Sell your business: how do you plan a business sale?

When you come to sell your business, without competition among buyers, none of them will go to the top end of their value ranges. But with competition, results can be remarkable. So the expedition to business sale needs to be organised in a way that coaxes competitors to their limits.

The route map looks like this:

Planning

To ensure success when you sell your business, your expedition to business sale needs meticulous planning:

What's the best route to competitive tension in your particular case?
How many teams should be in this race?
How can we keep them all supplied with due diligence materials simultaneously?
What time-table shall we set?
Who do you need in your core team for the final ascent and the negotiations once you have identified which buyer will take you to the top?

Marketing

You need to get the strongest potential buyers to engage with your opportunity when you sell your business. They have plenty of other distractions. So you need a clear and compelling statement of the business case you are offering them. In their terms, not yours.

Your set of marketing materials, from Alert Sheet and Information Memorandum to Management Presentation, should build a complete picture of the business that will withstand scrutiny under intense "due diligence" investigation. We know exactly what buyers look for in these marketing documents, and will ensure that your business is presented professionally and credibly.

Due diligence

Selected buyers will be invited to confirm preliminary offers in the light of meetings with management and visits to a data room we'll help you prepare - probably off site. Good investment bankers ensure that your interests are protected while providing sufficient information for buyers to get comfortable about paying a high price. This is a time-intensive and demanding process which calls for professional judgement in the handling of information demands and needs to be firmly controlled.

Negotiation

The entire journey of price discovery culminates in the final ascent to agreement on a sale and purchase contract. The seller's negotiating position is strengthened by having attractive alternatives, and ensuring that the buyers know it. Shield likes to work closely with the lawyers and tax specialists to win the best possible commercial terms for our clients. This is especially important for clients who may not have as much transaction experience as the buyers' team they face across the table.

But value captured at the negotiation table can get lost in translation into the legal documentation. So Shield works alongside your legal counsel to ensure that negotiated outcomes are correctly reflected in the sale agreement, and that your interests are protected right up until a satisfactory agreement is signed. We fight to the finish to protect our clients' interests.

If your profits are over £500k we would be delighted to have a no obligation discussion about your readiness to sell your business or about preparing to sell a business. We appreciate that confidentiality is vital and understand that you may wish to remain anonymous by using a pseudonym. We are happy to call you outside of office hours or at weekends if you prefer. Contact us >>