How It Works

Two Routes.
You Choose Which.

Business exit planning is not the same for every owner. For established businesses in Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, we offer embedded support while you decide or a direct private sale when you are ready.

35%

of UK small firms have a formal exit or succession strategy.

Source: Federation of Small Businesses

Which means roughly two in three are relying on hope, or on running the business until they cannot.

The reason is rarely that owners do not care. It is that the available options ask you to have already decided. Brokers want a business that is ready today. Trade buyers want it on their timetable. Neither has anything to offer the owner whose honest answer is "not yet, but probably soon."

No fixed timetable — often a year or more

We work alongside you first.

Most owners are not ready. They are tired, the business needs attention they cannot give it, and the idea of a sale feels like something for next year. The usual advice is to come back when you have decided. That is not much use to anyone.

A conversation, and nothing else

We meet, in confidence, and talk about the business and where you want to be in a few years. No valuation, no heads of terms, no pressure to decide anything. Many of these conversations lead nowhere for a long time, and that is fine.

A consultant joins you quietly

If it makes sense for both of us, we place someone alongside you — working on the parts of the business you have not had time for. Your staff see a consultant helping out. Nobody is told the business is for sale, because at this stage it is not.

The business gets better either way

Systems documented, margins looked at properly, the reliance on you reduced. If you never sell, you have a stronger business and a lighter week. If you do sell, to us or to anyone, it is worth more — because owner-dependence is the single biggest thing that puts buyers off.

You decide, when you decide

By the time a sale is on the table, we know the business properly and you know exactly who you would be handing it to. Due diligence becomes verification rather than discovery, which is why this route tends to complete quickly and without the usual renegotiation.

On Timescales

Timescales are indicative only. How long anything takes depends on your advisers, your records, funding, and what due diligence turns up — much of which is outside either party’s control. We would rather give you a realistic estimate once we understand the business, and revise it early if it changes, than commit to a date at the first meeting.

Throughout This Route

You keep full ownership and control throughout
No obligation to sell at any point
Your staff, customers and suppliers are not told anything
You can end the arrangement whenever you choose

The Trade-Off

This route asks something real of you: letting someone into the business before you have committed to anything. It works because both sides get to find out whether the fit is right while the stakes are still low. If that sounds uncomfortable, the clean exit route exists for a reason.

Not sure which one you are?

Most owners are not, at first. It is usually clear within a single conversation, and there is no cost to having it. Plenty of owners we speak to conclude that neither route is right for them — we would rather you reached that view early than late.

Read about our way of working

Start With a Conversation

Confidential, no obligation, and nothing that commits you to either route.

Get in Touch

Two Routes.You Choose Which.