Your sale strategy
A sale strategy turns your goals into decisions on perimeter, buyers, information, timetable and acceptable terms.
Decide what you want to achieve
Be clear about what you need and what you can trade: net cash, timetable, share sold, your role afterwards, rollover and the risk you are willing to keep. Separate wishes from must-haves.
Include what you want to protect, such as the team, the brand, the location, customers or your legacy, and accept that some of these preferences can reduce the price or the number of buyers.
Decide what is for sale
You can sell 100%, a majority, a minority or certain assets. Be clear about group companies, property, cash, debt, assets the business does not need and the shares held by other shareholders. The structure changes the tax position, governance, the type of buyer and the risk you keep. A share sale is the norm for UK owner-managed companies; an asset sale has different tax and TUPE consequences.
Design the buyer universe
Group trade buyers, private equity funds, buy-and-build platforms, family offices, search funds, your management team and, where relevant, an employee ownership trust, by buying logic, capacity and confidentiality risk. Plan approaches in waves so you learn from the market without exposing the company all at once. Our guide to who buys UK SMEs describes each type.
Protect the process
Work with an anonymous teaser, non-disclosure agreements and a common timetable. Sensitive information is released in stages, once a party has shown interest, fit and the means to pay.
Decide before offers arrive
Agree a scorecard to compare cash at completion, funding, adjustments, earn-out, retention, your role, warranties, conditions and the buyer's plans. If you decide the criteria after seeing names and prices, it is easy to overrate a striking number and underrate the risk that the deal does not complete.
