A Self-Styled Sale May Be the Best Option for Beauty Salon’s Owners

Question: We lease a small space where we run a beauty salon that we plan to sell ourselves. Should we seek the help of an appraiser? Where can we find one? Are there any legal issues we should be concerned about with the transaction?

--Michael and Martha Torres, Bellflower

Answer: A business that is largely oriented toward personal service is not easy to sell, or appraise, because most of the assets involve clientele and the relationships that the proprietor has built with them. Personal skills and relationships are difficult to transfer to a new owner, who might or might not be able to keep longtime customers and employees. Especially if you’ve been leasing the space, there will be few hard assets involved in the transaction besides things such as hair dryers, styling tools and product inventory.

Selling the business yourself is probably a good option because a business broker probably will charge a minimum commission that might be prohibitive for you.

It would be a good idea to get a commercial appraiser. But again, someone who is credentialed will have a minimum fee of about $2,000. Don’t bother with an appraiser who is not certified, though. His or her opinion won’t hold sway with potential buyers. Check the Web sites of the American Society of Appraisers, (https://www.appraisers.org) or the Institute of Business Appraisers (https://www.instbusapp.org) for lists of credentialed commercial appraisers in your area.

You should not run into any legal problems in the sale unless your lease prevents the transfer of the business without the landlord’s permission. Make sure you have the legal right to sell written into your lease. If you find that you don’t, you’ll need to contact your landlord and get permission before you turn the company over to a buyer. Most landlords will want to check out the payment history, credit records and financial viability of the new owner before OKing the transaction.

--Dean Duley, certified business appraiser, Upland

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Q: I have a small business/hobby involving a medical information card I sell called the Medi-AlertCard. I think it’s a good item, but I need help marketing it. I have a Web site, I’ve put information on the product in all my doctors’ offices, and I’ve done a mailing--with little response. I am a senior and need to know what I can do on a fixed income.

--Dan Kahn, Rancho Mirage

A: As far as Internet marketing goes, make sure you have meta-tags programmed into your Web page. These computer codes alert search engines’ Web crawlers to direct visitors to your site when they type in key words that relate to your market or your product. You can hire a professional Web master to put meta-tags in for you, or you can do it yourself. If you enter “meta-tags” as a keyword string at a search engine, you should find many sites that will give you instructions on how to do the relatively simple programming.

Also make sure you are linked with senior associations’ Web sites and various health sites whose visitors might buy your product. And register your site with the various search engines. You can do this yourself as well or purchase Web promotion software that will do the registration for you. The software costs about $120.

You might think about conventional advertising in senior citizens’ newsletters and publications. Start with local publications and expand outward. Contact seniors’ organizations, community groups and health-related networks in your area. Ask if you can do presentations on health concerns related to your product and work up some content for a short, informative talk. Bring sample products and information about purchasing with you.

You can identify seniors’ organizations and publications all over the world by business category, region or ZIP Code on the Internet at sites such as https://www.yellowpages.com or https://www.switchboard.com. Or purchase CD-ROM business databases that will give you this information.

If you have plenty of time but not much money, you can find low-cost or free help with marketing, business planning and general entrepreneurship at many community colleges, universities and at all Small Business Development Centers. Take advantage of workshops, seminars or ongoing classes to rev up your marketing savvy.

--Frank Stokes, small-business consultant, Stokes Pacifique Associates, Los Angeles

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If you have a question about how to start or operate a small business, please mail it to Karen E. Klein in care of the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or e-mail it to business@latimes.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. The column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.