Guides for selling your business

Practical guidance on selling, valuing, and preparing your business for sale.

Choosing the Right Broker for a Regulated Business

Most owners choose a broker through a referral, inbound approach or personal contact. For regulated businesses, however, choosing the wrong broker can have a far greater impact on value and outcome than any difference in fees.

Preparing to sell

Selling a Children's Home in the UK: The Sub-Sector Where Owner-Operators Still Trade at 8–12x EBITDA

Quality owner-operated children's homes in England typically trade at 8–12x EBITDA, around twice the multiple of standard adult care businesses. Buyer demand is strong and well-funded, but truly premium assets remain scarce, with many owners overestimating where their business sits in the market.

Preparing to sell

Is Your SEN School Ready to Sell? Five Things Buyers Will Scrutinise

Specialist educational needs schools are experiencing unprecedented buyer activity and capitalization in the last decade. Proper preparation eighteen months before a sale adds more value to the final price than any negotiation choice made during the process.

Preparing to sell

Selling a Language School: Twenty Years of ELT Deals in One Article

Two decades of advising language school owners on sale processes, distilled into the things I'd tell any owner thinking about a transaction. I built and sold Pilgrims at a then-record P/E multiple. This piece is the long version of that experience, written for anyone considering the same journey.

The sale process

Selling a TICC Business: What the Specialist Consolidators Are Actually Buying

Testing, inspection and certification (TICC) rarely appears in the business press. It should. The sector is one of Europe's most actively consolidated specialist service markets, multiples paid for the right businesses are among the highest, and well-funded buyers are currently active.

The sale process

Selling a Fire and Security Business: The Strategic M&A Guide

The fire and security sector is one of the most actively consolidating service markets in the UK. The dynamics are well understood by professional buyers, less well understood by the owner-managers selling to them. This is the long version of the conversation.

Preparing to sell

How to Buy or Sell a Care Business in Europe: A Practical Guide for UK Operators

Continental European care groups are serious acquirers of UK assets. Meanwhile, UK operators increasingly view Continental deal flow as acquirers, joint venture partners, or sellers into European platforms. This guide explains what is genuinely different about cross-border care deals.

Preparing to sell

Who Actually Buys Care Homes in 2026? A Tour of the Buyer Universe

When a care home owner first calls us about selling, the second question after price is almost always some version of: who would actually buy this? The real buyer universe in 2026 is wider, more international and more polarised than most owners realise.

Preparing to sell

What Is My Care Home Actually Worth? A Realistic Guide to Valuation

Online calculators will give you a number. Whether the number is right depends on three things they don't ask about: your CQC rating, your normalised EBITDA, and the segment of the buyer pool your business actually sits in.

Preparing to sell

Five Things That Will Kill Your Business Sale Before You Even Go to Market

Most failed business sales do not fail in due diligence. They fail before the first buyer is even contacted, and the cause is almost always something the seller could have fixed if they had known to look.

Preparing to sell

The Owner-Manager's Exit Checklist: What to Do in the Twelve Months Before You Sell

The work that moves your exit price—often by 15–20% for owner-managed businesses—is almost all done in the twelve months before market. Here is the checklist our team would give any owner thinking about a sale in the next year or two, in the order we would work through it.

The sale process

What Does a Business Broker Actually Do? The Sale Process Explained, Start to Finish

Most people sell a business once or twice in their lives. The advisor sitting on the other side of the table has done it dozens or hundreds of times. This is the explainer we wish we could hand every owner who calls us for the first time.

Preparing to sell

Why Selling Your Business Without an M&A Advisor Usually Costs You Money

If your business is worth more than a million pounds, the question is not whether you can sell it without an advisor — it is whether you can sell it well without one. In most cases the honest answer is no, and the gap shows up in the price.

The sale process

What Happens After I Accept an Offer? A Seller's Guide to Due Diligence

You've accepted an offer and signed heads of terms. The next eight to twelve weeks decide whether the deal completes — at the price you've agreed, or at a price that gets renegotiated. Here is what to expect, and where the work actually is.

Preparing to sell

Selling a Language School

How to Sell an English Language School in the UK

Selling an ELT school involves challenges most brokers never see. Here's what drives value, who's buying, and how to avoid the mistakes that cost language school owners money.

Getting started

A practical guide to the sales process

How to sell a business in the UK

A guide to selling your business, from first thoughts through to completion. Based on real experience of advising business owners through the process.

Preparing to sell

The owner dependence problem

What makes a business owner-dependent (and how to fix it)

Owner dependence is the single biggest reason SMEs sell for less than they should. Here's how to identify it, measure it, and fix it before you go to market.

Preparing to sell

Selling an education business

How to Sell an Education Business in the UK and Ireland

Education businesses sell differently depending on the type, the location, and how well the fundamentals are managed. Here's what drives value and how to prepare for a successful sale.