Acumon is a leading UK accountancy firm* providing comprehensive advisory services to support your business sale. We work with sellers to optimise exit value, structure tax-efficient transactions, and navigate the complexities of business disposals. Our real-world experience includes multiple successful MBOs and an MBI, providing us with unique insights into both seller and buyer perspectives that enable us to negotiate better deals and achieve optimal outcomes.

Comprehensive Services for Sellers

Selling a business is one of the most significant financial decisions you will make. Our comprehensive advisory service supports you throughout the entire sale process, from initial exit planning through to transaction completion and beyond. We understand that successful business sales require careful preparation, strategic positioning, and expert negotiation to maximise value while minimising risk.

Our selling a business advisory service frequently helps arrange financing packages (debt or equity) for buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, and covers the following key areas:

Optimising Tax Positioning

Tax efficiency is critical to maximising the net proceeds from your business sale. We provide comprehensive tax planning advice to optimise your tax position, including:

Business Asset Disposal Relief (formerly Entrepreneurs' Relief) planning to minimise Capital Gains Tax
Timing strategies to optimise tax year utilisation and relief availability
Transaction structure optimisation to achieve tax-efficient outcomes
Pre-sale tax planning to clean up tax positions and maximise reliefs
Estate planning considerations for business owners
Tax-efficient extraction of sale proceeds

Our tax optimisation advice can significantly increase the net proceeds from your business sale, often saving tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds in tax liabilities.

Creating Efficient Funding Structures

We help create efficient funding structures that enable buyers to raise funds more easily, which can accelerate transactions and improve deal certainty. Our funding structure advice includes:

Structuring vendor loans and deferred consideration arrangements
Designing funding packages that attract buyers and lenders
Optimising funding structures for tax efficiency
Facilitating buyer financing to improve deal certainty

By helping buyers secure funding more easily, we can improve deal certainty and potentially negotiate better terms for sellers.

Vendor Due Diligence

Undertaking vendor due diligence enables you to identify and address potential issues before buyers discover them, reducing transaction risk and accelerating processes. Our vendor due diligence service includes:

Comprehensive financial review and analysis
Tax compliance assessment and risk identification
Operational and commercial review
Legal and regulatory compliance assessment
Issue identification and resolution planning
Data room preparation and organisation

Our vendor due diligence helps you present your business in the best possible light while addressing potential issues proactively, reducing buyer concerns and supporting price negotiations.

Contract Negotiation

Effective contract negotiation is critical to protecting your interests while maintaining transaction momentum. We help negotiate all aspects of sale contracts, including:

Warranties: Negotiating warranty scope, limitations, and caps to protect your interests while remaining acceptable to buyers. We help structure warranties that provide appropriate protection without creating excessive risk exposure.
Guarantees: Advising on guarantee arrangements, including personal guarantees, corporate guarantees, and security arrangements, ensuring that guarantees are appropriate and limited where possible.
Deferred Consideration and Performance-Linked Payments: Structuring deferred consideration and earn-out arrangements that balance seller and buyer interests. We help design earn-out structures that are achievable while protecting seller interests, and negotiate deferred payment terms that manage risk effectively.

Our contract negotiation expertise helps you achieve optimal terms while maintaining transaction momentum and buyer confidence.

Creating Management Incentive Plans

For MBO/MBI transactions, we help create management incentive plans, including Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) schemes, that align management interests with business success. Our incentive plan advice includes:

Designing EMI schemes and other tax-efficient incentive arrangements
Structuring equity participation for management teams
Ensuring compliance with tax and employment law requirements
Addressing valuation and exercise arrangements
Aligning incentive plans with business objectives and exit strategies

Our management incentive plan expertise helps structure transactions that motivate management teams while optimising tax outcomes for all parties.

Raising Capital for Buyers

We frequently help arrange financing packages (debt or equity) for buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, which can accelerate transactions and improve deal certainty. Our capital raising support includes:

Structuring financing packages that attract lenders and investors
Facilitating introductions to debt providers and private equity investors
Supporting buyer financing processes to accelerate transactions
Optimising financing structures for transaction success

By helping buyers secure funding, we can improve deal certainty and potentially negotiate better terms for sellers.

Post-Completion Advice

Our advisory service extends beyond transaction completion to support you and the new owners in the post-completion period. For sellers, this may include managing deferred consideration, earn-out arrangements, and warranty claims. For buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, we provide ongoing support to ensure successful post-acquisition integration and value creation.

Staff Retention

For sellers with ongoing involvement or buyers in MBO/MBI scenarios, we advise on staff retention strategies that help maintain business continuity and protect value. Our staff retention advice includes:

Identifying key employees and retention risks
Designing retention bonuses and incentive arrangements
Addressing employment contract terms and obligations
Managing cultural integration and employee engagement

Our staff retention advice helps protect business value by ensuring key talent is retained during and after the transaction.

