FAQ
Will everything we discuss be private and confidential? Yes of course, all detail and information stays private and confidential unless you tell us otherwise. We even offer a free NDA to ensure this!
How will you value my business? Harvard Business School publishes over a hundred different ways to value a business. We prefer to talk to you and work out a valuation between us that works for both sides, regardless of any methodology.
My company isn't making a large profit. Can you still help me with an exit, sale or re-financing? Yes, most certainly.
I'd like to retire. Do you help with succession planning? Yes, we do help with succession planning and advice around this.
I have substantial cash reserves in the bank. What will happen to that? In most cases that we work with, we would look to retain a nominal working balance to ensure the business continues the operation, and the rest to be taken out by you. We cannot, however, advise you on the most tax-efficient ways to do this for yourself, you would need to seek independent financial advice for this.
Why would we talk with you instead of our business broker? In our experience Business Brokers do not offer good value for money, they focus on selling the business and often charge large up-front fees, and often over-value companies to a point that no-one will buy them. We choose to work alongside you with no up-front costs to deliver a win-win outcome.
What guarantees do you offer? We do not offer tenuous guarantees of success. We will instead maintain full visibility to you on all activities we work on with you.
Where does the money come from? We have close working relationships with many different sources of money ranging from private, high net-worth individuals, managed funds and institutional lenders.
Can I stay involved in the business if I sell to you? Of course! We're completely flexible on this. Our preference is normally that you stay in and help us with a smooth transition.
Will you "asset strip" and dissemble the business? We firmly believe any business has its best value and worth when kept intact.
Will you keep on my staff? Our aim is to always keep the staff on.
Will our building(s) be put in to the deal? Would you rent the premises from us? Normally, yes - last thing we would need on acquiring a business is to have to immediately re-locate it, and to us it is entirely normal to rent premises of the former business owner.
Do you invest your own money at all? Yes, usually in conjunction with other sources of funding.
What do you know about my business? We always respect the fact that you are the expert in your business, our intent is to bring our experience and knowledge in to your business.
Why are you approaching my business? You fit within our target market, which is SME, £1-30M turnover range.
I've worked in this business for twenty years or more. What value do you put on that? We understand the huge emotion and effort that has gone in to the business, and will do our best to realise that value
How long is the process to sell this business? We really wish we could define this ourselves! In just about every case we know of, it will be parties other than ourselves holding up the show. We manage a stepped process to keep costs sensible and timelines as short as can realistically be achieved.
My accountant is advising me to only accept all the cash "up-front" to buy my business - do you do this? Under the right set of circumstances, yes we can do this…
I don't have an accountant that can advise on selling (or exiting) my business? Can you help with this? Yes, except for tax advice where you should seek advice from FCA-regulated sources.
I'm thinking of expanding my business, can you help with the finance and advice I'll need? We can certainly help with the strategy and general advice. We're not a licensed body for financial services however, though we can refer you to a series of regulated professionals that would be able to help you.
I'd like to sell my share of the company. Can you help me with that? Yes, we can. We sometimes acquire a share rather than an entire business.