If you’ve owned your pet company for any length of time, there’s a good chance you’ve received an unexpected phone call or email from someone interested in buying your business.
At first, it’s exciting.
They tell you they’ve admired your brand for years. They might talk about all the incredible synergies between your companies. They tell you they’d like to make the process simple, quick, and painless.
It’s flattering—and that’s exactly the point.
I’ve always found it interesting that most entrepreneurs are experts at building businesses, yet many assume selling one will come just as naturally. It’s a little like believing a world-class pickleball player should automatically become a great golfer. Both involve athletic ability, discipline, and competition, but they’re completely different games that require very different skills.
Selling a business is no different.
The reality is that most owners only get one chance to sell the company they’ve spent years—often decades—building. It’s one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll ever make, and it’s also one of the most emotional. You’re not just selling assets or financial statements. You’re selling your life’s work.
That’s why unsolicited offers deserve far more caution than excitement.
Professional buyers know exactly how to build momentum. They’ll often invest months developing a relationship before ever talking seriously about price. They’ll compliment your business, tell you everything you’ve always hoped to hear, and paint a compelling vision of what your company could become as part of their organization.
Then they’ll encourage you to work exclusively with them.
Here’s where many owners unknowingly give away their leverage.
Once you sign a Letter of Intent, the buyer typically has an exclusive period to complete due diligence. During that time, they’re driving the process. What started as a “quick and easy” transaction can become months of document requests, financial questions, legal reviews, and operational deep dives. Occasionally, after all that time and emotional investment, the buyer comes back just before closing asking for a lower price or more favorable terms.
We call it “re-trading” and I’ve seen it happen more times than I’d like.
Unfortunately, many owners enter these conversations without knowing the answers to some critical questions:
- What is my business actually worth in today’s market?
- What will I owe in taxes?
- How much do I need after taxes to comfortably fund the next chapter of my life?
If you don’t know those answers, it’s impossible to know whether an offer is truly attractive.
Negotiating with just one buyer means the leverage and power moves to them as time goes on. One of my favorite sayings is “Options are not optional. Having options and choices gives you power and freedom.”
Competition is one of the most powerful tools a seller has. When several qualified buyers are interested at the same time, valuations often improve, deal terms become more favorable, and buyers are much less likely to play games during the process.
Creating that kind of outcome isn’t accidental. It starts with preparing the business well, assembling an experienced team –a CPA, attorney, and M&A advisor, choosing the right timing, telling your company’s story in a compelling way, and running a structured process that brings all of the offers in at roughly the same time. One thing we never do is set an asking price. The market will tell you what your company is worth, not an unsolicited buyer.
Could that unsolicited buyer ultimately become the winning bidder? Absolutely.
But they should almost never be the only bidder.
My goal has never been simply to help clients sell their companies. It’s to help them achieve what I call a Legacy-Level Deal—one that maximizes value, protects everything they’ve worked so hard to build, and gives them the confidence that years later they’ll still feel good about the decision. I often call it “Happily Ever After Money.”
After all, you will likely only get one chance to sell your business. It’s worth doing it right.
About the Author:
Carol Frank is passionate about business, animals, and the intersection of the two. After starting her career as a CPA, Carol founded and operated three pet companies– a retail pet store, a wholesale distribution company, and a pet product manufacturing company. She then leveraged her experience in both finance and entrepreneurship to start BirdsEye Advisory Group, an M&A Advisory firm that helps pet company founders and entrepreneurs when they are ready to sell their business. She can be reached at cfrank@birdseyeadvisory.com.