At Draper Hinks we facilitate the buying and selling of accountancy practices. We deal with accountants all over the country that want to sell accountancy fees and those that want to buy accountancy fees. We work on deals of £1m and below. We have been doing this since November 2004 and have a lot of experience in this field.
Over the years we have brokered over 300 deals. We often have more than one offer for each practice being sold, which means that we have had the privilege of seeing many different offers. Some more detailed than others.
I review each and every offer before forwarding it to the vendor. I sometimes will reject an offer if I think it does not cover all the aspects expected. For example, I once received an offer via email that said “We will pay 1 x fees.” That was it. When I asked the buyer for more information they did not get back to me. I did not forward the offer to the seller so the buyer missed out on the possibility of buying a practice.
Other recent offers that we have had in the last couple of months include:-
Offer One
One buyer divided the clients by the location of where they were on the map and offered to buy the clients in particular post code areas. The vendor accepted this offer and the deal went through.
Offer Two
The buyer offered different multiples for the different types of work done.
- The accountancy work was the higher multiple.
- The book keeping work was lower.
- The IR35 work did not have a multiple applied but was based on an earn out of 25% of fees received for up to 4 years.
All offers are checked before being forwarded to the vendor. A lot of vendors will want to discuss each offer with me before deciding which one to accept. It is rare for the vendor to choose an offer on the basis of multiple alone. Quite often the most important factor is the “fit” which can result in less money being paid on completion but more money being paid throughout the payment term due to better retention.
Please remember that we do have a lot of experience in helping sellers to sell and buyers to buy. We are still brokering deals during these difficult times. If you want to talk to someone about your own situation please get in touch with me, Nicola Draper, on 01788 816440 or email me at n.draper@draperhinks.co.uk.