We Will Buy Your Business
There are multiple ways to prepare for a business sale, ensuring you are in position to achieve the value your company deserves:
Get The Right Advisor To Help Sell Your Business
Blackbird Capital Ventures offers a tailored, stress-free service that will give you the time required to maximise your business value.
Understand What Your Business Is Worth
Our business team will assist you in balancing your company valuation, rewarding you for your hard work without pricing you out of the market.
Assess Your Business Exit Options
There will be several deal structures for you to consider when selling your business, whether it is a clean break or private equity investment.
Identify The Right Time To Sell Your Business
Blackbird Capital Ventures can advise you on the right time to approach potential buyers and guide you through the process.
Prepare For A Confidential Business Sale
Confidentiality is a key element of our business selling service, ensuring your employees, customers and competitors do not discover the business sale until it is necessary.
Understand The Tax Situation For Your Business Sale
Tax can often be the single biggest cost when selling a business. We have the resources, including A Tax Advisory partner company, to deliver the advice required to mitigate tax implications.
If you would like to know more, please review below our Business Checklist for selling a business to start preparing for your sale.
Business Sale Checklist
1. Know Your Goals
Before you start getting all your business affairs in order, it is important to take a moment to confirm what you really want from the sale.
Is it time to step away from the business and put your feet up?
Are you looking for a business partner to work alongside and grow your company further?
Understanding your goals will streamline the process of selling your business, allowing you to engage with potential buyers who share a common vision for the company’s future
2. Identify any potential dealbreakers
Further to recognising your own goals, it is wise to set your limits and realise what would be a dealbreaker when pursuing the sale of your business. Buyers consider multiple factors when enquiring about an acquisition opportunity and it will be a smoother process if you can communicate what will be a dealbreaker for you from the start.
3. Protect your intellectual property (IP)
Subject to your business activities, you may find yourself preparing for a business sale with a large volume of intellectual property that boasts substantial value. Take the time to review all key documentation relating to IP, cementing your ownership and protecting your assets before you start engaging with the M&A market.
4. Get your finances in order
At its core, a business sale is a financial transaction. As such, ensuring your finances are in order will provide you with a full overview of your capital position and minimise the chance of an unexpected skeleton being found in the closet as business sale negotiations commence.
Being able to quickly provide the necessary answers to a multitude of financial questions will eliminate the stress of having to prepare management accounts and reports down the line.
5. Recognising the value of your business
A business valuation is not as simple as recognising the value of your assets. The value of your company can be affected by both internal and external factors and liaising with a business sales adviser can provide you with a clear illustration of current market conditions. The right buyer will pay you the value which your business deserves, meaning a larger buyer reach can maximise any potential deal.
6. Improve your business’s value
Refining existing operations can improve the valuation of your business. Before deciding to sell, it can be helpful to ensure your company and its interests are secured and protected.
Buyers will be looking at all aspects of the business, ranging from employee contracts to the position of existing customer relationships. Being able to smoothly transfer ownership of the company will entice a larger volume of potential acquirers.
7. Market your business for sale
A business for sale is a chance for a buyer to develop their own interests and they will be looking for the most attractive opportunity.
Blackbird Capital Ventures produces comprehensive marketing materials to effectively communicate all the unique selling points of your company, distributing professional documents to a broad network of buyers to greatly improve your chances of succeeding.
8. Proper Tax planning
Often, the single biggest cost of selling a business is tax. If you sell your business for a profit, you will have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on anything above your tax-free allowance.
We employ A Tax Advisory company of Blackbird Capital Ventures, which has a team of chartered accountants and chartered tax advisers with specialist knowledge in mitigating the tax implications that inevitably arise in business sales.
9. Due diligence
As part of the business sales process, buyers will have an opportunity to investigate your business and confirm the assumptions they have made about its financial position.
You must be ready to communicate with the buyer and answer all queries that may be presented during due diligence. Factors to consider include settling any ongoing disputes, clarifying the status of all contracts/leases and bringing accounts up to date.
10. Hire expert business sales advisers
It is a big decision to sell a business, all the more so for those who have invested a huge amount of time and money in building up a successful company – perhaps over several decades.
Blackbird Capital Ventures offers a tailored, unique service encompassing every aspect of a sale process, removing the stress of searching for a buyer and freeing you up to concentrate on maximising your business value.