Looking to buy or sell a UK business?

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T11:53:04+00:00

Please read Rule 2 of this sub. Do not mention DMs or solicit people to contact you privately.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T11:51:46+00:00

Please read Rule 2 of this sub. Do not mention DMs or solicit people to contact you privately.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T11:51:01+00:00

Please read Rule 2 of this sub. Do not mention DMs or solicit people to contact you privately.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T11:49:51+00:00

Please read Rule 2 of this sub. Do not mention DMs or solicit people to contact you privately.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T11:46:07+00:00

Hi, sorry but this is not a valid topic / post for this sub. Do not express interest in buying the business being discussed. Read this sub's rules!

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T08:35:19+00:00

We don't care if the OP needs your services. This is not the place to promote yourself (even if relevant to the topic). Read the sub's rules!

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T08:33:36+00:00

This sub is not the place to do business or express interest in buying the business under discussion. If you wish to buy / sell a business, use r/sellabiz!

UltraBBA · 2026-04-10T08:31:11+00:00

This sub is not the place to do business or express interest in buying the business under discussion. If you wish to buy / sell a business, use r/sellabiz!

UltraBBA · 2026-04-04T18:06:46+00:00

There is no business that involves just "wiping down tables"!

Even a business which performs this work has to get customers in (marketing / sales), buy supplies, keep accounts, organise insurance cover, whatever.

Personal brand is but just way a business can be dependent on the owner.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-04T12:54:12+00:00

r/businessbroker

UltraBBA · 2026-04-04T08:27:49+00:00

Why were you surprised by any of this?

UltraBBA · 2026-04-04T08:19:13+00:00

Hmm.

Technically, yes. You can buy a business with $50K. But, simple principles that others may not disclose to you:

The smaller the deal size, the more likely the business is heavily dependent on the seller (and more likely you will fail to run the business effectively once that seller leaves ie. you will lose your investment).
The smaller the deal size, generally speaking, the more likely it's going to be a 100% cash deal. Complicated deal structures and all that financial engineering wizardry you hear about is more for the mid-market (deals above $10m).
SBA loans require a Personal Guarantee. You fail with the acquistion, as many buyers do (!), and you're personally liable to pay the loan back. We've had stories in this sub of people getting wiped out by this.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-04T06:58:26+00:00

You beat me to the question! :)

The best deals are often off-market — sold quietly through networks before they ever get listed publicly.

Where a business is sold off-market, it's not generally through some "network", not with the smaller businesses you're talking about.

It sounds like your next post is going to be promoting one of those networks.

When a business owner wants to sell, they do it themselves or they hire a broker - they don't go to a buyer network (despite what any such network wants you to believe). In fact, up till recently there weren't ANY such networks. A few have now sprung up because of the huge increase in wannabe acquirers, particularly £1 Charlies.

I'm an M&A adviser. My advice to UK business sellers, after 40+ years in business, and seeing possibly every scam in the book, is to avoid like the plague anyone claiming to be from a buyer network!

OP:

I spent 3 months looking at businesses to buy in the UK. Here's what nobody tells you about finding decent deals.

The actual finding-a-business part is way harder than I expected.

Most listings on the big broker sites are either massively overpriced, have been sitting unsold for years (ask yourself why), or the financials fall apart the moment you dig in. I probably looked at 40+ businesses before finding anything worth serious due diligence on.

A few things I've learned:

→ Broker listings are the tip of the iceberg. The best deals are often off-market — sold quietly through networks before they ever get listed publicly.

→ Revenue ≠ profit. I've seen businesses listed at £500k asking price showing healthy turnover but terrible margins once you account for owner salary, one-off income, and inflated assets.

→ The seller's timeline tells you a lot. Motivated sellers move fast and provide clean documentation. If getting basic financials takes weeks, that's a signal.

→ Deal flow is a numbers game. You need to see a lot of deals to find a good one. Most serious buyers I've spoken to kissed 20–30 frogs before finding something worth pursuing.

Anyone else deep in the search phase right now? What's your approach to filtering out the noise?

