Sold the business today, feels a bit odd
Discussion
9 million is alot of money
I do have a successful professional business but am at the start of my career of being a business man. I hope some day to have made and physically have 10 million. Its all a bit of fun anyway, if you spend it your going to get robbed and that includes buying property that is in reality not worth the asking. Also a higher chance of being killed or injured if wealthy as too much time ie Michael Schumacher etc. Maybe the thing to do is to keep on working till you drop...If you gave and laid 100 million next to a dead man it wouldnt be worth a penny to the dead man, oh well..
I do have a successful professional business but am at the start of my career of being a business man. I hope some day to have made and physically have 10 million. Its all a bit of fun anyway, if you spend it your going to get robbed and that includes buying property that is in reality not worth the asking. Also a higher chance of being killed or injured if wealthy as too much time ie Michael Schumacher etc. Maybe the thing to do is to keep on working till you drop...If you gave and laid 100 million next to a dead man it wouldnt be worth a penny to the dead man, oh well..Edited by gvij on Wednesday 29th July 20:12
Edited by gvij on Wednesday 29th July 20:12
Congrats OP!
I kinda know the feeling, I was a shareholder at a company and between three of us, we sold up earlier this year as we were bought out by a much bigger company. Although, I have jumped back into the fire and setup on my own now! I am debt free now, mortgage paid off and a few nice cars on the drive!
I kinda know the feeling, I was a shareholder at a company and between three of us, we sold up earlier this year as we were bought out by a much bigger company. Although, I have jumped back into the fire and setup on my own now! I am debt free now, mortgage paid off and a few nice cars on the drive!
DSLiverpool said:
I wish, I have 3 months to do and right now I haven't worked so hard for ages helping integrate it with their bespoke ecomm system.
I know that feeling. An Excel spreadsheet is your friend! Hope you're getting on alright Dave. Keep the warehouse, we'll fill it with automotive performance parts! 
It's my wedding reception tomorrow (we got married on the 13th but I was too busy with the sale for a reception never mind a honeymoon) on Sunday I will write up another part of the process dealing with warranties and process.
No treats as I've been lucky enough to do what I want for a few years now and were in our forever house so no moves - I have a Mustang convertible coming soon but that's not a treat related to the sale.
I may go to Hong Kong 1st class in October for the electrics and security fair - that would be a treat.
No treats as I've been lucky enough to do what I want for a few years now and were in our forever house so no moves - I have a Mustang convertible coming soon but that's not a treat related to the sale.
I may go to Hong Kong 1st class in October for the electrics and security fair - that would be a treat.
illmonkey said:
DSLiverpool said:
I may go to Hong Kong 1st class in October for the electrics and security fair - that would be a treat.
Doesn't sound like a treat, the fair that is!So you have an interested party ...
They have signed an NDA and now you go one of two ways, are you interested in selling (might be nice and you are a bit bored) or do you have to sell (stress killing you and you want to get off the treadmill)
If your merely interested in selling allow the agent to liase with the prospective buyer, do not withold anything as it will come back to haunt you and for the sake of wasting peoples time give them as much if not more info than they ask for as they will only find out during due dil.
If you HAVE to sell for the reasons above or whatever then strike up a direct relationship and again tell them whatever they ask. Do your research on the prospect, how much do you add to their existing business.
An agent sees you as one of hundreds but its your life and you should really push home the fact they need your business.
You will probably already have a company SWOT if not do one and use it for your reference so you are consistent with your responses.
Personally I didnt want to sell to a competitor, well I would have but I didnt trust any of them enough to show them my knickers. NDA or not!
Going back to information, the sum you receive for your company will be subject to a negotiated warrant that your not witholding information (huge tax bill or a important agreement lapses etc) - this can be limited but only in rare cases not applicable - I negotiated a limit.
One company who didnt buy DST had several small (> £3m t/o) online companies that they wanted to house in the DST warehouse but I didnt want to sell the building, I would rent it but not sell it - just a call I made and stuck to. However before we agreed to disagree I had at least 5 visits inc picking up from the station etc and long meetings with the buyer and some of his subsidiary managers all pretty tame and boring to be honest. I couldnt see me wanting to do even a day handover within this group and it made me less enthusiastic over a deal and I possibly sub consciously pulled back leaving the agent to it where it drifted away. Interestingly this chap made a last bid offer just before I sold but the stress of getting the SPA done again and the peripheral terms meant I just wasnt interested, besides I like the people who have bought DST and I am happy doing a few month very hard work for them.
The day of the sale passed in a blur as we were very busy, staff knew I was in discussion and none (I hope) begrudged me "getting out" the hard part was watching "strangers" putting my entire business in a couple of artics and driving away. Bitter sweet.
They have signed an NDA and now you go one of two ways, are you interested in selling (might be nice and you are a bit bored) or do you have to sell (stress killing you and you want to get off the treadmill)
If your merely interested in selling allow the agent to liase with the prospective buyer, do not withold anything as it will come back to haunt you and for the sake of wasting peoples time give them as much if not more info than they ask for as they will only find out during due dil.
