Business Valuations
A defensible number for a sale, a share transfer, a divorce, a share scheme or simply to know where you stand, plus the levers that would move it.
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Corporate finance
Exit & Succession Planning
Almost everything that determines what you walk away with is decided before the business goes anywhere near a buyer. This is the work that happens in those years, and it is the most valuable thing we do.
The decisions that matter happen early
There is a version of leaving your business where you accept the first credible offer, discover the tax bill afterwards, and hand over to someone who is not ready. There is another where you spend three years quietly raising the value, protecting the reliefs and preparing a successor, then leave on your own terms.
The difference between them is planning, and the planning has to start while a sale still feels a long way off.
What we work on
Protecting the reliefs. Business Asset Disposal Relief requires the conditions to be met throughout the two years to disposal. Business Property Relief matters if the shares will pass on death rather than be sold, and the allowance regime changed from April 2026. Both reward planning years ahead and punish restructuring done at the wrong moment.
Making the business saleable. The valuation page covers the levers in detail: reducing owner dependency, tidying the balance sheet, converting ad hoc revenue into contracted revenue, and getting three consistent years of accounts behind you. Each of these lifts the multiple, not just the profit.
Choosing the route. A trade sale, a management buyout, a family handover or an employee ownership trust all have different tax outcomes, different timescales and different consequences for your team. We model them side by side so the choice is informed.
Planning your own position. How much do you actually need to live on, what will the sale leave after tax, what should be going into a pension in the meantime, and how does the money you take out now interact with what you take out at the end.
The handover. Who runs it, what they need to learn, and over what period. Successions fail more often through unpreparedness than through bad intentions.
A note on family businesses
Passing a business to your children involves conversations that have very little to do with tax: whether they want it, whether the ones who want it are the ones who can do it, and how to be fair to a child who is not involved. We have sat through many of these, and the useful thing an outside adviser brings is a straight question at the right moment.
The tax then has to follow the family decision, not the other way round.
Start before you are ready
Most owners who talk to us about exit are not planning to go anywhere yet. That is the right time. Have a confidential conversation, and if the answer is "carry on for another five years", you will at least know what to do during them.
Common questions
How far ahead should I plan?
Two years is the practical minimum because of qualifying periods on the main reliefs; three to five gives you room to change the outcome rather than just document it. Owners who come to us five years out almost always leave with more, both because the business is worth more and because nothing has to be rushed.
I want to pass the business to my children. Is that simpler?
Simpler in some ways, harder in others. There is no negotiation with a stranger, but there are family dynamics, the question of whether the next generation actually wants it and can run it, whether you still need income from the business, and inheritance tax on the shares. Business Property Relief is central to this and the rules change from April 2026, so plans made under the old assumptions should be revisited.
What if I want to keep some involvement?
Common and entirely workable, but it needs care. Staying on as a consultant or a minority shareholder can affect whether reliefs apply, and payments that look like consideration for staying can be taxed as employment income. It is better to design the role you want and then structure around it than to bolt it on at the end.
What if nobody wants to buy it?
Then we should find that out years early, not weeks. Some businesses are genuinely not saleable in their current form, usually because they are the owner. That is a fixable problem given time: build a management layer, convert relationships into contracts, document what is in your head. It is not fixable in the six months before you want to retire.
More corporate finance
Selling Your Business
The tax structuring, preparation and deal support behind a sale, so the amount that reaches your bank account is as close as possible to the number you agreed.
Learn more →Buying a Business
Financial due diligence, affordability modelling and deal structuring, so you find out what you are actually buying before you sign.
Learn more →Management Buyouts
Selling to the people who already run it: structuring a deal the management team can afford and the outgoing owner is happy to accept.
Learn more →Raising Finance
Forecasts, business plans and lender packs that stand up to scrutiny, plus a clear-eyed view of what your business can actually afford to borrow.
Learn more →
What this service is. Tax and accounting work connected with
a transaction: valuations, tax computations and structuring, financial
modelling, due diligence reporting, preparing your records and figures, and
working alongside your solicitor and other advisers. Tax treatment depends on
your circumstances and can change.
What it is not. We do not advise on the merits of buying or
selling shares or other investments, and we do not arrange or broker
investments or finance. Where you need that, we will tell you and you should
take advice from a firm authorised or licensed to give it.