I am burned out have decided to sell my espresso and gift shop.  I
would like to do this all by the end of the year.  I have
approximately $150,000 in inventory and would like to know what the
best plan is to sell this.  Are there any hard and fast rules?  I'm
thinking week one sell such and such at this reduction.  Week two do
this...etc.  I do have one potential buyer who came to me at the last
minute and so I am waiting for her financing to be approved....in the
meantime, I'm sitting here thinking I need to get some of this
inventory out the door.  What am I to do?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 13 Nov 2005 11:43 PST

glassworks-ga,

Have you been in touch with SBA?

If not, head here:


http://www.sba.gov/


and click on the map, to get to to the SBA office in your area.  

In my experience, they have excellent counselling services available,
at no charge, and tap into the resources of expereienced business
people who have been-there-and-done-it.

Ii certainly can't hurt to give them a call, and see if they can hook
you up with a knowledgable advisor regarding selling your business.

Let me know how it works out.

pafalafa-ga

I don't know how you valued your inventory ($150,000), of course, but
a buyer of the business would be arguing that your cost of goods is
the appropriate value, and also bargaining down from that.  If the
shop is a good ongoing concern, with the holiday period coming along,
you might consider a "Dutch Auction":  marking the goods down each
week  - maybe 10% - starting with Thanksgiving week.
Of course, A little advertising would help, and if the concept of
"Dutch Auction" is unknown in your community, maybe a local paper
would be interested in explaining the subject.

Here is one of the many definitions of "Dutch Auction" found with 
define:dutch auction

"In the traditional Dutch auction the auctioneer begins with a high
asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to
accept the auctioneer's price. That participant pays the last
announced price. This type of auction is convenient when it is
important to auction goods quickly, since a sale never requires more
than one bid. The Dutch auction is named for its best known example,
the Dutch tulip auctions. ...
www.encyclopedia-online.info/Auction"

In your shop, of course, the buyers would only be "bidding" for
individual items that they want and not for all the identical items.

Good luck, Myoarin