Selling your business: Advice from Acumen Financial Partnership

Selling a business that you worked so hard to create is a big deal and no-one “gets it” better than the team at Acumen Financial Partnership. Angela tells us all about business sales, life after selling your business, and how to adjust and keep financially secure post sale.

Angela Maher BA DipPFS, Managing Director at Acumen Financial has worked within the industry since graduating in 1981. With her many years of experience, she understands the emotion surrounding business sales and the huge impact on your life. At Acumen we can create an individualised financial plan to take the stress away and adjust to the concept of parting with control – whether you walk away on completion of the sale or carry on for a handover period. 

Life after selling your business

Suddenly finding that you are no longer the key decision maker after selling your business can be a massive shock to the system – and it’s frequently not recognised until it’s too late. You knew it was going to happen, but you’re still not prepared for how it feels.

We have dealt with countless retirement scenarios, from the sole trader who shuts up shop and draws a pension, to managers and directors of PLCs – and that journey from the full-on, hands-on, adrenaline-charged world of work to the more relaxed life that retirement can bring, can be immensely stressful in itself.  But nothing is quite like selling your own company, and of course, many business owners sell well before they are ready to retire, and that needs planning too. 

The whole legal process of negotiation with the potential buyer, due diligence, disclosure, getting your head around legal jargon, reading contracts, and checking the small print just sweeps you along. Until, that is, the day the contracts are all signed, the money changes hands and the sale is complete. 

And then it can all go very quiet…

What do you do after you sell your company?

There are cash management and investment decisions to make. Maybe you will take a well-earned holiday? But those decisions need to be made and the future well-being of you and your family is as important as it ever was. 

Some years ago, a retiring business owner said to me “I have taken a risk with the roof over my wife’s head every day of our marriage and I don’t want to do that anymore.” I can’t count the number of times that I have been told by a business seller that they thought they would be less stressed once the cash was in the bank, but actually it was worse. 

Building a strategy that gives you secure cash in the bank, plus the knowledge that there is a plan for inflation protected growth doesn’t come in a one-size-fits-all kit. As an Acumen client you will get an individualised plan that looks at your circumstances, along with an assessment of what life after selling your business looks like. However, there are key components that we believe everyone needs to explore.

In an ideal world, it’s better to discuss what you want your future to look like whilst the process is going through, rather than post-sale. Getting together to work out (to quote the Spice Girls) “what you really, really want”  before the money is paid into your account (so you have time to distil all the options) is a bonus, but it’s not too late once the deal is done.

With our multiple combined years of experience as business advisers as well as IFAs, we understand the worries that other business owners have and that translates directly into focused advice that gets to the heart of the matter and brings the best results. Listening carefully and asking the right questions is a skill we have honed over the years. 

A capital event like a business sale, which brings in a lump sum but simultaneously brings an end to your salary and the dividends from the business, can be complicated and therefore needs a proper strategy in place. Selling a business brings changes to the IHT treatment of assets with the potential loss of Business Property Relief too, which is something we can explore so you understand the implications and what you can do about it.

So just as your business needed a business plan, with goals and objectives, a new plan is every bit as important on exit, securing the value that you have worked so hard for and which you have now exchanged for a cheque.  Getting this element of your business journey right and getting your ducks in a row,  is where your security, investment growth, sense of control, peace of mind  – and your legacy –  will come from. Discover more about our experience and client testimonials.

Angela Maher.