Sold the business today, feels a bit odd

[DSLiverpool]

Fell out of love with it a while back, well not the business of comms but what you have to do for it to be a success.
I think the days of being a specialist are numbered, everyone calling for advice is googling as you advise them then they buy from a feed seller with 25000 pages of kit on Amazon from Hello Kitty mirrors to IP conference systems.
Anyhoo I have a handover period then ...........

[DSLiverpool]

desolate said:

DSLiverpool said:

Anyhoo I have a handover period then ...........

Form a consortium with Red Trident to lead a people's buyout of LFC?



Enjoy this moment and the plotting for the future, Congratulations!

Funny to mention one option is a very high end Anfield and Golf escorted tour for Thai and Australian fans -

[DSLiverpool]

JPJPJP said:

a significant milestone, mark it in a fitting way

then take the time to think carefully about what you want to do next

go at that with the same energy and focus that you went at DST

Emptied the warehouse today 1.5 trailers - christ. Monday trading as a "consultant" working for someone else running what was my own business - weird.
I have learned so much from the sales process and about my company in the last 2 months that I feel far better equipped in skill set to go again.
I will do a write up on "so you want to sell your business" because after searching all of PH no posts tell you exactly what the process is and a lot is assumed.

[DSLiverpool]

I'll try and get it done next week, in the mean time do not instruct anyone to sell it for you until you know more about the process.

[DSLiverpool]

The write up will have to wait - I'm knackered, 12 hour day, were busy, they are trying to get our stuff on their bespoke system but as we were lazy fekkers nothing is weighed or sized

Potential - yes we have an easy million or more, plus tangents such as home automation, elderly care etc, what we lacked was a good system and staff capable of implementing it I had neither.

Promise a really useful insight once I get straight..

[DSLiverpool]

Well what a week - new experience for me and I've been around a bit.
I saw a great ticketing enquiry service in operation that I wish I would have found years ago.
It's very bitty at the moment but once it's all sorted I see my ex company really soaring.

Write up soon - just paying bills of thousands to people that don't deserve it (IMHO)

Ps commute in school holidays is never over an hour door to door - quite a novelty after 5 miles for 10 years
Also the Touran isn't a bad tool (my managers company car) it does 50 mpg !!!

[DSLiverpool]

DSLiverpool said:

I will do a write up on "so you want to sell your business" because after searching all of PH no posts tell you exactly what the process is and a lot is assumed.

This is MY EXPERIENCE and MY TIPS I will not argue with anyone over this and I reserve the right to be bloody wrong on some aspects BUT I wish someone had written this before I put DST up for sale.

Part 1
So you want to get out or get a partner because its too much to cope with doing it all alone these are two very different things so decide whats for you.

TIP 1 NEVER EVER instruct a sales agent or even start to talk to one before thoroughly investigating all other avenues including specialist press adverts and word of mouth, speak to your accountant they frequently manage to put a buyer and seller together, the good ones have a network to do this but its not a formal one.
With respect I am sure some sales agents are very good, some are sharks, some are incompetent - what most do is simply advertise your business and NOT AS WELL as you would BUT with far more coverage than you would achieve as you will do a half arsed attempt then give up and instruct an agent - this is what I did.

TIP 2 With many agents legal fees are included - good - no. The brief will be spot on BUT working to a cost and they dont want to advise you they just want to carry out the legal transaction, in fairness the solicitor (a huge one) went the extra yard but I still had to get extra advice from my accountant which cost me ££££ with my accountant saying "why hasn't your solicitor done / advised on this"

TIP 3 Do not think this is cheap, its not. Your accountants fees will be many many thousands unless you see TIP 2. Add VAT to everything, remember you cant reclaim it.

TIP 4 In the run up to your sale allocate funds to pay for the sale so its less of a shock, you cannot legally overpay an accountant to do work for yourself BUT you can get a lot of documents pre prepped on company billing.

NOTE this is MY experience it may be different for others.

Once an interested party was found I had to filter them myself using credit safe and a bit of Google this resulted in over 50% being rejected by myself, the agent did not have the skill in the frontline office staff to understand a crap prospect. This is NOT LIKE AN ESTATE AGENT and will cost far more, once we found a prospect and they signed an NDA you prep your figures and send them over, the agent sends them on but soon gets bored with any questions and puts you directly in touch, the agent then buggers off or will send more prospects or the odd "ok" email.
Only after you move ahead with the "sale" and sniff of commission rises does the agent up the ante and a "director" gets involved who certainly knew his stuff if your selling a newsagent type business, this was "very complicated".

