There are plenty of business brokers out there, but if you’re operating in a niche market such as the pawn industry, hiring a broker that doesn’t have experience in selling pawn shops can mean losing big money.
Business brokers who don’t specialize in the sale of pawn shops are likely to overlook key components that would make your shop special to buyers. They can advertise and show your business to prospective buyers, but if they don’t know the ins and outs of the pawn industry, they’re not going to be able to get you a dollar amount that reflects that value of your particular pawnshop business, period. They simply don’t have all of the insider information and industry experience needed to make the strategic pawn shop buyers pay what it is your pawn shop business is worth.
Some pawn shop owners who are ready to sell hire several brokers to help them try and sell their properties. Hiring several agents has its advantages, but it also creates headaches. Your business is apt to be widely advertised, but on the flipside, you will have to deal with building relationships with multiple brokers and trying to keep track of what each one is doing. Since only the broker who sells your shop will get a commission, you won’t have to worry about paying each one for their services, but you may have some negative experiences with brokers who are less than enthusiastic about selling your business as a result of having to compete with others.
Two of the biggest problems owners who hire business brokers who don’t specialize in pawn shops face are: 1. trying to determine whether the people they’re working with are actually gathering the right information about their shop, and 2. trusting that their broker knows enough about the pawn industry at large to put an accurate value on their particular business.
Why hire a broker who has to learn your business from scratch? If you hire a broker who doesn’t know your business, you will always be at a disadvantage. Don’t hire someone to represent you if you suspect they’re going to have to backpedal and take a crash course in your business just to try and do half as good a job as somebody who already knows how the national pawn companies operate. There are countless minute details that the major pawn companies’ buyers review in order to determine a shop’s potential profitability. Someone who doesn’t know your business isn’t going to be able to anticipate and address what your buyers need to hear in order to submit a bid that is truly worth your while.
There is a certain language that pawn shop owners and buyers speak. The people who represent pawn shop owners during the selling process need to be able to speak it, too. You shouldn’t have to train your broker in your business. You shouldn’t have to tell them what information they need to gather in order to complete detailed financial analyses and negotiate sensibly with buyers. When you’re ready to sell, you’re ready to sell. The last thing you should be worrying about is whether the people helping you do the selling are just as ready.
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