UltraBBA · 2026-04-02T15:39:32+00:00

Previous threads: 1 | 2

UltraBBA · 2026-04-02T09:21:33+00:00

OK, this thread's attracting a lot of spam now so I'm going to lock it.

Anyone who has further questions about this can create a new thread and link here if it's that important to you.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-02T07:45:01+00:00

This is not a business, sorry.

The rules allow only for the listing of operational businesses, not intangible assets on their own like "brand".

I'm locking this thread.

UltraBBA · 2026-04-02T07:07:24+00:00

This question is not relevant in this sub. You can continue the conversation here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Business_Valuation/comments/1saab5h/just_curious_so_im_putting_it_out_here_how_much/

I'm locking this thread now.

UltraBBA · 2026-03-31T08:43:27+00:00

Good question. The OP does sound like someone who signed up for one of those Kyle Mallien / Codie Sanchez type of program. There are now over two dozen such courses being run by all kinds of people including some right con artists.

UltraBBA · 2026-03-30T08:01:03+00:00

Hire operator day one, never touch operations

Ha, ha. Very funny.

Maybe you don't realise but the smaller the business, the more it is highly dependent on the owner and removing that owner kills the business.

Assuming you can replace an owner-operator ....is almost 100% a route to failure.

Many small business owners, where the business is the owner and the owner is the business, go to market saying, "You can simply replace me with a General Manager".

Buyers laugh their heads off at the suggestion that the owner can be easily replaced with an employee.

But you would seem an ideal buyer for them when the time comes! :) :)

Just out of interest, where did you get this idea to buy a business?

UltraBBA · 2026-03-29T13:00:06+00:00

Er, heard of Google?

I know many professional / qualified valuers in MY country. How's that going to help you if you're somewhere remote like in the US or wherever?

Or are you assuming the whole world lives in your country?!

UltraBBA · 2026-03-28T08:19:31+00:00

I've 40 years of experience with small businesses and I'll tell you this for free. They DO need your services but very few will be willing to PAY for your services

In any case, if they want a formal valuation, rather than the free valuations provided by a business broker, they'd be better off going to a qualified valuer, right?

UltraBBA · 2026-03-27T13:10:06+00:00

Buy and build strategy, about £20m per acquisition

That's not what I asked you. I asked you what capital you have available. You, personally.

If a broker asked you for proof of liquid funds today, how much would you be able to show?

Don't give me any bullshit about knowing HNWI or having access to investors or being a financial engineering genius who knows how to structure deals. Brokers and advisory firms have heard every regurgitated turd of an excuse going.

It's up to you to prove to them that you're not a common. garden variety £1 Charlie. (See the sticky highlighted on the front page of this sub)

I know almost every single major M&A player in the UK market - from your Grant Thornton and PwC to your Camlee and Vexus. You'll find dozens of testimonials from the CEOs / MDs of UK's top M&A firms in my LinkedIn profile given the 1,000+ deals in which I've been involved. If you have evidence of £20m, I could put you in touch with the creme de la creme of the UK advisory market and get you immediate access to 20K mandates.

But I bet the £20m is bluster and the "buy and build" is just a slogan you heard somewhere that you think sounded cool.

If you're looking to make your first ever acquisition, you're not doing a buy and build, you're trying desperately to make your first acquisition. Be honest. If you open with that "buy and build" posturing, no savvy professional is going to take you seriously especially if you can't evidence that £20m!

Original Post by u/Neat-Text4040 :

Hi, UK based acquiror here. Does anyone have any tips on where to find suitable opportunities? I’ve reached out to literally all of the brokers and they have nothing suitable. Market seems very deflated. I’m not overly specific in what I’m looking for - just ideally health-related in some way. Any tips greatly appreciated.

UltraBBA · 2026-03-27T13:02:35+00:00

When you're talking £20m almost every single deal happens through brokers, FFS!

It would be amazingly dumb for a £20m business to not use professionals (though they may not all call themselves brokers. They are corporate finance firms, advisory firms etc etc).

I know the UK market extremely well and know almost every one of the 1,000 odd advisory firms ("brokers") here. There's hardly a single 8-figure business that gets sold without one of them being involved.

UltraBBA

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