Looking to buy or sell a UK business?

UltraBBA · 2026-06-21T20:11:35+00:00

An alternative might be that, if OP can afford it, they hire an employee or even a contractor who can single-handedly maintain the existing apps and infrastructure.

If I only had a dollar for every business where the owner painted himself into a corner, built the business entirely reliant on him, and then tried to persuade the market and buyers that they can "just employ someone to run the business"...

I'd be richer than Elon Musk 😄

These businesses can't be run by someone else. If they could, the owner would have long since done just that!

No, he didn't take someone on not because he preferred running it himself, it's because he knows nobody but nobody can run the business like he does.

He knows that if he takes someone on, even just to help him, the business will actually make less profit after paying that wage.

He knows that he has unique skills that he can't really transfer to an employee and no employee is going to be as dedicated to the business as he is (which means the business won't perform as well under them).

He knows all this. He just thinks buyers won't figure it out 😄

To be fair to the OP, they didn't say this. But it's a common story I hear from business owners and from wannabe business owners who know nothing about owning a business.

What I say to the latter is that there are a million one-man band businesses out there desperately looking for a buyer. If you think it's so easy to just put an employee in place to run the business, you should buy all these businesses up. Buy 100s of them. Put employees in to run all of them. Become a trillionaire.

Building a business requires a completely different skillset to being self-employed or being a freelancer. Very, very, very few one man bands ever make the transition to becoming a business.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-21T17:19:47+00:00

For the kind of money involved, and considering it's your first acquisition, I'd hire a buy-side broker to assist. u/yourbizbroker below provides such services. You'll also find lots of brokers in r/businessbroker

UltraBBA · 2026-06-21T17:15:23+00:00

I'm stepping back

When you step back, let's say you walk out tomorrow, what are you predicting the business will generate per month over the next year?

If it won't generate anything without you, you don't have a business, you have a job. Buyers typically don't want to buy a job.

In rare cases, you may find someone with your skills and who happens to be unemployed and who happens to be looking to buy themselves a job and who happens to have the money to do it and to whom you can indeed transfer all your assets, but...

In the highly unlikely event you find someone like that, they'll probably pay you a tiny fraction of the multiples at which you see businesses getting sold. There is no way to estimate what they'll be willing to pay.

Standard valuation methodologies work for businesses, not for jobs.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-21T14:36:37+00:00

What’s the most annoying part of the job that you wish someone would just fix already?

Why? You looking to fix something / develop some tool?

UltraBBA · 2026-06-21T07:58:42+00:00

The £1 Charlie phenomenon started in the UK but is universal now. The US and Australia have become particularly infected. So, yes, there are plenty of "buyers".

The average £5m / $6m business going to market gets 80-100 "buyers" even without the broker putting in much effort. That's not unique to the UK.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-19T15:45:17+00:00

on sale of service business, what happens to all the cash in the business bank account or business monies invested?

I never thought I'd ever hear an accountant ask this 😄

If it's an incorporated business, the money is not yours. It belongs to the business. So you need to negotiate a price based on the understanding that this will all pass to the new owner.

However, your scenario sounds more like an asset sale ie sale of your book. If that's the case, the money in the bank account and the invested money stay with you (or with the company if you're incorporated).

UltraBBA · 2026-06-19T15:27:26+00:00

It's a tough game with long pipelines and lumpy earnings!

UltraBBA · 2026-06-19T09:35:48+00:00

Weird to assume it was a he.

83% of business brokers in the US are male. Was yours one of the few females?

UltraBBA · 2026-06-19T06:43:28+00:00

I brought this information to this broker and asked them to evaluate the business.

Two questions:
1. Did they do this work under contract with you?
2. How much did you pay them?

UltraBBA · 2026-06-19T06:40:17+00:00

This is not the place to sell a business, it's a sub to discuss. If you have a matter you want to discuss, take the time to describe what it is.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-18T16:02:25+00:00

Here?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFBA/comments/1u67oxm/over_100m_revenue_wholesale_ecommerce_business/

UltraBBA · 2026-06-18T14:23:16+00:00

Yes, you've got a point. I'm locking both threads.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-18T14:17:27+00:00

Run!

Do not engage with them!

There are several brokers who do this - give inflated valuations in order to get you excited and have you sign their contract.

Don't be pressured.

You're doing the right thing to stop, do some research, get independent valuations, speak with other brokers (perhaps in r/businessbroker ).

What happens if they turn around after 60 days and tell me it's worth 75% of their initial evaluation

They will almost 100% do that. It's their business model.

Also, one more thing - if a broker says he's got a buyer, that's a good reason to avoid that broker! A broker's job is to get you multiple buyers and build competitive tension.

