Selling A Café Business

I already said  that I hate the topic about giving up a café business and I was really surprised when my said blog article hit high in the statistics of most read posts on this site. As a matter of fact, today, more than a week after I posted the said blog, it is still number 2 in the list of my popular posts. What could be the reason for this? Are many among my readers who are café owners planning to give up their businesses? I will not answer these questions because only you know why the subject is interesting to many of my readers. And while we are on this subject, I might as well give my two-cents worth of advice on how to sell a café business. I do not claim to be fully knowledgeable on negotiating this kind of deal because I have not experienced selling any closing business myself.

Let me first clarify the difference between giving up a café business and selling it in my own definitions. You might have noticed that my earlier blog discussed the reasons why a café owner may give up his business and what clearances he must secure when he closes his café but I never mentioned about selling the PC equipment and what to do with the space he is renting for the business. The latter things and some other matters about disposing the assets of the business are what I will tackle on this blog post.

I said in my previous blog that selling your café equipment (including the furniture and fixtures) is an option that you may immediately decide on and unless you have a ready buyer, you may find this matter a little ticklish to accomplish. Let me correct myself here by saying that if you are giving up your café business, you must (not may) immediately decide on selling your café equipment (PC units and peripherals). These assets are bound to lose their values in no time at all due to obsolescence. In many instances, their fair market values are much lower than depreciated values in your book of accounts.

Unless you are lucky to have a total newbie as buyer, chances are that  when you sell them nowadays, you can only get thirty (30%) of what you paid for the PC equipment, furniture and fixtures that you bought one (1) year ago. Your buyer, especially someone who is already engaged in café business, knows that he could get brand-new units with supplier warranty at half the amount you spent one year ago. That’s how fast the prices of computers are going down. They are of higher specifications now at much lower cost than before.

Unless you still have remaining years in your term of lease for the space of your café, your investment on local area networking (LAN) and leasehold improvement will go for nothing. Contract of lease nowadays are usually renewable every year so unless your lessor agrees to renew it with your buyer, you cannot recover any amount on the costs of the things I mentioned. In the unusual situation that your buyer can take-over the space where your café is located, you can expect no more than half of your investment on LAN and leasehold improvements to be paid to you.

NOTE: Your comments are welcome here but you may wish to proceed to Café Forum for your questions and comments.