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Posts under ‘selling your business’

A Question of Timing?

Timing is critical to exiting a business. As John Paul Getty famously answered when asked how he became so wealthy, “by selling too early”. I’m a great believer in Getty’s approach: if the price is reasonable, accept it. Don’t be too greedy. Sell and move on. Don’t obsess about market conditions or the wider economic […]

What’s it Worth?

If you’re thinking about selling your business, it might seem obvious to start by establishing how much it is worth. But ‘value’ is a concept not unlike beauty: it can be perceived quite differently by different people. So when thinking about value, let’s start by eliminating an urban myth. The valuation of your business isn’t […]

Making your Earn-Out Work

Over two thirds of deals involving owner-managers include earn-outs. In a transaction with an earn-out, the buyer will usually pay most of the consideration on completion for 100% of the shares of the business. The rest of the consideration will be earned in a period after legal completion depending on whether or not certain financial […]

Getting Relief

If you’re thinking of selling your business, you obviously want to maximise your return from all your hard work and minimise the amount you have to give the taxman. Entrepreneurs’ relief can potentially reduce the capital gains tax on the sale of a business from a rate of 28% to 10%. That can represent a […]

Recognise the Value of What You Have

Simon Lester is Chairman & CEO of Lester Hotels, which provides hotel and hospitality management services. He has been involved with the Academy for almost twenty years, first as a member and for the past 10 years as Chairman of Academy Group 7. A serial entrepreneur who has built businesses in the travel, property and […]

The lighter side of selling a business

© Chris Wildt, Jantoo.com.

The life of a deal – by Jo Haigh

It’s a fact that a company is what’s called a legal person. A company can do many things that a human person can in fact do, including having a baby! We call it a subsidiary. It can even get married; we may call that a merger and it can of course kill someone under the […]

Value and Worth – by Jo Haigh

For insurance purposes I recently had some family jewellery valued. Some of these items belonged to my grandmother and, although somewhat old fashioned, were technically fine pieces containing some precious stones diamonds and made of 22ct gold. Because of their settings however the actual items I was informed had probably more value if broken up […]

Selling your business (or how to handle the 2nd most important business event of your life!) – by Howard Leigh

The sale of your business will probably be the second most important business event you need to get right, the first being starting your business. You can never start too early to plan to sell a business. Some people start the planning even before they have started the actual business! Accordingly, they want to create […]

Selling Your Business? – Some advice from someone who’s been there … by David Noble

I sold my insurance broking business in 2009 when my partner decided it was time to exit. Having no previous experience and very little knowledge in this area I was grateful to the Academy for Chief Executives (ACE) for the support and advice I received throughout the process. From my own experience these are my […]