6 Have your numbers ready and leave ample time to transition
Anyone wishing to sell a business must have their house in order. This includes having all the management information and accounts up to date and available.
"People are going to want to see your account, your vendor accounts, your [profit and loss statement], see your contracts, your staff contracts, commercial contracts, understand the liabilities," says MacNee.
"If you're DA you've got your retail client agreements. So just having it all kind of ready to go will be quite impressive to a buyer.
"And at some level it is about having a connection there as well. [You need to understand] what the narrative is for the person who has to make the case internally. And all else being equal, if a firm has their stuff together that does look good," he adds.
He says for almost every buyer, one of the most important things will be that the starting position of the entry is as they expected. And if a vendor delivers that, they will be in a pretty good place.
Once the deal has completed there will typically be a handover period, managing the client transition to the new owner.
Transactions can take a long time to put together and involve a large amount of work, but it is important to prepare for what happens after the deal, says MacNee.
"I think it's very important to provide an ample time for the transition," he says.
"And if you have got advisers who are taking over, or clients are being transitioned from a retiring adviser, it's going to be quite difficult for them to also run your business, [so prepare how you will be onboarding those clients and over what timeframe]."
There is never too much time and planning that can go into the process.
carmen.reichman@ft.com
