Introducing us to your customers
We'll work with you on how and when to tell clients. Usually a personal introduction from you carries far more weight than a letter from a new owner. We'll follow your lead on the timing and approach.
The acquisition process
How we work
No mystery, no surprises. Here's exactly what happens from your first message to the day you hand over the keys — and beyond.
Step by step
From first contact to completion
We've designed this process to be as low-friction as possible for the seller. You should never be left wondering what comes next.
Day 1
You reach out
Fill in our contact form, send an email, or call us. Tell us a little about your business — what it does, roughly what it turns over, and why you're considering selling. That's all we need at this stage.
Confidential from the start. We won't contact your staff, customers,
or suppliers until you've given us explicit permission to do so.
Within 48 hours
We respond
We'll come back to you quickly — usually within one working day, always within two. We'll either confirm that the business sounds like it could be a fit, or tell you honestly that it isn't. No stringing along.
If it looks interesting, we'll arrange a short phone or video call — no NDA required
at this stage, and no hard questions.
Week 1
First conversation
An informal 30–45 minute call. We'll ask about the business: your customers, your team, how your income is structured, and what your ideal outcome looks like. You can ask us anything too.
We're genuinely interested in the business as a going concern — not just the numbers.
How it runs day-to-day matters to us as future operators.
End of Week 1
Indicative offer
If we want to proceed, we'll put a written indicative offer in front of you within a week of our first call — based on the information you've shared. This is a non-binding figure, but it's serious and well-reasoned.
We'll show our working: the net profit figure we've used, the multiple applied,
and how we've structured the deal. No mystery.
Weeks 2–6
Due diligence
If you accept in principle, we sign a mutual NDA and move into due diligence. We'll ask for financials (usually the last 2–3 years), a client list, contracts, and a view of your equipment and systems.
We keep our requests focused and reasonable. We're not trying to find a reason
to chip the price — we're just making sure what we're buying matches what we've
been told. Minor discrepancies are normal.
Weeks 6–8
Agree final terms
We confirm final price and deal structure. If seller financing is part of the conversation, we'll work through the numbers together at this stage. We instruct solicitors and move towards exchange.
Completion day
Completion & payment
Contracts exchange, funds transfer, and ownership passes to us. For deferred elements, the payment schedule kicks in from this date.
Post-completion
Handover & transition
This is where most deals fall short — the handover is rushed, the new owner is thrown in at the deep end, and customers start to notice. We don't do that. See below for how we approach transition properly.
What to prepare
Documents we'll ask for
Don't worry about having everything ready upfront. We'll guide you through what we need and when. But here's a rough picture:
Last 2–3 years' accounts or tax returns
Customer list with tenure & contract details
Staff contracts or summary
Equipment list & ownership docs
Any supplier or site agreements
Recent bank statements (3–6 months)
If your records are a bit rough around the edges, don't let that put you off. We've worked with businesses where the bookkeeping wasn't perfect. As long as the underlying income is real and verifiable, we can work with it.
A word on solicitors
You'll need your own legal advice.
We'll recommend you instruct an independent solicitor experienced in business sales. Their job is to protect your interests — not ours.
Legal costs for a straightforward deal at this size are typically £1,500–£3,000 on your side. We cover our own.
Transition support
The handover: getting it right
A good handover protects the business — which protects the value of what you've sold. We take it seriously.
Systems and knowledge transfer
Every business runs on informal knowledge the owner carries in their head. We work through a structured knowledge transfer — routes, preferences, supplier contacts, recurring quirks — before you step back.
Your time, your terms
Some sellers want to be gone within a month. Others stay involved for six months and welcome the structure it gives the exit. We agree a handover period that suits you — and we compensate you for that time if it's substantial.
"The best handovers are ones where the customers barely notice the change — because
the service stayed consistent from day one."
Deal structures
Seller financing, explained plainly
It sounds complicated. It doesn't have to be.
Seller financing simply means that part of your sale price is paid to you over time — rather than all at once — from the profits generated by the business you've sold. Think of it as being paid in instalments, secured against the business.
The benefit to you is often a higher total purchase price. Because we're spreading the risk, we can typically offer more than we could for a full-cash deal. The benefit to us is a lower upfront capital requirement.
It's not for everyone. If you need all the money on day one — for retirement, a house move, or anything else — that's completely fine. We'll structure a full-cash offer instead.
Example: £80,000 deal
Option A — Full cash
£80,000
Paid on completion. Clean exit. Lower headline price.
Option B — Split deal
£93,000 total
£65,000 on completion + £28,000 paid over 24 months from business profit.
Higher total return for accepting structured payments.
Example figures for illustration only. Actual offers depend on your specific business.
Common questions
Questions sellers ask us
No. We deal directly with sellers, which saves you a broker's fee (typically 5–10%
of the sale price). If you already have a broker appointed, that's fine — we'll
work with them. But you don't need one to approach us.
From first contact to completion, most deals take 8–14 weeks. The biggest variable
is how quickly we can get through due diligence, which depends on how readily
available your records are. We don't drag our feet — slow deals lose momentum
and that helps nobody.
Until exchange of contracts, you're under no obligation. We've had sellers get cold
feet — it's a big decision and entirely understandable. We'd rather you took the time
to be certain than rush into something you regret. If you decide not to proceed,
we won't chase or pressure you.
Only if we find something material that changes the picture — for example, if the
actual profit figure is significantly lower than what was represented, or if key
contracts are about to expire. We don't use due diligence as a price-chipping
exercise. Our indicative offer is made in good faith, and we expect to honour it.
Sometimes. If you operate two separate rounds or routes and want to sell one, that's
worth discussing. We'll consider partial acquisitions where the carve-out is clean
and the acquired portion can stand alone as a business.
Staff transfer under TUPE regulations — their existing terms, pay, and continuity of
employment are legally protected. Beyond the legal minimum, we actively want to keep
good staff in place. They know the customers, the routes, and the way things work.
Losing them would be bad for the business.
Ready when you are
The first step is just a conversation.
You don't need to have decided anything yet. Reach out, tell us a bit about your business, and we'll take it from there — at whatever pace suits you.