RTA Business consultants
RTA Business consultants
Author
Discussion

Dixy

Original Poster:

3,669 posts

236 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Has anyone any knowledge or experience of this company regarding business sales?

Frimley111R

19,397 posts

265 months

Monday 8th June 2015
quotequote all
Yes. transfer agents, lot of bad press on the web but this was quite some time ago tbh.

Zoon

7,305 posts

152 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Avoid

PugwasHDJ80

7,684 posts

252 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Dixy- happy to provide some advice if i can- I lead and negotiate transactions in £1-30m value range of business sales.

Dixy

Original Poster:

3,669 posts

236 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
quotequote all
Pugwash, I wish but not in that league. Avoid, care to pm with a reason.

POORCARDEALER

8,669 posts

272 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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I used them to sell a business I owned many years ago...rep came round, gave it the spiel, I paid an upfront fee, never heard ANYTHING from them....ended up putting my own for sale board up and sold within a few months.

Avoid.

Jam Rock

460 posts

241 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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another bad experience here, avoid at all costs!

Frimley111R

19,397 posts

265 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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What exactly were your bad experiences though? Was it simply that your business failed to generate enquiries? RTA, as with many other similar sites is essentially the equivalent of AutoTrader. They can get your business out into the market and help you make it attractive but cannot guarantee enquiries.

Rangeroverover

1,523 posts

142 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
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The way they and various others operate is to take an upfront fee, list you on their website and wait to see if they get any bites. When you eventually get fed up and want out you will find you are tied in for a further six months.

They don't have any database of potential buyers and are next to useless in that they don't get involved in assisting any transaction to happen if by some miracle a buyer trips over their website.

If its any help I was in the business of selling businesses for some time, I cannot help you directly but can certainly help you avoid pitfalls and make a few suggestions that will help make your business more attractive.

If you want a hand feel free to PM me

for the avoidance of doubt I'm not offering you any form of "service"

Frimley111R

19,397 posts

265 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
quotequote all
In line with your comment above, I am not defending RTA or promoting them but feel it is useful to supply a balanced view.

They do, as do many other companies, provide a low cost way to promote businesses for sale. They do not help with the sale process because it is simply uneconomic to do so. Selling a business is fraught with challenges and it has to be worth their while to help with the transaction. The costs they would have to charge simply won't be paid by the owners of most smaller businesses. Additionally, smaller businesses are disproportionally more difficult to sell than larger ones. Ultimately (but generally) you get what you pay for in terms of help to sell a business.


Ossiantoad

265 posts

162 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
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I have some experience of RTA as a buyer of small businesses. I found a business on their site, contacted them and they were helpful in the negotiations and everything went through smoothly.

I then contacted then about another business and they eventually came back and told me that the last entry on their file was several years old.

I found another business I was interested in and asked them to arrange a meeting. After much messing about I was finally put in touch with the vendor who told me his business was not for sale any more after he had heard nothing from RTA for a couple of years. He didn't have much positive to say about them.

I have had worse experience with another big name in the same industry.

If my experience is anything to go by then, as a buyer they may be okay to deal with but as a seller you shouldn't expect a great deal of pro-activity on your behalf. Some of the asking prices they make up are just comedy gold.