Your Business With James Caan 2017 - 36
PROMOTION Selling your brokerage business How yacht broker Alan Nash sold his business with BusinessesForSale.com A fter working seven days a week for almost 30 years, Alan Nash decided to take a well-deserved early retirement, which meant selling the Boatshed Suffolk franchise he'd bought six years previously. After several recommendations, including from the head office of Boatshed.com, Alan decided to list the business on BusinessesForSale.com. Why BusinessesForSale.com? The Boatshed franchise has had a lot of success using the site in the last couple of years, making it its go-to site for franchise resales, Alan told us. Placing the advert Alan was pleasantly surprised by how quick the whole process was, from placing the advert to completing the sale. He found it very quick, easy to use and cost-effective. "Placing the advert was very self-explanatory," he says. "It's just like putting your car up for sale on Auto Trader - even easier, actually." Enquiries Alan only encountered one difficult challenge when selling his business: he didn't receive any enquiries in the first couple of weeks due to his pricing. As soon as he removed the price and the business turnover from of the ad, "the phone just went mad", he says. After making the price more competitive, Alan told us the response was better than he'd expected. "I can't believe the response we got," he says. "We actually got seven enquiries," one of which was from an international buyer. Choosing a buyer After whittling prospective buyers down to three, Alan arranged a meeting with the buyer who best met his criteria. "I wasn't going to sell to just anyone," he says. "I wanted to sell the business to someone who could improve it and make use of the potential I knew was there." "I worked very hard on Boatshed Suffolk for six years and didn't want it to fall by the wayside once I'd gone. I wanted somebody to come on board with new ideas, who could drive the business forward." Alan was impressed with the short amount of time in which the sale was completed - he sold his business in a matter of weeks Long chats on the phone made it easier to distinguish the serious buyers from the time-wasters. Alan had a very quick result with the eventual buyer, who enquired and wanted to meet the very next day. The sale What Alan liked most about the buyer was his enthusiasm. "He liked what he saw, I got on with him very well and it was all done and dusted within a week," he says. Alan has declared himself "very pleased with the whole thing. I got the asking price for the business, so that was perfect." The overall experience Alan was impressed with the ease of use of BusinessesForSale.com and the short amount of time within which the sale was completed. He told us he had allocated a year or two to sell, planning to list the business for six or seven months to start with, before trying other selling channels. But he ended up selling in a matter of weeks and didn't need to use other websites. "I can't believe how good the website was," he says. "If I was in the marketplace, I'd definitely buy or sell a business through BusinessesForSale.com again."