Could you, should you, can you sell your business in a recession...yes!

In his latest article Nick Rogers, Head of Corporate Finance at James Cowper Kreston, talks through his secrets of maximising proceeds from a sale process.

The Key Stages to maximise the proceeds from the sale of your business.

1. Prepare the business for sale
2. Bring the right buyers to the table
3. Create competitive tension between buyers
4. Stop the erosion of value through smart buyers tactics
5. Tax planning

At James Cowper Kreston Corporate Finance our 70 years of experience of UK M&A mean that we have developed a sale process which ensures that we maximise the post tax proceeds i.e. cash in your pocket for each of our clients.

A few tasters

Prepare the business for sale - aka Grooming

Whilst a tough subject to cover in an article or talk as each company is different, the objective is clear - to ensure the business is presented to potential buyers in its best possible condition.  Please listen to the podcast available here or iTunes and read our Guide to Grooming your Business for Sale here and attend one of our interactive workshops to understand what improvement you can make to your business prior to marketing it in order to maximise its value.

Bring the right buyers to the table - aka strategic buyers

The alchemy good advisers bring to sale process.  In James Cowper Kreston's case we ensure the magic is underpinned by knowing your market, by a global research capability and damned hard work.  Join one of our interactive workshops to see how we can sprinkle some stardust on your company sale.

Create competitive tension between buyers - aka the auction

This is our dark art and don't expect us to tell you how we do it.  Our record shows that we are good at it!!!

Stop the erosion of value through smart buyers' tactic - aka (strong arm tactics)

Another dark art but we are more comfortable telling you something about this one.

We have also worked with many buyers from global corporates to private equity houses to serial entrepreneurs.  All people who have made money through businesses at low value and selling at high value.  We know their tricks (we taught them some!) and we know how to negate those tactics.

We will share some of this with you at the interactive workshops.

Tax planning - aka improving your bank balance, not the governments

Our M&A tax team regularly win awards from amongst their peers in the tax industry.  The tax team work as part of James Cowper Kreston Corporate Finance to ensure that you maximise the post tax proceeds.  They will ensure you have the maximum to spend on boats, fast cars, foreign homes, to spoil the grandchildren or invest through wealth managers (hopefully a combination of all these).

Tax planning can't start early enough - join one of our interactive workshops to begin your planning.