Preparing a business for sale. Getting exit ready

Now that you have decided to sell your business, you’ll need to get the company into the best possible shape to achieve your desired price. At this stage, you will need to implement your carefully crafted business exit strategy.

Having the right advisers working with you throughout the whole of the sale process will help to ensure a much smoother exit and reduce the risk of losing value overall. With our 360° advice, we will work with you to get your business ready for sale and achieve the best possible price.

Finding the right buyer can be a time-consuming process. The key to a successful business exit is understanding your aims and then deep-diving into the market to identify the appropriate potential buyers.

Our experienced corporate finance team are members of Oaklins International, a leading global collection of advisers focused on supporting mid-market companies, across 62 offices in 41 countries, with a combined track record of over 1,700 successfully closed transactions in the past five years. Through Oaklins, we are able to support you in accessing a wide pool of potential strategic and financial buyers across the globe, leveraging local relationships at the right level and in the appropriate way culturally. Our approach also includes bringing in dedicated sub-sector experts to provide you with market intelligence and facilitate the optimal positioning of your business.

Once we’ve helped you find the right buyer, we take the pressure off you by leading negotiations and providing hands-on support to you and your management team through to the completion of the deal.

A business's true worth is not only based on its current value, but also its potential future value. A good business exit strategy ensures that your company is attractive to buyers by showing this potential before the sale process begins.

To help convey this possible future value, we work with business owners to:

• Optimise the presentation of your business
• Streamline and increase the operational efficiency of your business (sometimes through restructuring)
• Complete a due diligence review to provide an insight into the past and the projected performance of a business. The review will also identify unrecorded liabilities and highlight areas of risk. We will then advise on what actions to take to resolve any issues, which in turn will help avoid any potential buyers pulling out of the sale because of them

Evelyn Partners provides a clear solution and tools to enable you to make informed, rational, practical and personally beneficial decisions regarding your business deal.

When preparing your business for exit, there is usually a focus on financial and legal due diligence, negotiation and drafting legal documents. If the appropriate pre-sale reviews, planning and structuring have been completed, this means that the business and owner are in a good position to start negotiations.

Throughout the due diligence process, our advisory consulting team focus on supporting the financial and filing positions your company has taken. This helps to avoid unnecessary price deductions and maximise the sale value.

The final stage of the process is to check that the legal documentation created by your legal team is correct. It should reflect the business's tax position after pre-sale restructuring and provide adequate protection with tax warranties and indemnities.

We will review the relevant agreements, such as a sale and purchase agreement, and work with your legal team to ensure that tax is appropriately included.

Tax laws are constantly changing, and reporting requirements are becoming more difficult. Additionally, there is the risk of investigation. It is essential to ensure your tax affairs are in good order before you leave your business. As the owner of a successful company, you are an expert in your own field, but you may need help with the ins and outs of the UK and international tax systems. These systems can have an effect on you both personally and professionally.

Our teams are experts in both personal and business tax, so they can  work with you to manage your exposure to tax both before and after the sale. We will create a personalised tax plan to help you make the most of all available tax reliefs and maximise potential savings.

During the sale process, management teams are often inundated with questions from the wider employee base. These questions are usually about how the transaction will affect them personally. For example, employees may have questions about the sale if they are receiving money through share option schemes. They will want to know more about the impact of the sale.

Our financial wellbeing programme supports employees by providing them with a broad financial education, which includes understanding tax issues and financial planning. We offer seminars, online coaching and executive financial counselling. These all cover the key financial topics of the moment and help the wider communication process within the company.

Passing on a business to a family member or the next generation within the business is one way of carrying on the legacy you have worked so hard to achieve. Sometimes, this is preferable to selling to a third party.

A clearly defined vision and strategy is necessary to ensure a smooth transition from one owner to the next.

Given the existing connection, it is sometimes hard to approach this type of exit with complete objectivity. You want the next generation to carry on what you have started but they may not have your level of knowledge and expertise, so seeing how they can instil confidence in the existing workforce could be a concern.

At Evelyn Partners, we can work with you to create a succession plan which will include identifying critical positions, competencies and skills necessary for the business to continue to be successful.

We believe in the value of investing in people. We can work with you and your successor to put a benefits package in place that engages and supports your employees’ wellbeing.

For more information about preparing your business for sale, book your free exit readiness assessment now. We can help with all aspects of your business exit, from looking at your initial options and getting your business into shape, all the way through to moving on to the next chapter in your life.

Book an appointment online or call us on 020 7189 2400.