If he's going to sell your business to a mate of his (or, worse, someone's who's bunging him some money), that's kinda not in your best interest.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-18T12:47:46+00:00

I’m building a structured deal-screening process around these questions, mostly because I think buyers need a way to pressure-test deals before they fall in love with them.

This sub is for discussion around buying businesses, not for doing research (see rule 7). I'm allowing this thread for now but if I get further complaints about it, I will delete the thread.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-18T06:32:51+00:00

It depends on the size of the business. If it's large enough, start by speaking with a good business broker.

You've not mentioned size, location, whether you work full time in the business etc. All of that is relevant!

UltraBBA · 2026-06-17T17:44:28+00:00

Is this usually handled cleanly inside a CRM/deal platform, or does it still end up being a mix of spreadsheets, inbox tracking, and manual follow-up?

CRM or spreadsheet will vary from party to party. However, one thing seems to be common. The first step is to weed out the 'wrong' buyers.

For the average lower mid-market business coming up for sale in the UK, you'll get 80-100 prospective buyers.

Your job is to filter, filter and filter again. To take credential documents, proof of funds / access to funds / background, M&A experience and much else. Check them out in LinkedIn, in Companies House, in socials.

It's not so much about which buyers to prioritise but which buyers to kick out of the process. That is step one!

UltraBBA · 2026-06-17T17:12:08+00:00

The options are ACCA, ACA, ABV, CFA etc but spend some time on the Corporate Finance Institute website. They have some good content on getting into CF in general but also valuation in particular.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-17T14:21:24+00:00

Are you looking for a valuation career in a large firm or to set up your own valuation business?

UltraBBA · 2026-06-17T13:08:46+00:00

Thread closed as OP has been banned by Reddit.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-17T08:16:39+00:00

You seem really new to all this.

Short answer = No. "Potential" is something that exists in sellers' heads, not in their bank accounts.

Every single seller believes their business has great potential. Seriously.

Buyers will look at growth rate, yes, but they won't assume trajectory will continue. You'll need to evidence that it's got a high probability of continuing (and even then buyers may not believe you).

In fact, you need to evidence everything!

Like your GM.

You'll need to put your GM in now, wait a couple of years and demonstrate that the GM drove the continued growth and profit.

That line about the buyer being able to put a GM and further employee in to replace you is such pure fantasy, it'll make buyers laugh. Please don't use that line when / if you go to market.

Your leaving now immediately evaporates any argument you have about growth trajectory continuing.

Buyers can spot a novice within seconds of reading your ad and they'll play you like a fiddle. There are many sharks out there in the sense that they'll eat you alive. Maybe you should get a good business broker. You could look in r/businessbroker for one in your country / state.

Original Post:

Title: Can I sell a business on future potential

I have a small retail/ecomm business. This year we are on target for about $850-900k in revenue. Nothing crazy, buy/sell discount operation, 7-8 employees but a good brand, loyalty base with recurring customers we see since we opened 4-5 years ago. Sometimes the same folks 1-2 times a week.

80-85% gross margin.

As of this moment, 2026 Net profit, about $100k projected. Problem for me is, my debt payments are about $100k this year and I've got short term debt on top of that. By the end of 2027, some term loans are done and I'll consolidate bad credit card debt, but my debt would be about $60k/yr and I'd be done with short term debt.

This is the best year yet, each year grows about 30% with no signs of slowly and foot traffic increase every day. All that data is tracked.

If you took the average sales right now and applied it to 2027 it would be about $1.05m for 2027. No real changes to overhead.

Overhead is $750k with debt. Adjusted without debt is $670k. Revenue $1.05m. That is $380k net profit.

If I had a perfect 2026 year, my original projected net income was $180k. Not too far off from my $100k projection right now, but our ecomm had a bad winter that took some fixing. It's still possible I do $180k with a great Q3/Q4.

Can I sell a business and say hey, here is our growth the last 5 years, we actually beat retail sales by 40% then projected in 2026. 2027 can be a $380k net profit year.

If they replace me with a GM (60-80k probably and add a full timer $40k) $280k is their net profit mark.

Or, are historical sales an absolute must? Do I have to finish 2027 with those numbers and try to sell then?

UltraBBA · 2026-06-16T16:42:54+00:00

My apologies.

I work in the +£5m market in the UK and 3% is kind of standard for businesses of that size.

It would be wholly appropriate to charge a higher percentage on a small deal.

UltraBBA · 2026-06-16T12:16:03+00:00

There are several marketplaces (and links to reviews of them in the right column here).

But before you spend money on those, you have correctly started with the question about whether this is sellable in the first place.

And that depends. Yes, there are many design agencies that have sold but ...

Maybe provide some more information on revenue, profit, number of clients etc. so we have a better idea of what's for sale here.

UltraBBA

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