In deciding to sell your business, three factors have to converge: your motivation, your personal timing and your value expectations.
Unless you have the numbers or story to do an IPO, you will always make more money by keeping the business than by selling it. This means the ultimate trigger that motivates you to sell will be some reason other than money. It could be retirement, health, family conflict, major life style change, burnout or a myriad of other reasons.
Even though you need to sell when the market is right for your industry to get the optimum price your business, personal timing is often more important than the market timing. People are ready to retire based on personal considerations more than market considerations.
Realistic value expectations are key. An over-priced business quickly becomes shopworn and the time, money and effort to market it are lost. When your value expectations are higher than the market value, you need to lower your expectations or raise the value of the business.
Raising the value of the business means you have to do something different than you are doing now. Most owners accomplish this by putting together a strategic plan and executing it.