More later.

[DSLiverpool]

trowelhead said:

Very interesting - thanks for the points so far. Do you feel like you could have sold the business yourself given enough time and effort?

Yes but I did a crap job on the basis the company can afford it - forgetting you personally have to pay it and by the time I realised we were too far gone

trowelhead said:

If you were to do it again, would you still use an agent?

No - 100 times no I would use a advertising agency to get the adverts everywhere which is all the agent did in its basic form

drainbrain said:

I've used you a few times before too. Not looking to invest £1.5M are you? Nice deal if you are !!

Its been one week and the number of lovely "opportunities" that have arisen is amazing.

I did nearly 20 years in security equipment manufacturing and a few of the guys who are in the same boat as myself may start a super group security company except its all made in China now lol.

Edited by DSLiverpool on Sunday 26th July 16:01

[DSLiverpool]

MrReg said:

Just seen this DS - congrats on the sale! Your guys service was always top notch. Enjoy the freedom!!

6 days in - no freedom and fighting to maintain the service but I'm confident in about 10 days when we get on the new self authored CMS system it will be awesome.

[DSLiverpool]

ringram said:

Just sold mine too. Not a nice experience until the cheque comes in.

We paid an agent ££, but I think they were above average guys. The sale price was fairly healthy though split amongst 7 shareholders.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-busin...

As for the comment on Employee's the majority of ours are/were good. You get back what you put in as far as development is concerned. You have to hire for passion!

Huge congrats on that, selling any business for such a sum is a fantastic achievement, its a sweet spot obliterating many late and stressful nights I guess.

I guess the agents fee was measured in fractions of a million as such do you think you got the best support from
The agent
Your accountant
Your solicitor
An external advisor possibly your bank

I am interested to know without any detail of course but the thread would benefit if people know who the best support comes from.

In my case it was my accountant and my bank where it really should have been my solicitor but as already mentioned it wasn't MY solicitor as such and its a point to note.

[DSLiverpool]

alan-87 said:

So DS...... Now you have all this free time on your hands do you fancy inspiring us with taking on the £500 business challenge?

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.

[DSLiverpool]

Tom the warehouse is fully furnished and fully racked out with packing benches

Open to a joint venture or renting it out.

[DSLiverpool]

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.

[DSLiverpool]

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!

From 18 to 40 I was in security alarm and cable manufacturing, the main players are now bloated and complacent or just useless - I see an opportunity and I want to check it out. Agree not glam but you have to do the research and press the flesh.

[DSLiverpool]

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.

[DSLiverpool]

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.

[DSLiverpool]

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

[DSLiverpool]

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.
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]

Frimley111R said:

desolate said:

Frimley111R said:

You should see how many are ruined by vendors and acquirers! Selling a business is not easy in most cases.

I agree, but it is the vendor's/acquirer's deal to ruin, not their lawyer's or accountants.

Yes and No, it has been know for accountants to scupper deals so they don't lose a client. For business sale advisors its frustrating as they put in the work to help the company sell and then the client/acquirer does something stupid and it all falls down. Honestly, the stories i could tell you where vendors have cost themselves their entire business or hundreds of thousands of pounds by making very poor decisions at the time of sale...

I agree with this and will add that my particular agent was spectacularly useless at everything except advertising - not all agents are the same.

[DSLiverpool]

Value of the business - its a varied thing when one mans £1k is another mans tenner. In my case I like to think synergy and supply chain deals played a big part but the fact I am doing nearly 4 months (possibly longer) and a wider remit than just integrating my business makes me think I sold myself as well ;0)

I know I am good at that (long tale short) I was at Novar (now Honeywell) as a plastic director (national account director) when a headhunter called the office asking for the sales director, they put them through to me, I blagged it and ended up as the sales director (UK) for Invensys controls (now Siemens) on HVAC. What I know about HVAC you can write on a thermostatic radiator valve! but it was a great 2 years on eye watering money I left to work for pocket money at DST.

Today on the trip in to Manchester I have had the best business idea I have ever had, I am so up for it I wont sleep tonight until I scribble it down in some sort of plan.