Every owner exits eventually — by sale, succession, or the version nobody plans for. Business exit planning is simply choosing which, early enough for the choice to be real: the difference between a business sold well and one sold at all is usually two to three years of preparation, and the difference in after-tax proceeds routinely runs to seven figures. With capital gains rates having climbed for two consecutive years and more change on every Budget speculation list, the cost of drifting has rarely been clearer.
Here are the exit routes as they actually compare in 2026, and the preparation that moves the price.
The routes, honestly compared
- Trade sale — selling to a competitor or strategic buyer. Usually the highest headline price (buyers pay for synergies), the most intrusive diligence, and the highest chance of an earn-out tying you in. The default for businesses with real strategic value;
- Private equity — full or partial sale to an investor, often with the owner rolling equity for a "second bite". Suits growing businesses with management depth; brings governance, leverage and a five-year clock;
- Management buyout — selling to the team that runs it. Discreet, culturally continuous, price usually below trade-sale level and partly deferred through vendor finance — our MBO guide covers the structure and the tax;
- Employee ownership trust — selling to a trust for the workforce. The CGT relief was halved in late 2025 (50% of the gain relieved, no longer 100%), which turned the EOT from the automatic tax answer into a values-plus-tax answer — still compelling for owners who care most about legacy and independence;
- Family succession — a transfer more than a transaction, where the planning is as much inheritance tax (the £2.5m business relief allowance) and governance as price;
- Wind-down — for lifestyle businesses with no transferable value, an orderly members' voluntary liquidation extracting the assets at capital rates beats pretending a sale is coming — subject to the anti-phoenix rules: restart substantially the same activity within two years and the distributions can be retaxed as income. Underrated, and sometimes simply correct.
The tax backdrop: the escalator is running
Business Asset Disposal Relief tells the story of this decade: 10% until 2025, 14% for a year, 18% now, on the first £1 million of qualifying gains — with the main CGT rate at 24% above. Every rate rise so far was announced with anti-forestalling rules attached, punishing those who tried to beat the deadline with artificial contracts but rewarding those whose genuine sales simply completed earlier. The planning conclusion is not "panic-sell"; it is that an owner already intending to exit within a few years has tax arithmetic quietly favouring sooner, and that reliefs — BADR qualification (two years of the conditions), spousal shareholdings to use both £1 million limits — effective only where the spouse independently meets the 5% and officer/employee conditions for the full two years, which rules out transfers on the eve of sale, EOT and rollover options — need to be in place before heads of terms, not discovered in diligence.
What actually moves the price: the two-year checklist
Buyers pay for transferable, demonstrable profit. The preparation that changes multiples, in rough order of value:
- Owner-independence. A business that runs through the founder's phone sells at a founder-shaped discount. Management capable of running it without you is the single biggest multiplier — and takes the longest to build;
- Clean, current numbers. Monthly management accounts, reconciled balances, margins by product line, and no surprises for diligence to find. Buyers price what they cannot verify as risk (our EV vs equity value guide shows exactly where that pricing happens);
- Contracted revenue and spread customers. Concentration above 20–30% in one customer is a price chip in every negotiation;
- Tidy structure. The investment property in the trading company, the sister-company loans, the undocumented share history — each is either fixed in advance (a demerger, a share tidy-up) or paid for at completion;
- Locked-in reliefs and paperwork: share scheme compliance (missed EMI filings are a classic diligence find), s431 elections, clean statutory books.
The process, when it starts
A well-run exit follows a rhythm: an honest valuation and readiness review first (the gap between owner expectation and market value is the most common deal-killer, better discovered privately); then the fix list above; then, when the business is ready, the choice of route and — for sales — a competitive process rather than the flattering solo approach from "a buyer who found us". Solo approaches close at solo prices. Throughout, the owner's personal side runs in parallel: what the proceeds need to fund, the estate planning consequences of suddenly liquid wealth (see our IHT guide — cash is fully exposed where the business was relieved), and life after the earn-out.
Acumon runs exit planning end to end — readiness reviews, valuations, structuring, and the sale itself through selling your business and succession planning. The first meeting is a valuation-and-options conversation, and the best time for it is when you don't need to sell — that is precisely when every option is still open.