This is a guide to the different services offered by Jonathan Fagan Business Brokers Limited for sellers, and hopefully will give you an idea as to which route to opt for.
The guide is broken down into timeframes, and the first of these is short term or quick sale needed.
Short term – immediate sale needed
If you are in a position that requires you to sell a firm very quickly within the next eight weeks, then it is highly likely you are in a position where it does not matter to a certain extent what your practice is worth, or what steps you take prior to a sale, because any sale is going to need to be done to secure the future of your business, rather than to give you any significant monetary gain.
With this in mind, we would usually recommend immediately selecting the Gold Service, our basic premium service which includes a valuation report.
We would not usually recommend getting a valuation done separately first, but simply to get the practice listed as quickly as possible to ensure you get the most enquiries in as short as possible a time.
Short term – 12 months’ timeframe
If you are looking to achieve a sale or disposal in the next 12 months, then your path is going to be slightly different, and we would usually recommend considering signing up for our Gold or Platinum Service. Both of these services include a valuation report, which will be extremely useful to both you and ourselves in the first instance. It will give you an idea at the outset as to the likely deals that will be offered to you, the likely value of the practice, and anything we think you can do in that timeframe to improve your chances of success when it comes to a sale. The valuation report can be done within three to four weeks from start to finish, and in the meantime we can get your practice listed for sale.
Medium term – 12 to 24 months
If you are looking to achieve a sale within the next two years, you will want to use our Platinum or Platinum Plus services. This will include the starting point of our exit strategy advice in the first instance. This service has been set up to provide you with an early warning system; to get the practice into the best possible position prior to commencing the sale or disposal process. We will come and meet with you, discuss your practice, look at all the various figures and documents, provide a valuation, suggested deal structures and most importantly an exit strategy which will include extensive suggestions for improving your chances of success.
Longer term – 24 months +
If you are in a position to consider future options, but are not yet in a position to sell your business, then you want to be thinking about the exit strategy service as a standalone option. This service has been developed in mind to be completely flexible according to the practice we are assisting at any particular time, and can be varied by what we think is going to be of most benefit to you and your business. For example, if you are in your late 30s or early 40s and thinking about a sale in 20 years’ time, then the exit strategy service would be aimed at looking at your business structure now, seeing how it could be improved in relation to a future disposal, but also looking at how it could be improved to achieve higher profits now, as well as in the future. However, if you are in your late 50s and looking to retire in your early 60s, then the exit strategy report is going to be focused much more on the structure of the business and achieving the best price going forwards.
Summary
In summary, which service is going to be best for you will depend very much on the timeframe you are looking at. Short term probably requires you to list the practice as quickly as possible using our Gold Service, in the medium term think about the Platinum Service, and in the long term consider the Exit Strategy Service in the first instance and then go from there in future as and when required.
If you have any questions about the different routes for sellers using our services, please contact by visiting our contact page.
Enquire