If you are a business, who is thinking of selling or exiting their business sometime in 2025, now is the time to start planning. At AY Business Law last year we saw a 100% increase in the number of business sales we handled from the previous year and there is no sign yet of that slowing down.

When you sell or transfer your business, the buyer will carry out detailed investigations known as due diligence, to make sure they fully understand how the business has been run and whether there are any issues with it.

As an owner-managed business, you are often so tied up with marketing, sales, and service delivery, that it is hard to keep on top of compliance and paperwork. The trouble is that if you don’t do that and a potential buyer finds issues within your business, at best, it gives them an opportunity to reduce the amount of money they will pay for it. Something known as “price-chipping”. At worst it can threaten to derail the whole deal and they could withdraw if they find something they don’t like in there. This wastes time and money for both parties.

For this reason, we recommend that you carry out a thorough audit of your business BEFORE you allow a buyer access to it. That way you can find any problems before they do. And more importantly, fix them, so everything is squeaky clean and tickety boo when the time arrives.