Achieve a fair price for your company by managing your exit

Its a sad fact that only 8% of small businesses are sold for a decent price. This is not good news if you are relying on selling your business for your pension, or indeed for any other purpose. However, many more businesses would be saleable for fair value if the owners had planned their exit in good time.

Two to three years to get your business ready for sale

You’ll start with a valuation and you’ll probably find it is well below what you need. So, alongside that you’ll need an analysis of your business to show you what has to be done to achieve your price. This may include:

• getting your accounts in shape and audited; 
• some growth, not the least to show your business has potential; and 
• positioning you, the owner, so that on the eventual sale the business can be run either without you or on a planned exit path such as an earn-out. 

You’ll also need to identify who, in the long run, might buy your business so that you can position it to be attractive to them.

Plan and make the changes

Now that you know what has to be done and who you might sell it to, you can get on with planning the changes you need to make to your business and making them happen.

Use the right people to help you make the sale

Having gone to all that trouble the last thing you’ll want to do is to sell cheap. So, do make sure you choose people to help you who have a track record in achieving excellent value.

If you are in this situation and would like to talk to someone about it, please feel free to contact us. We work with specialists in this field and can help in every stage from the initial valuation to making the sale,

You can reach us by email at enquiries@sussexbusinessadvisors.com or by calling us on 01903 828451. We offer all of our new clients a no-obligation initial consultation of up to 2 hours that is completely free of charge.

Business consultancy from experienced business people.

Get back the spark and get back to growing your business

When you started out in business, somewhere at the back of your mind was the real reason you did it. You may not have realised it at the time but it - your dream - was there, driving you along.

If now you feel stuck, burdened down by the day-to-day grind - probably you have lost sight of your dream.

Re-discover it and you'll be surprised at the result.

You'll get back the spark and get back to growing your business.

What is holding you back?

"You've been in business for 'x' years. Is it where you thought it would be after that period of time?"

"Probably behind, but I'm not really sure". Almost certainly you had the inspiration to start your business up, and you may have done a business plan at that point. But you are not really sure now - you seem to have lost sight of your plan.

"If you had three wishes for your business today, what would they be?" Think hard about how you answer that question. What is holding you back is probably in there, somewhere.

What do you really want out of it?

Ultimately that is what we are getting at. Let's face it, you must have thought you could create a better life for you and those closest to you by starting out on your own rather than working for someone else.

Or maybe you just wanted to be famous.

Whatever the reason, if you are stuck now, you must feel also you are not going to deliver the 'bright new dawn' you promised yourself.

So what do you need your business to deliver, so that you personally can achieve those ultimate goals and ambitions? What is your new strategy?

More of the same won't change anything! 

You have to change something in your business that will give you back the spark to drive towards that bright new dawn.

It may be:

• Change your market focus - do the research and go after a different market with higher margins; or
• Find a way to spend more time managing your business - this may mean taking someone on to do part of your old job.

Or it may be a combination of factors - higher margins means taking someone on becomes more affordable. 

Inspiring?

You have re-discovered your strategy; you have looked at your market and decided where to re-focus to bring in the higher returns; and you have looked at your own time management and decided to spend more time thinking about your business rather than doing work for your customers. 

You have the beginnings of a new plan. You can see more clearly where you need to be heading and you should be inspired by that.

And we are there to help if you need us - mentoring is one of our specialites. Contact us on enquiries@sussexbusinessadvisors.com if you would like to talk about your business - we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation of up to 2 hours that will get you some way into addressing your issues.

Business consultancy from experienced business people.

Just who has a stake in your business?

It is anyone who can influence your profit, your cash flow, your reputation, your peace of mind, or even the very existence of your company.

And looking at it from their point of view, if they have a stake in you, you also have a stake in their businesses or in them as individuals - there is a relationship to be managed.

Thinking about who they are and how you are going to build and manage the relationships - the real benefit from doing that is you are less likely to be faced with unpleasant surprises - more peace of mind.

Stakeholders

Just who are they, then?

• Employees
• Revenue and Customs
• Banks and other lenders
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Investors
• Professional services - IT, accountancy, legal etc.
• Local Authority
• Professional organizations / accreditation bodies
• Training providers
• Police - obvious if you supply security staff or services
• Local media
• Family

And there may be more. 

Also, there is a certain logic to this list - once you have staff your obligations to them have to be at, or near the top of your list. And in respect of claims on your cash, Revenue and Customs come next.

Why are they on the list?

Let's illustrate this with a some examples:

• Suppliers: they want you to pay them as quickly as possible, whereas you may wish to delay payment for cash flow reasons - there has to be a balance so both sides are reasonably happy;
• Local Authority: if your growth plan includes a significant new building or change of use, you will need them on your side early on to avoid spending time and money going down blind alleys;
• Training providers: poor training will lead to poor performance and may compromise accreditation; and 
• Family: in return for giving you space to concentrate on your business, they rely on you to contribute to their standard of living, for holidays, for your support for what they wish to do, and in part for their happiness and peace of mind..

Is it worth writing it down?

This is one of those areas that has recently crept into the ISO world, and you may in fact have to write a formal Stakeholder Management Plan for your ISO certification. 

But even if you don't have to, it can be a real help to do a plan - it doesn't take long and is one of those rare easy wins of the modern business environment.

In most cases, all that is needed is the headings and bullet points setting out strategies and plans for building the relationships you need with each stakeholder or stakeholder group - 2 to 3 pages at the most.

And we are there to support you if you need help. We offer a free initial consultation of up to 2 hours - please contact us on enquiries@sussexbusinessadvisors.com if you are interested.

Business consultancy from experienced business people.