Need ideas/help for selling a business quickly

[jkarolyi]

My mother-in-law has owned a successful physical therapy business in the Claremont, CA area (near Los Angeles) for over 20 years. The business has been very profitable for all years, except this past year it barely broke even due to her time being diverted to another family business (her husband's). She has 30 regular clients, but more referrals need to be recruited to make the business pay as well as it used to. The rent on her office is very reasonable...around $1000 per month. She is ready to retire from physical therapy (she is in her 60s) and devote more time to the other business.

She plans to just close the business and eBay the equipment if she cannot find a buyer for the business by the end of the month. I think that's hasty, and she could find a buyer if she marketed it. Physical Therapy is a growing industry and I imagine a younger PT would love a ready-made practice. She is willing to take a fire-sale price of $20,000 including all equipment which is worth that itself.

Business brokers say it would take 6 months or more to sell it, and she isn't willing to wait that long. Any ideas of how to sell it more quickly? We advertised it on Craigslist, but would like to hear about any other online business classified sites. Ebay has very few businesses for sale.

[stomachmonkey]

Offer a partnership to a young PT then "hold the note"

[Don Plumley]

While you could list it on bizbuysell.com or similar listing services, I think a well-placed ad in the various physical therapy publications and associations would do much better. For grins, here's a list from MergerNetwork

She is selling her customer list (goodwill). I've seen quick ratios on revenues from 40% to 60%. But the depressed revenue of the last 12 months, no matter what the reason, is not going to help.

Given the personal liability of the business, I don't think I'd do a partnership as stomachmonkey suggests unless she knows the PT very well. But she could structure a deal where she takes control of the business unless payments at a certain level will be met. And her landlord will need to be willing to assign the lease to the new PT - that might not be trivial either.

In the best case scenario, she'll need 2 to 3 months to find a buyer, reach a deal and have the buyer secure some amount of financing for the down payment.

With just 30 active clients, frankly I think she'd be better off finding a local PT she likes and introducing her patients and ask for a declining revenue share for one year. And sell the equipment to other PTs.

Just my $.02