As a business owner, you have likely spent hours, days, months or even longer agonizing over whether to sell your business. While in a perfect world the hard part would be over, the reality is making the decision to sell is simply the first step in a complicated process.

You’ve made the decision to sell your business. Congrats! There’s no doubt that a lot of stress is wrapped up in deciding to sell, but there’s also a great deal of excitement. As a result, it can be very easy, especially for first-time sellers, to forget that selling a business is a multistep process, requiring careful planning to maximize your potential returns.

If you’ve ever bought a house, you know that the appraised value isn’t what the house typically sells for in the end. It isn’t even what the sellers will use as the listing price in most cases. Most houses sell for a price that is more (or less) than what the seller asked for it. The same holds true for a business being sold.