Systems Integration

For buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, we advise on systems integration planning and execution, ensuring that businesses are integrated effectively while minimising disruption. Our systems integration advice includes:

Assessing IT infrastructure and system compatibility
Planning systems integration and migration
Managing data migration and system consolidation
Ensuring business continuity during integration

Our systems integration advice helps buyers integrate acquired businesses effectively while minimising disruption and risk.

Business Growth Plans

For buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, we advise on business growth plans that help realise acquisition value and achieve strategic objectives. Our business growth advice includes:

Developing strategic growth plans and initiatives
Identifying growth opportunities and market expansion strategies
Planning operational improvements and efficiency gains
Supporting implementation of growth strategies

Our business growth advice helps buyers realise acquisition value and achieve their strategic objectives.

Exit Strategy

For buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, we advise on exit strategies that help realise investment value. Our exit strategy advice includes:

Developing exit strategies and value realisation plans
Planning for future sale or refinancing
Optimising business value for exit
Supporting exit planning and execution

Our exit strategy advice helps buyers plan for future value realisation and optimise business value for exit.

Your Helping Hand

Beyond providing technical and financial advice, we support you through the ups and downs of your deal and help you remain focused on your objectives. Selling a business can be emotionally challenging and time-consuming, and it's easy to lose sight of strategic objectives amid the detail of negotiations, due diligence, and transaction execution.

Our role as your helping hand includes:

Strategic Guidance: Helping you maintain focus on exit objectives and ensuring that transaction decisions align with your personal and financial goals
Process Management: Coordinating with your team and advisors to ensure that all aspects of the transaction progress smoothly and on schedule
Risk Management: Identifying and addressing risks proactively, ensuring that potential issues are resolved before they become problems
Emotional Support: Providing support through the emotional challenges of selling a business, helping you navigate difficult decisions and maintain perspective
Communication: Facilitating effective communication between all parties, ensuring that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities
Decision Support: Providing clear, actionable advice that enables you to make informed decisions at each stage of the sale process

We understand that successful business sales require more than technical expertise – they require practical guidance and support throughout the entire process. Our helping hand approach ensures that you have the support you need to navigate the sale process successfully and achieve your exit objectives.

Real-World MBO/MBI Expertise

We provide exceptional value because we understand business acquisitions and disposals from practical experience. Rather than just advising on transactions, we have made multiple successful MBOs and an MBI ourselves, providing us with unique insights into both seller and buyer perspectives. This hands-on experience enables us to provide more relevant, practical advice that reflects the realities of transaction execution and helps you achieve better outcomes.

Practical Transaction Experience

Our real-world MBO/MBI experience provides unique insights that enable us to:

Understand Buyer Perspectives: Our experience as buyers in MBO/MBI transactions enables us to understand buyer motivations, concerns, and negotiation strategies, helping you negotiate more effectively
Identify Transaction Risks: Our practical experience helps us identify risks and issues that may not be apparent to advisors without transaction experience
Structure Optimal Deals: Our understanding of both seller and buyer perspectives enables us to structure transactions that work for all parties
Navigate Transaction Challenges: Our experience helps us anticipate and address transaction challenges before they become problems

This practical experience, combined with our technical expertise, enables us to provide advice that helps you achieve better outcomes than advisors without transaction experience.

Why Choose Acumon for Selling Your Business

Leading UK Accountancy Firm

As a leading UK accountancy firm, we have the resources, expertise, and infrastructure to provide comprehensive advisory services for business sales of all sizes, from small owner-managed businesses to complex corporate transactions.

Real-World MBO/MBI Experience

Unlike many advisory firms, we have made multiple successful MBOs and an MBI ourselves, providing unique insights into both seller and buyer perspectives that enable us to negotiate better deals and achieve optimal outcomes.

Rapid Transaction Completion

As a growing, full-service, mid-sized firm of Chartered Accountants with over 90+ UK-based professionals, we have the resources and expertise to complete your business sale rapidly while maintaining the highest standards of quality and thoroughness.

Integrated Expertise

Our integrated approach combines financial, tax, accounting, and audit expertise, enabling us to provide comprehensive advice that addresses all aspects of the sale process, from tax optimisation through to contract negotiation.

Buyer Financing Support

We frequently help arrange financing packages for buyers, particularly in MBO/MBI scenarios, which can accelerate transactions and improve deal certainty, potentially enabling you to negotiate better terms.

Practical Guidance

Beyond technical expertise, we provide practical guidance and support throughout the sale process, helping you stay focused on your objectives and navigate the complexities of business disposals.

Next Step

Reach out to our team today to minimise your business sale risks and secure more favourable transaction terms. Our experienced professionals will deliver comprehensive advisory services tailored to your exit objectives, covering initial planning and valuation through tax optimisation, negotiation support, and transaction completion.

*Acumon is positioned among the leading UK accountancy firms, having been only £37k short of the top 100 in the Accountancy Age 50+50 list for 2024. Since publication, there have been significant market consolidations; Acumon has continued to grow organically and through strategic acquisitions. Our substantial client base and PIE audit license demonstrate our capability and market position.

Selling Your Business – Advisory Services