Selling your business: frequently asked questions

Nothing. The valuation, the conversations and the adviser introductions are free for owners. There is no paid version or premium service behind it.

If you appoint an adviser we introduced, that adviser pays us an introduction fee. You pay us nothing, before or after the sale. We would rather you knew this from the start, and you are welcome to ask any adviser we introduce about it.

No. We don't run sales, negotiate on your behalf, handle money or sign engagement letters with owners. If we did, recommending advisers would mean recommending our own competitors, and the recommendation would be worthless.

No. We hold no buy-side mandates. If we did, our interest would be for you to sell cheaply, the exact opposite of what we are here for.

Yes. Send us a request through the find an adviser page. You don't need to name your company for that first conversation.

No, and we won't ask for it. Sector, approximate size and region are enough for us to work with. If you later decide to go ahead, you choose when to identify yourself and to whom.

The calculation runs in your own browser. In the current version, completing the questionnaire does not send your answers to Business Sale Compass: they stay in that tab's session and are cleared when you close it. If you then write to us, you decide what you share.

Only with your explicit permission, asked for in a separate conversation and never buried in a tick box. If you would rather we didn't, we will still help you.

Not from us. In a properly run sale, buyers first see an anonymous teaser, and the information memorandum only follows a signed NDA. Most owners bring one or two senior managers into the loop during due diligence, under confidentiality, and tell the wider team at or shortly after completion. In a share sale the employer stays the same company, so employment contracts carry on unchanged. In an asset sale TUPE applies and there are information and consultation duties to plan for.

Not through us. You can also name any company that must not receive anything, and a good adviser will treat direct competitors with particular care, often holding back sensitive pricing and customer data until late in the process.

Most owner-managed UK companies are valued as a multiple of normalised EBITDA, adjusted for debt and cash. The multiple depends on sector, size, growth and risk. Our valuation questionnaire gives you a reasoned range, and this guide explains the method in full.

Because turnover doesn't tell you whether the company makes money. Two businesses each turning over £2m, one earning £300,000 of operating profit and the other £40,000, are worth nothing like the same. Revenue multiples are only used when there is no profit to multiply.

Your reported EBITDA corrected for anything that won't continue under a new owner: personal costs run through the company, one-off income or expenses, and rent on property you own personally. Many UK owners pay themselves a small salary plus dividends, so the cost of a market-rate managing director to replace you often has to be deducted. Read more in our guide to normalised EBITDA.

Because an instant number is no use to you: you can't defend it in front of anyone. A person reviews your answers, calls you to check the two or three figures that move the result most, and then sends you the range with the reasoning behind it.

They may be right: they know your company and we don't. But check three things. Whether the figure is enterprise value or the value of your shares, because all your debt sits between the two. Whether the multiple was applied to normalised or reported EBITDA. And whether it includes a property that would in fact be sold or held separately.

The property is valued on its own and does not lift the multiple. It is common to move the freehold out of the trading company before a sale, or sell it separately, with the business taking a lease at market rent. If the company pays no rent today, that rent comes off EBITDA before the multiple is applied. Take tax advice before moving property, because the route you choose changes the tax bill.

Usually six to twelve months from appointing an adviser to completion, and longer for complex deals or in a slow market. Due diligence and the share purchase agreement alone often take three to four months. If the company needs preparing first, allow one to two years before that.

Trade buyers in your sector or a neighbouring one, private equity houses and their portfolio companies, family offices, search funds and individual buyers. Some owners sell to their own management team through a management buy-out, or to an Employee Ownership Trust. Our guide covers what each type of buyer looks for.

Part of the price that depends on the business hitting agreed targets after the sale, usually over one to three years. It can bridge a gap between what you want and what a buyer will pay up front, but you will have less control over the business that has to deliver it. Pin down the targets, the accounting definitions and what happens if the buyer changes how the company is run. Ask your tax adviser how it will be taxed, because the treatment differs from cash paid on completion.

A fixed part of the price paid at agreed dates after completion. Your risk is the buyer's ability to pay, so ask for security such as a parent company guarantee, a bank guarantee or money held in escrow. Capital gains tax on a fixed deferred amount is normally due up front, but where payments are spread over more than 18 months HMRC can allow the tax to be paid in instalments.

You can, and sometimes it works: if you already have a clear buyer, if it's a competitor you know well or if you are selling to your own managers. What you lose is competition between bidders, the mechanism that pushes the price up. What you save is the fee. On small deals the sums can favour going it alone, always with a corporate solicitor on the contract.

Almost always, typically for six to twenty-four months. The more the business depends on you, the longer the handover a buyer will ask for and the more of the price will hang on it.

Yes. Selling a majority to a private equity investor and rolling over a stake is common: you take money now and again when the investor sells. In return you move from running the show to being one shareholder among others, and the shareholders' agreement becomes the document that matters most.

Most charge a retainer, paid up front or monthly, plus a success fee on completion. Retainers run from a few thousand pounds for small businesses to £50,000 or more in the lower mid-market. For smaller companies success fees of 3% to 10% are common, and around 2% to 3.5% for deals of £10m to £20m, often with a minimum fee and a percentage that falls as the price rises. See our guide to adviser fees for the detail.

Yes, and it is often a good sign. An adviser working purely on success has every reason to close quickly and favour the easiest mandate on their books. What you should ask for is the retainer to be credited against the success fee.

No. A first conversation to understand your company and explain how they would run the sale should cost you nothing, and no serious adviser charges for it.

A corporate solicitor for the share purchase agreement and disclosure letter; as a rough guide, expect at least 1% of the price on a straightforward deal. A tax adviser for structuring and any HMRC clearance. On a share sale, the 0.5% stamp duty is paid by the buyer, not by you. Most of these costs arrive once heads of terms are signed.

If you sell your shares personally, the gain is subject to capital gains tax. With Business Asset Disposal Relief, the first £1m of qualifying lifetime gains is taxed at 18% for disposals from 6 April 2026 (14% in 2025 to 2026). Gains above that are taxed at 24% for higher rate taxpayers. On a £3m gain that is roughly £180,000 plus £480,000, before the £3,000 annual exempt amount. Our tax guide works through examples.

For a share sale, broadly: the company must be a trading company, you must be an officer or employee, and you must hold at least 5% of the shares and voting rights, with a 5% economic interest, all throughout the two years before the sale. Missing one condition for a few months can cost you the relief, so check well ahead. More in our guide to BADR.

Owners usually prefer a share sale: you sell the company as a whole and pay capital gains tax once. In an asset sale the company sells its business, pays corporation tax on any gain, and you then pay tax again to take the money out. Buyers sometimes prefer assets to leave historic liabilities behind. The difference in what you keep can be large, so model both with your tax adviser.

Yes. The trust must buy a controlling stake and the business must be a trading company. For disposals from 26 November 2025, half of your gain is taxed when you sell and the other half is held over in the trust, so the relief is less generous than it was. Business Asset Disposal Relief cannot be claimed on the same disposal. The price is normally funded from future profits and paid to you over several years.

It can. Shares in an unquoted trading company usually qualify for Business Property Relief, which from 6 April 2026 gives 100% relief on the first £2.5m per person and 50% above it. Once you sell, the cash you receive no longer qualifies. Speak to a tax adviser about this before you sign.