It is important that when you are thinking about selling your practice, you are as ready as you can be. That means collecting as much information as there is out there to get a good idea as to what the process is and what can be done to maximise the sale price for what you are selling. However, that is not the whole story.
Ask yourself the following questions:-
- Are you ready to sell
- How will you feel about not running the practice any more?
- What will you say to your clients?
- Do you enjoy all or some of the work?
- What will you do when you have sold?
- Do you want to work for the buyer?
- Do you want to work on a time diminishing capacity?
- Will you miss the day to day contact with staff and clients?
- What do you most enjoy about the job?
- How long have you been thinking about selling?
We often get calls from potential vendors asking how quickly can a practice be sold. It is important for us to find out if this is something that has been considered over a long period of time or has the vendor just had a bad day at the office? I have noted that frustration is cumulative. Difficult clients, getting information from HMRC, bad debts, new legislation, unrelenting deadlines etc etc
Bit by the pressure builds up until you think retirement sounds lovely and has to be better than your day to day frustrations of running your practice. It is really important to sell before the frustrations and stresses make you ill. We have had cases where the vendor has carried on working well past the point of coping, where they have ended up being ill, having a stroke, having a heart attack, being sectioned in hospital or even dying. Please, please, please don’t get to the point that your work makes you seriously ill.
Talk to a professional broker who can help you to see the wood for the trees. They can help you to get perspective. I have had many instances where just a conversation about the options available can make all the difference, reduce the stress, give a way out, show the next steps thereby allowing the individual to feel better about the situation. Often the right thing to do is to keep working, but plan to sell in 6, 9 or even 12 months. Immediately is not always the best time to sell. Typically selling is not market driven by attitudinally driven. You have to be in the right mind set to sell.
Please be aware that selling is not a walk in the park. It is hard work. You have to agree the offer, go through due diligence, negotiate the contract, complete the deal, get paid (that is the nice part), then start the handover process, bedding in the clients, transitioning the accounting systems, having the staff TUPE across , then working your way out over time etc.
Most people will be happy to have that light at the end of the tunnel to work towards. It is important to have someone that will help you get there.
If you want to sell an accountancy practice or buy an accountancy practice please get in touch with me, Nicola Draper, on 01788 816440 or email me at n.draper@draperhinks.co.uk. Let me see how I can be of assistance. I look forward to talking to you.