About two years ago I sold my business and learned more in that transaction than I ever did going to business school. Negotiation replaced John as my middle name and as I worked through the due diligence process I saw how important it became that the next 30 days would be the difference in many zeros on the end of the exit I might get.

So when I came across this article on “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Business” and saw the following list:

1. Insufficient Preparation
2. Overconfidence
3. Unwillingness to Leverage Professionals
4. Taking a Hands-Off Approach
5. Failure to Pre-Qualify Buyers
6. Misrepresentation
7. Pricing Problems
8. Only Entertaining All-Cash Offers
9. Breaching Confidentiality
10. Failure to Address Transition Issues

Over the course of the sale of my business I probably made half of these mistakes. Mostly it was around not having everything together and then once I got a professional to help me I didn’t stay as engaged as I would have in the past. I don’t know if it was burn out or wanting to move on to the next thing. Maybe a little bit of both. The other thing I didn’t really do well was look at the transition. I tried to sell it, stay for a few months and move on. Ultimately, that choice left money on the table and the culture of the acquiring company made it hard to maximize the full value of the business once it was acquired.

I would add a #11 to the list – Find a good fit – If you are lucky enough to have multiple parties interested, you are trying to balance maximizing the valuation with finding the best place that the business will thrive. Because rarely you will have an all cash deal that you can walk away from the minute the ink is drying on the page. You will likely have to stay and meet certain numbers to get the money in the deal (called an earn out) and then walk. Culture was not mentioned in point #10 but if you are to find a home for your business, it needs to be a happy home.

I would take a read of the full article over at Entrepreneur.com and see if you might be at risk for committing any of these mistakes.

Things that you probably can’t say on your website, newsletter or press release can now be expressed on your blog to position you as a thought leader. If done right, blogging can help drive new customer acqusitions and positively impact your small business.

Take an hour from your hectic shedule and join Beth Schillaci, President and Founder of villageWorks Communications, an entrepreneur and Top-50 female blogger to learn “How to Blog Effectively to Market Your Small Business.”

This chat is in a tweet chat format and a tweetchat defined by Susan Gunelius as “a pre-arranged chat that happens on Twitter through the use of Twitter updates (called tweets) that include a predefined hashtag to link those tweets together in a virtual conversation. The term tweet chat is sometimes used to refer to conversations that happen on Twitter using hashtags that have not been pre-arranged as a formal chat session. The term can also be confused with the third-party Twitter application, TweetChat.com, which helps users separate tweets related to specific chats to make them easier to follow.”

Tweet Chat Details:

WHAT: Smallvolution Tweet Chat on “How to Blog Effectively?”

WHEN: Thursday, June 24th, 1-2:30PM (EST)

WHERE: http://tweetchat.com/room/smallvolution

HOW: Simply log-in to Twitter and follow the hashtag #smallvolution.

Join other entrepreneurs and members of the small business community on Facebook at www.facebook.com/networksolutions.

Over the last 10 years social networks have gone from nacent places for college kids to share music to powerful hubs of communication and connection that most of us can’t live without. A pioneer in the social network landscape was LinkedIn and for a long time was the only one focused on business users while everyone else was going after the general consumer. Odds are you probably have a LinkedIn profile and if you don’t go to LinkedIn.com right now, sign up and come right back to this post. For those of us that run small businesses, LinkedIn takes on a new dimension. Now it is not only a place to connect with colleagues or be found by recruiters interested in our skillset for a job, it is a powerful tool to market you and your business.

Fix Your Profile First – Make it focused on clients

For many people, LinkedIn is an online resume and when written correctly, it can be very effective. But you are not getting a job with your profile at this moment, you are looking to attract clients. Remember that LinkedIn is about making connections and you need to design your profile to have the impact you want on those connections. I like to think of the profile as talking about introducing yourself at a networking event. People want to know the value in being connected to you not hearing how many places you worked and how you are a master of the universe.

Build Out Your Company Page

Most LinkedIn articles talk about your personal profile but I want to direct you to a lesser known area called the “Company Page”. If you are in a position to connect your company’s web site and verify ownership, you can create a company page. Much like a personal profile, this is focused on company information and those connected with it. This is a combination of company directory, marketing web page and leadership hub. Go to LinkedIn and search on a few companies you know and I am sure most will come up. There is great help on the LinkedIn web site on setting this up so I won’t bore you with the details.

Think of Yourself as a “Thought Leader”

I know, that term is so played out but it is really something that continues to apply. You can’t call yourself a “Thought Leader”, that moniker has to be imparted on you by others. Just like how you can’t call yourself “innovative” or a “futurist”. However, if you want people to recognize your authority and knowledge in an area, especially the thing that your small business focuses on, then you better work on becoming a thought leader.

One simple way to do that is to add some LinkedIn Apps to your personal profile. SFGate.com has a great list of five LinkedIn apps you need to have on your personal profile. This will show people what you are up to like what you are reading, your writing on blogs, presentations and other stuff. Here is the list:

1. Reading List by Amazon
2. WordPress
3. Slideshare
4. Events
5. Company Buzz

Use Groups and Answers to Extend Your Reach

Another powerful way to extend your reach and connect with people in addition to demonstrating thought leadership is the use of “Answers” and “Groups”. Groups are just that, groups of people focused on a topic. Someone moderates a group and it has members. You can create one yourself and establish leadership in whatever area you want.

The other side is the use of “Answers”. It is a place where people pose questions to things they need help with and looking for an expert to answer. Be careful with this one though. When people pose a question they are not looking to be a spammed, they are looking for help. The proper etiquette is to answer the question publicly adding your input to the list and getting credit for helping then sending a private message with contact info if they need more help. I recently was shopping for business insurance for a film project and got 16 answers in about four hours. 12 were useful, four were spammy and out of the 12 useful ones, six reached out privately and based on their public answers, I engaged about three of them to get a quote and one will eventually get my business.

Are You Marketing with LinkedIn? What is working for you?

So are you currently leveraging LinkedIn to market your business? Any tips and tricks you would like to share? Please leave a comment.