What You Will Learn

This guide covers everything a UK business owner needs to understand before starting the exit process — including the things most advisers do not tell you until it is too late.

• How buyers actually value businesses — the multiple approach, what inflates it, and what quietly destroys it, including things owners rarely expect.
• The five realistic exit routes available to UK SME owners — trade sale, MBO, MBI, Employee Ownership Trust, and family succession — with an honest assessment of the pros, cons, and tax implications of each.
• The owner dependency problem — why it is the single biggest suppressor of business value, and what you can do about it in the next 12 months.
• Three things to do in the next 90 days to increase your exit value — concrete, prioritised actions that make a real difference before you go to market.
• What to expect from buyer due diligence — the questions buyers ask, the documents they request, and the red flags that kill deals at the final stage.
• How to choose the right advisers — what to look for in an exit planning consultant, a solicitor, and an accountant, and the questions to ask before you appoint anyone.
• The timing question — how to think about when to sell, how market conditions affect your value, and why waiting for the perfect moment often costs more than it gains.
• Capital Gains Tax and Business Asset Disposal Relief — a plain-English overview of the tax implications and the structuring decisions that make a significant difference to what you keep.

Who This Is Written For

UK business owners who have built something worth selling and want to make sure they exit it properly. It is not written for large corporates or private equity-backed businesses. It is written for the owner-managed SME — the business with between five and one hundred staff, a turnover of £500k to £10m, and an owner who has spent years building it and deserves to leave it well.

About the Author

Dom Watson is an independent business exit planning specialist who has worked with UK SME owners across [SECTORS] for [X] years. Unlike brokers or corporate finance firms, Dom Watson works only for the business owner — with no commission arrangements and no referral fees. Find out more about Dom Watson →

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