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Preparing a business for sale, or just for greater profits

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Friday November 26, 2010 at 9:33am

When many owner managers come to extricate themselves from their business – either by passing it on to a member of the family or deciding to sell – they suddenly realise how indispensible they are and how difficult it is to let go.

In the most profitable businesses we see, the entrepreneur has released him or herself from the business by systemising each part of the business and allocating responsibilities to other people within the organisation. This process of gradually delegating and systemising jobs that are currently carried out by owner is the path to maximising the value of any business, whether you want to sell or just make more short terms gains.

This process of systemising your business can take a minimum of 3 years so the sooner you start the process the better. When we are working with clients preparing their business for sale we encourage them to:

  1. Identify the key systems and procedures the business needs for it to succeed and start to standardise the way the business works 
  2. Organise the business in a way that everyone clearly knows their objectives and responsibilities 
  3. Created a detailed organisational chart with key employee objectives and position statements 
  4. Manage employees to get the best out of them 
  5. Build systems and put procedures into place so that there are no doubts about who does what and new members of staff can quickly be inducted into the business 
  6. Write an action plan with targeted results

Taking these steps can be frustrating for owners and does involve an element of “letting go” but ultimately it is the main route to maximising the capital value of any business.

Andy Parker
Chartered Accountant Birmingham


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    Parker Chartered Accountants and Financial Advisors, 1192 Warwick Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham. B27 6BT.
    Tel: 0121 764 5161  Fax: 0121 764 7833  Email Parker Chartered Accountants here