Writing Tips For Your Restaurant For Sale Advertisement
October 2006

Writing an advertisement for trying to sell a restaurant comes natural to some, but some people need help to try and boost their exposure. Here are some tips we have found helpful over the years.

FOR CONFIDENTIAL SALES ADVERTISEMENTS

1. Make your title unique to your location. (Don't Just writhe "Mexican Restaurant For Sale") Your listing is obviously for sale if it is on our site so don't waist the space with that phrase. Try and enhance the title with the most positive attributes of the listing. For Example

   • Emphasizing Location: Mexican Restaurant in Prim Location

   • Emphasizing Cash flow: Mexican Restaurant Profiting $500K

   • Emphasizing Revenues: Mexican Restaurant Doing $3 million in sales

   • Emphasizing Lease: Mexican Restaurant with Below Market Lease

   • Emphasizing Liquor License: Mexican Restaurant + Liquor License

   • Emphasizing Remodel: Newly Remodeled Mexican Restaurant

   • You can find other things to emphasize. These are 6 popular things to emphasize and you may have multiple things you want to emphasize. The important thing is to keep it unique to try and get more interest.
      

2. Describe your location as best you can without giving away the actual establishment. Unless you are in an unusually small city or town you should usually be able to identify the city or at least county. If you still think that will give the location away, then be more general. (ie. Upstate New York)
    

3. Always include an asking price! People want to have a ballpark figure of what you expect as a seller. If you price well and have a good establishment which receives multiple offers, you have more of a foot to stand with to achieve a higher price. Not having an asking price, unless it is a pure lease deal, usually attracts a clientele which are not as serious.
    

4. Complete these fields: Square Footage, # of seats, Lease/Rent, Revenues, Cash Flow
   This is especially important for independent restaurants as these are the first thing they are going to ask you when they contact you if it's not already disclosed. The more information the better. The one place you may not want to include information, is in the Cash Flow field if it is not a positive number. This can be disclosed later when the buyer contacts you.
    

5. In your detail description include as much as you can in terms of demographics, surrounding demand generators such as Universities or Medical facilities, etc. This helps sell your listing and attract leads from people who may not know the city or county as well. On Restaurants For Sale Online we frequently have people buy establishments across the country. When people are given more information it generates there interests.
    

6. In your detail description list all the equipment which you are planning to include in the sale. Many buyers are actually chefs that have been in the restaurant and know what they are looking for. By having a list of the equipment they can evaluate your listing more effectively and determine how much money they will have to put into the place to equip themselves properly, or maybe they will realize you have all the equipment and no further investment is necessary.

FOR NON CONFIDENTIAL SALE ADVERTISEMENTS

1. If your sale is NOT confidential, the best thing we can suggest in addition to the information above is PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES! Good pictures are truly worth 1000 words, and if you have good exterior and interior photos you can include up to 6 on your ad. We recommend 1 good exterior picture (2 exterior maximum), 4 interior pictures of the seating area, and 1 good picture of the back of the house. Every establishment is different based on the features of the location, so feel free to mix it up however you wish.
    

2. If you sale is NOT confidential you should also use the actual restaurant name in the title, and disclose the address of the location. You may also want to link your ad to your restaurant website if you have one.
   
   
   
   
   DISCLAIMER: Restaurants For Sale Online assumes no responsibility for decisions made by buyers, sellers or other parties to any transaction. Information has been provided based on experience and research. The results of various articles and studies reflect such information. Restaurants For Sale Online assumes no responsibility for pricing, advertisement appearance, or recommendation of pricing or advertisement appearance to any of our users. If you are interested in buying a business, Restaurants For Sale Online, LLC recommends you do your own due diligence to verify the source of any information provided to you by a seller and/or intermediary. If you are interested in selling your business, Restaurants For Sale Online recommends you contact an intermediary that specializes in transactions similar to the respective business.