Selling businesses can be a complicated, lengthy process and a large proportion of potential sales fail to go ahead wasting hours of the vendor’s and potential purchaser’s time.
By getting expert advice, many of the potential pitfalls faced when selling businesses can be overcome and the chances of success greatly increased.
This is what Swindon-based Sensata IT did, when they consulted the team here at Optimum on how to go about selling the business.
Sensata was set up in 2004 in Swindon by Chris and Janet Griffin, as an IT support agency aimed at SMEs in the Swindon area and along the M4 corridor.
The Griffins created a successful company, which was well respected among the local business community, as a trustworthy provider of cost-effective IT solutions, supported by excellent customer service.
Chris and Janet were long-term accountancy clients of Optimum and so turned to Optimum CEO Richard Mathews for help and advice when they decided the time had come for them to sell.
Richard was able to advise them that the best way to proceed would be to seek a buyer themselves – it wasn’t necessary to use a third party agent as a go-between.
Excalibur, another Swindon-based IT provider, expressed an interest and Richard help to advise Chris and Janet on the sale.
The legal team at Optimum, headed by Mary Hoffman, were instrumental in ensuring a successful sale, by overseeing the share purchase agreement and liaising with Excalibur’s legal team.
By being able to provide the accountancy, tax and legal support within Optimum it reduced the number of parties usually involved in this type of transaction and made the completion a much simpler process.
Chris and Janet have now successfully sold Sensata to Excalibur, which has taken on not only their client base but also their team, providing job security.
Chris said: “It was important for us to secure an agreement that would provide security for our dedicated staff and continuity of service for our loyal customers.”
You can read more information here about we help clients with business planning. If you are considering selling a business and would like legal and accountancy advice from experts, please get in touch with the Optimum team.
