Don’t leave it too late to sell your practice

We sold a practice this year and it completed on the 3rd of April 2019.  The vendor died on the 12th April 2019.  The vendor’s wife worked in the practice and went to stay with her sister for a week because she was in shock. The one member of staff was on holiday and was not informed of the death …

What is a “Prep” call and why it is important

One of our USP’s at Draper Hinks is that we talk to vendors before they meet with a potential buyer via a “prep” call.  Most vendors have not sold before.  A very few have sold a practice in the past, got bored, started again, built up another practice and then sold for the second time.  Other vendors may have sold …

Please don’t do this when you are selling your accountancy practice

Last year we were contacted by a vendor looking to retire and sell his accountancy practice.  He was aged 72 and had been working with his clients for longer than he cared to remember.  Some of his clients had been with him for over 35 years and in some instances, their business had been passed down the generations.  It was …

Some top tips from a vendor to other vendors

In 2018 we sold a practice in the North West and the vendor was asked what tips he would give to another vendor in the same situation. These are the tips he came up with:- 1 Make sure that there is sufficient resource in place to handle the extra work involved. a. Storage space b. Staff capacity c. Equipment , …

A round up of the year – 2018

As most of our readers know, we only deal with accountants in practice. We are business brokers for accountants that want to sell fees and for accountants that want to buy fees. Most vendors want to sell their whole practice but we have had a number this year that want to sell only a tranche of fees. To date we …

A sad story about one of our vendors

We were contacted by a vendor three years ago to discuss the possibility of selling his practice with fees in the region of £160,000. Due to mitigating circumstances, we decided it was best to meet up face to face to discuss his particular situation, so a convenient time and place was agreed. I drove to the meeting and he drove …

Top tips from a vendor who sold his practice through Draper Hinks

Graham sold part of his practice through Draper Hinks several years ago. It did not go smoothly and he ended up having to sue the buyer. But that is another story. I recently met up with Graham to ask him for his top tips when selling a practice. Tip 1 Don’t expect it to go smoothly. Expect there to be …

How MTD has affected the market so far this year

We have had a number of vendors approach us this year not wanting to have to deal with MTD. Their sole purpose of selling was to avoid having to put things in place to deal with yet another system to be compliant in the ever changing world of accountancy. The first practice we marketed this year was for a lady, …

Some of the uncommon pitfalls a buyer can encounter when buying fees

When a buyer buys accountancy fees they are looking to minimise their risk but at the same time maximise their return. I have yet to find a buyer that pays out a significant amount of money without wanting a good return on the investment. We have come across a few pitfalls that buyers find when they buy fees. In our …