business.

Even if you think you're many years away from selling out, you should consider what your heirs or successors would have to do if you died unexpectedly. If you don't have a workable exit strategy in place, you (or your heirs) may have no choice but to liquidate the business and sell off the assets piecemeal, getting nothing for the goodwill you've built up over the course of the years.

At the outset, it's important for you to sit down and do some serious thinking about what, exactly, you want from the sale.

Do you want an all-cash deal, so that you can wash your hands of the thing? Or would you be willing to finance part of the sales price? Is it important to you that your daughter, for example, remains with the business? Are you looking for a buyer who'll continue your business traditions? Do you want certain tax advantages in exchange for a lower purchase price? Is there some minimum price (say, a round number like one million dollars) that you must get in order to be happy?

If you're thinking of selling because you want to retire, it's a good idea to think about how much money you need to retire on. Then, you can compare that with thevalue of your business to see whether your plans are realistic, or whether you can afford to be more flexible on terms of the sale.

As with most things in life, you'll have to make some compromises. Rarely does a sale completely meet all of the seller's objectives — or all of the buyer's.

If you insist on getting all the money at closing, you'll almost surely have to compromise on price. On the other hand, if you're willing to finance part of the deal, you may get a higher offer. The more flexible you can be on terms, the closer you'll get to realizing the top-dollar value of the business.

In a perfect world, you'd sell when the national economy was humming along toward a peak in the business cycle, when your industry was "hot" among Wall Street investors, and when your particular business was having a banner year with next year looking even better. That's the time you'd be most likely to receive the most cash on the barrel. The same considerations come into play if you receive an unsolicited offer to buy your business — you'll get the best offers when you are riding high.

However, even the brightest economists can disagree about where the economy is headed at any given point in time, and your industry's moment in the sun may have passed years ago (or may never come). Your decision to sell out will probably have much more to do with your personal circumstances than what's happening on Wall Street. The point we're making is that, everything else being equal, you should aim to sell when things are good, rather than not-so-good or downright ugly.

Regardless of the state of the economy or your industry, there are a number of things you can do to shape up your business to make it more attractive to purchasers. Much as a homeowner would give the house a new coat of paint, repair anything broken, and even put some big flowerpots on the front porch before putting the house on the market, you should spruce up your business as much as possible. This is likely to take a year or more, unless you want to make it completely obvious to purchasers that you were "window dressing" in anticipation of selling out.

On average, once your business is on the market, it will take about a year to find a buyer and complete the deal. If you are planning to sell to family members or key employees, there are special opportunities to save money and taxes, but many of the more creative methods can take three to five years to put into place.

All these factors make it clear that if you know you'll want to sell by a certain point in time, you should start planning for it at least a couple of years in advance. After all, the classic definition of "market value" is the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller,

neither being under compulsion to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. While a deal can sometimes be put together in six months or even less, plainly, your best chance of receiving market value for your business is to allow plenty of time for the sale. Otherwise, you may feel pressured to take the first offer you get, or to accept terms that are less than favorable to you. Worse yet, you may not find a qualified buyer at all.

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