| Details of the deal for this vendor’s story | |||
| Fees sold | £76,962 | Where | Berkshire |
| Qualified | FMAAT | Age | 70+ |
| Time scale | 5 months | Type of Practice | Sole Practitioner |
| Payment | I payment | How paid | 100% paid no clawback |
| Multiple | 0.8 x fees | When paid | Completion |
| Offers | 2 offers | Office & staff | No office & no staff |
| Results | Vendor had short handover and then retired fully | ||
We had worked with this vendor before. He ran a practice with his wife, and they employed staff and rented an office. He decided he wanted to downsize so we sold half of his practice, he made his staff redundant, worked from home and earned as much money as he had before with a lot less to worry about. He said, “I should have done it years ago!”
He came to visit us at our office in Rugby to discuss the best way forward for selling the rest of his fees. Having been through the process once from start to finish he understood what and how we would sell his remaining fees. He really wanted to understand the current marketplace, how long it would take and what he could reasonably get from the sale. All perfectly reasonable things to want to know.
I was able to answer all his questions, give him the questionnaire I needed him to complete and discuss relevant time scales for starting and completing. He was very happy following our meeting. So, when all the paperwork had been received, we proceeded to market his practice.
His fees were popular. There was no office and there were no staff, so we presented these fees as being unencumbered. This led to a number of potentially interested buyers getting in touch and having a meeting with him. He had 5 firm offers. He did not get on with all the buyers, so it was easy to exclude some of them straight away. He was keen to accept an offer from a buyer that had the same ethos as himself where he felt the clients would be well looked after.
In the end he accepted an offer from a much younger buyer. The buyer was very keen to make a good impression on the vendor and to all the clients, so all seemed to be going ahead full steam. Due diligence was booked and the buyer needed to check all was in order before parting with any of his hard-earned cash.
But then bad news, the buyer was in hospital with suspected pneumonia. Everything came to a standstill. If you have ever had pneumonia, you know that it does not clear up overnight. The buyer was so upset that he could not immediately proceed with the purchase. The vendor was understanding and everything was put on hold.
Luckily the buyer soon recovered and after a couple of weeks the threads of the purchase were picked back up. However, the buyer succumbed again and was in hospital again making the vendor worry about the buyer’s ability to look after any clients let alone all of them. I have to say, I believed there was a point in the process where the vendor was going to ask me to contact some of the other buyers that had put in an offer to see if they wanted to resume negotiations. But luckily it did not come to that. The buyer recovered fully, the process was back on track and the contract was signed.
Not all deals go through smoothly. Things can come at you from all sides that are no one’s fault. It was good to hear that the deal was completed and the buyer was fully fit.
So, if you are thinking of selling your practice please get in touch. We work with you all the way through the process right up to completion. You can contact me at n.draper@draperhinks.co.uk.