Sell My Business Online

Different businesses use our service in different ways and these case studies provide an illustration of how some clients utilize our expertise as appropriate to their individual circumstances.

Case Study A

• Very small business
• Needed to Retain as Much of Sale Price as Possible
• Signed up to Standard Service
• Received first enquiry within 3 days
• Sold business within 7 weeks
• Total Cost of Sales Campaign = £295

This was a very small vending machine business based in the North of England.  Annual turnover of £15,000 pa.  They launched our Standard service and within days were making contact with the buyers generated by our marketing campaign.

They quickly arranged 3 buyer meetings and within just 4 weeks of registering with Sell My Business Online, they had agreed heads of terms with a buyer with deal completing after 7 weeks in total.

We would be misleading you if we said this was a normal lead time from registration to completion but the efficiency of our process and the motivation of this seller led to a fantastic result.  Furthermore, entire cost of our service (inc. sales profile, marketing campaign, management of buyer information and occasional bouts of advice)?  Just £295 and no agents contract to sign or worry about and nothing to pay when they sold their business.

Conclusion:  This was not an easy business to sell for an agent and we therefore suspect, that a traditional agent would have given it short shrift (whilst charging a decent fee and/or getting the vendor to sign a restrictive contract).   With Sell My Business Online we provided exactly what the vendor needed - buyers, expertise and flexibility - allowing him to sell at low cost and therefore, maximise the net benefits of his sale.

Case Study B

• Professional Services Consultancy
• Turnover >£1m
• Unwilling to sign agencts contracts
• Signed up to Premium Service
• Information circulated across our advisory network
• Within 45 minutes we're approached by 1st buyer enquiry
• Conducted an anonymous mailshot campaign
• Buyer meetings established within 2 weeks
• Potential Offer on Table within 4 weeks of registering

This was a profitable consultancy based in the South of England.   Vendor had been contacted by numerous agents and brokers but was unconvinced about committing to the sale process and incurring hefty fees and/or restrictive contracts.  He was an experienced entrepreneur with some deal experience behind him and alongside his retained accountants, wanted to test the market with Sell My Business Online.

He signed up to our Premium Service and we soon launched the initial marketing campaign.  Within minutes of releasing the information we started to receive enquiries - primarily via our corporate finance contacts.   We filtered the responses and started to generate both confidentiality agreements and background checks on behalf of the vendor.   We also conducted a mail-shot campaign that targeted specific buyers - most of whom were known to the seller - that protected the identity of the selling business until we'd signed up confidentiality agreements.  Via a combination of these channels to market we generated and managed responses from >140 potential buyers with the vendor able to check our case management system for regular updates.

The premium service expired after 3 months and the vendor, with his advisors, then took control of the process and engaged in more detail with the qualified buyers.

Case Study C

• Niche Business
• Limited Number of Potential Buyers
• Clients wanted Access to Widest Possible Market
• Signed up to Premium Service
• Used Sell My Business Online to gauge Market Value
• Offers Received within 1 month
• MBO completion

Company C was a niche business based in the North of England with £300k turnover pa.  Confidentiality was key for these clients, particularly in a very small, niche market.   Because of this the process had to be handled carefully and all buyers vetted in advance of receiving key information.

The vendors decided to sign up to our premium campaign which includes a buyer filtering service.  During this campaign we generated a good number of potential buyers including one trade buyer based in Australia, who was looking to break into the UK market via acquisition.

They eventually decided on an MBO having failed to agree satisfactory terms with a number of different buyers but our process had enabled them, at low cost, to go to market, establish the potential for a deal and then take a view about what was best for their business.   A low cost and highly flexible way to take a business to market.