Preparation for Sale Advice and Service

Fixed Fee Preparation for Sale Advice

We understand that selling a business can be a daunting task, which is why we offer a comprehensive fixed fee product aimed at preparing you and your business for sale. We have designed the offering to:

• Maximise the value of your business and focus on ensuring tax efficiency;
• Ensure an efficient selling process by considering and resolving potential issues as early as possible; and
• Reducing the risk of your sale falling over or the price offered being reduced.

How can the product help business owners looking to sell?

Selling your business can be a stressful and demanding task, and that is why preparing for sale as early as possible is important. Early preparation for sale can:

• Allow you to structure the sale tax efficiently, and this can ensure that you receive the maximum possible consideration;
• Provide you the opportunity to identify and correct what a purchaser may find in their own due diligence exercise. Identifying and explaining negatives to a purchaser, at the time, is often seen as an excuse and can be unattractive, but dealing with it in advance gives you the opportunity to rectify any issues, or at least to provide a proper and considered explanation;
• Provide time for suitable consideration rather than in the heat of the transaction when your resource can be limited;
• Minimise and limit fees incurred on a sale, and reduce timescales for completion; and
• Assist in making preparations for a seller’s post sale environment, whether that is within the business or not.

What does it involve?

In order to establish if our pre-sale service could be of use to you, we will have a short no fee, no obligation call to discuss your aims for an exit.

Once we have established that our pre-sale service can assist you, we can undertake the following:

Understanding the Sale Process:

We will provide a basic information sheet that explains the intricacies of the business sale process.

This resource will help you grasp the importance of completing pre-sale exercises and the benefits they offer. 

Due Diligence Questionnaire:

We will provide you with our standard form Due Diligence Questionnaire which is a crucial tool in understanding what information a purchaser is likely to ask about your business before they are prepared to buy it.

We will explain the purpose and significance of this questionnaire as part of the purchaser’s due diligence, which will ensure that you are prepared to provide potential buyers with the necessary details.

Completing this at an early stage can also save you time and stress as part of the sale as purchaser due diligence is often one of the most time consuming tasks.

High-Level Review of Company Books and Records:

If relevant, our experts will conduct a high level review of your company's books and records which are effectively the deeds to ownership of a company.

Any purchaser will review these documents in detail to ensure that they can obtain good title to ownership of the business, and if not, they may make burdensome demands for their creation or correction which can cost thousands of pounds, and significantly delay completion.

Employee Incentives Review:

If your business has employee incentives, we will briefly analyse what is in place, including EMI (Enterprise Management Incentive) and LTIPs (Long-Term Incentive Plans).

This review ensures that these incentives align with your business goals and can be effectively communicated to potential buyers. We can also discuss when the holders of the employee incentives should be made aware and become involved in the sale discussions.

Review of Commercial Contracts:

Our team will complete a high-level review of a selection of commercial contracts to identify their existence and determine if there are any terms which are of course.

This analysis helps highlight any potential risks or opportunities associated with the contracts, and allows you to consider if changes should be made prior to a sale.

Employment Contracts Review:

We will examine, at a high-level, your employment contracts to confirm whether they are up to date and legally compliant.

We can then help you address any concerns related to employee contracts before entering the selling process.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Review:

Our experts briefly consider the intellectual property rights held by your business to identify any potential risks.

This assessment ensures that any IPR is protected and provides transparency to potential buyers.

Risk Assessment and Commentary:

We will offer some other high-level comments specific to your business, highlighting areas that may carry risk, and should perhaps be considered further.

Standard Form Heads of Terms Document:

We will provide you with a standard form heads of terms document that outlines the key terms and conditions of the sale. We can also discuss these with you if you wish.

Comprehensive Report and Recommendations:

Using the high-level information gathered from the various reviews referred to above, we will then prepare a basic report that identifies areas of concern and provides recommendations for improvement and/or correction.

This report will employs a simple red, orange, and green system to highlight the level of risk.

Where the report makes recommendations, we can provide a separate cost estimate for addressing these concerns, ensuring you have a clear understanding of the associated expenses outside of the fixed fee.

The pre-sale service is useful for business owners selling to third parties, but if a sale to the existing employees, in the form of an employee ownership trust arrangement is possible, it may be that it is not needed, and we can in that instance refer you to our Employee Ownership Trust team.

Fixed Fee Costing

For most business our fixed fee service will result in a comprehensive report which makes recommendations which will be useful in making your sale process as efficient and successful as possible is £2,500 plus VAT.

Following provision of the report, you will be in a position to consider aspects of your business which can be improved, and then you can either work with us to complete the matters, complete them yourself, or undertake a combination of the two.

Get in touch with Thomas Clark

Email: tclark@doyleclayton.co.uk

Phone: 02077787243

Book an introductory video call with Thomas to discuss your issue