Time to call it a day?

If you have decided to sell your business… hold on! Adam J Walker has some excellent advice to achieve the best result.

Good presentation can make an enormous difference to the price that a vendor achieves when selling a house and the same is true when selling a business. Here are my 12 top tips for achieving the best price:

TIMING
The value of a good lettings business has doubled in the last five years. The value of a good sales business has doubled in
the last five months. The timing of your sale will have a huge impact on the price that you achieve.

RECURRING INCOME
Lettings businesses are usually valued on the basis of a multiple of turnover and most buyers will pay much more for recurring income from managed property than they will for one off fees from let only properties. A concerted effort to
convert your let only landlords during the 12 months prior to a sale can have a dramatic impact on the price that you
achieve.

PROFIT
Residential sales businesses are usually valued on a multiple of their profit. There is usually a great deal that can be done to increase the profit during the 12 months prior to a sale by increasing turnover, reducing costs and varying the
accounting basis.

PROPERTY
Very few buyers will want to acquire freehold premises and some will not even take on a long lease. You should therefore
consider transferring the premises out of the company prior to a sale.

YOUR FUTURE PLANS
Some buyers will only buy a business if the owner agrees to a long term service contract (three to five years). Other
buyers will want the owner to leave almost immediately. You need to be very clear about your objectives before you start the sales process.

View the rest of this story that appeared in Property Drum here

Appeared – 30 JANUARY 2014 PROPERTYdrum