Sue Wright and Faisal Arif from Harrogate International Advisory spoke during the roundtable discussion focusing on the process of exiting business, and gave their expert advice to fellow entrepreneurs looking to successfully manoeuvre an exit strategy.
Sue explained the importance of talking through the sales process before finalising the decision to sell, and how she would try and get in as early as possible to a business wanting to sell in order to maximise the sale, as people will buy and sell different companies to create different business strategies. Not one process fits all and each is boutique to each business depending on ambition, time scale, points. The issues regarding having the business in shape in order to sell was highlighted and how rushing into the decision can have an impact on the business.
Faisal went on to discuss topics regarding the reasons for business sales including both personal and business aspirations and how they can impact the business after the sales. Faisal highlighted the importance of having a strong management team before the transition in order to guarantee the success of the business post sale. Every process that Harrogate work on is tailored and involves the consideration of the current management team and how to improve this in order to meet the aspirations of the owners.
During the question and answer session, the sizing of the company was discussed. It is advised that businesses looking to sell should work on the exiting process as early as possible and the exiting process is tailored to different sizes of businesses. With Harrogate International Advisory, each client is spoken to on an individual basis, with the current client base exiting business being very diverse. Emotion was then mentioned during the question and answer session, and how this can impact the exiting journey. A sale is game changing process for each business as there are so many aspects to the business to consider including staff and the reasoning of why the business is being sold, taking into consideration what the owner wants to achieve. Another question highlighted the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sellers wanting to exit business as many more businesses are coming forward to be sold and there is a lot of liquidity coming to the market, a perfect match at the moment. Businesses are currently being over-sold due to the state of the market, which can act as a positive for business owners wishing to sell.
It was a brilliant turn out with many brilliant business leaders around the room. We have many upcoming events in Birmingham and Nationwide. To have a look at our upcoming events and register, please follow https://downtowninbusiness.com/events/