If you HAVE to sell for the reasons above or whatever then strike up a direct relationship and again tell them whatever they ask. Do your research on the prospect, how much do you add to their existing business.
An agent sees you as one of hundreds but its your life and you should really push home the fact they need your business.
You will probably already have a company SWOT if not do one and use it for your reference so you are consistent with your responses.
Personally I didnt want to sell to a competitor, well I would have but I didnt trust any of them enough to show them my knickers. NDA or not!
Going back to information, the sum you receive for your company will be subject to a negotiated warrant that your not witholding information (huge tax bill or a important agreement lapses etc) - this can be limited but only in rare cases not applicable - I negotiated a limit.
One company who didnt buy DST had several small (> £3m t/o) online companies that they wanted to house in the DST warehouse but I didnt want to sell the building, I would rent it but not sell it - just a call I made and stuck to. However before we agreed to disagree I had at least 5 visits inc picking up from the station etc and long meetings with the buyer and some of his subsidiary managers all pretty tame and boring to be honest. I couldnt see me wanting to do even a day handover within this group and it made me less enthusiastic over a deal and I possibly sub consciously pulled back leaving the agent to it where it drifted away. Interestingly this chap made a last bid offer just before I sold but the stress of getting the SPA done again and the peripheral terms meant I just wasnt interested, besides I like the people who have bought DST and I am happy doing a few month very hard work for them.
The day of the sale passed in a blur as we were very busy, staff knew I was in discussion and none (I hope) begrudged me "getting out" the hard part was watching "strangers" putting my entire business in a couple of artics and driving away. Bitter sweet.
desolate said:
Did they make an indicative offer and then stick to it or did they try to change during/after due diligence?
I was clear what I wanted which was reasonable and discussed with my accountant, to get the deal over the line we both compromised but subject to performance I can still get (and more) my original target. It was clear after a few meetings that as they know nothing about telecoms I was needed for a bit, so we put a sum on for target and agreed a daily rate.MrReg said:
What's happened to the staff that you employed, and did their outcome (whatever it is) have any bearing on the decision you made?
I had 9 staff, only 2 over 2 years. 4 are working in the new place now plus myself and they have had a good offer, any that wanted to be redundant got full entitlement. Did it influence me? no, your an employer not their dad and as long as your reasonable and rational I think thats as much as can be expected.
Now what do I do with D5 TUK and BO55 DST - Mr Reg
Yes, congrats DS.
I've got a 'division' of the business that needs more attention / focus than I can give it so want to sell it.
It's automotive consumables to main dealers mostly.
I knew you said that agents are not the best way to start but for someone who hasn't the time to start contacting competitors etc is there an agent you would recommend or steer clear of?
I've got a 'division' of the business that needs more attention / focus than I can give it so want to sell it.
It's automotive consumables to main dealers mostly.
I knew you said that agents are not the best way to start but for someone who hasn't the time to start contacting competitors etc is there an agent you would recommend or steer clear of?
VEIGHT said:
Yes, congrats DS.
I've got a 'division' of the business that needs more attention / focus than I can give it so want to sell it.
It's automotive consumables to main dealers mostly.
I knew you said that agents are not the best way to start but for someone who hasn't the time to start contacting competitors etc is there an agent you would recommend or steer clear of?
Speak to your accountant first if it's a "connected" one they have a lot of high nett worth clients who are on the look out for projects. I've got a 'division' of the business that needs more attention / focus than I can give it so want to sell it.
It's automotive consumables to main dealers mostly.
I knew you said that agents are not the best way to start but for someone who hasn't the time to start contacting competitors etc is there an agent you would recommend or steer clear of?
As per my first post spend a lot on adverts before you use an agent as in my experience you will pay many thousands to the agent for dimply advertising it, they will mention a database of clients but after signing this just didn't exist and they asked me to name prospects they should write to.
DSLiverpool said:
Speak to your accountant first if it's a "connected" one they have a lot of high nett worth clients who are on the look out for projects.
As per my first post spend a lot on adverts before you use an agent as in my experience you will pay many thousands to the agent for dimply advertising it, they will mention a database of clients but after signing this just didn't exist and they asked me to name prospects they should write to.
I've long had a hunch that if and when we sold, we'd be better using our industry knowledge and directly approaching competitors, collaborators and other businesses where we can see there is a strong balance sheet and a good potential synergy for the acquisition. Do you think this would work?As per my first post spend a lot on adverts before you use an agent as in my experience you will pay many thousands to the agent for dimply advertising it, they will mention a database of clients but after signing this just didn't exist and they asked me to name prospects they should write to.
We did have very vague discussions with an MNC who were and still are very acquisitive, but we shelved them for the simple reason that we wanted to sell all property with the business and the commercial market, post-crunch, would have given us a poor return. As we weren't forced to sell, or looking to sell at the time (and I've no desire to work for a big firm) we could afford to wait for a better day.
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