Freedom and timing
Are you looking to step away, reduce your involvement or create options for later? Clarify your preferred transition and the constraints around family, management and the business.
Exit planning adviser | UK business owners
Your next chapter starts with the decisions you make before a buyer is in the room.
Consult EFC helps owners turn an eventual exit into a practical financial plan. Understand your options, identify the evidence a future buyer will test and prioritise the work that can make the business easier to explain and transfer.
Exit planning is the preparation that connects an owner’s objectives with the business’s financial and operational readiness for a future change of ownership. It can begin well before an active sale process and should be revisited as circumstances change.
The service
Exit planning is the preparation that connects an owner’s objectives with the business’s financial and operational readiness for a future change of ownership. It can begin well before an active sale process and should be revisited as circumstances change.
Start with your objectives
Are you looking to step away, reduce your involvement or create options for later? Clarify your preferred transition and the constraints around family, management and the business.
Separate your personal objectives from a supported view of business value. Consider deal costs, tax advice, payment timing and the difference between a headline price and cash received.
Think about management continuity, customer relationships and owner dependencies. A good plan considers how the company operates when your role changes.
The financial work
Understand maintainable performance, earnings quality, growth and business risk. A separate valuation report requires a defined purpose, date and scope.
Improve the consistency of accounts, management reporting and supporting schedules. Make adjustments and trends easier to explain.
Review cash conversion, seasonal requirements, debt and commitments. Identify questions that could affect sale economics or funding.
Identify where commercial relationships, approvals or delivery rely heavily on the owner or a small number of customers. Connect the financial exposure to a practical action plan.
Compare the commercial implications of a full sale, partial sale, management buyout or other route. Specialist legal and tax advice is needed before selecting and implementing a structure.
Prioritise the preparation, responsibilities and review points. Distinguish improvements you can control from market conditions or buyer decisions you cannot.
Explore the detail
Explore four common workstreams. The right sequence depends on your objectives, current information and the business.
Agree your preferred timing, involvement, financial objectives and constraints before selecting a route.
Keep the numbers connected
A future offer may be expressed as enterprise value, with adjustments for cash, debt and working capital before arriving at equity consideration. Deferred payments, earn-outs, fees and tax can then affect what you receive and when.
Planning brings those questions forward without pretending the eventual terms are known. An indicative valuation is a decision aid at a particular date, not a promise of the price a buyer will pay.
We can help organise the financial questions for your personal tax and legal advisers. Your own financial needs, tax position and estate planning require appropriately scoped specialist advice.
Outputs you can act on
Your objectives, current position, potential routes, important constraints and the decisions requiring further advice.
An assessment of reporting, performance evidence, cash, dependencies and the information a future transaction may require.
Workstreams, accountable owners and review points, with agreed support to help implement the financial improvements.
Exit planning versus a sale mandate
Exit planning does not mean contacting buyers or putting the business on the market. It can focus on understanding choices and improving readiness while you continue to run the company.
When you decide to explore an active sale, business sale advisory covers a separately agreed process. If a transaction is approaching and the evidence needs organising, seller due diligence preparation provides a focused workstream.
Government guidance explains responsibilities when selling a limited company. The obligations depend on the proposed structure and your circumstances.
How we work
Discuss what an exit means to you, your current involvement, shareholders, constraints and preferred timing.
Assess available information, performance, cash and the main readiness gaps.
Frame the commercial alternatives and identify where legal, tax or other specialist advice is required.
Agree the work, responsibilities and review cycle. Adjust the plan as the business and your priorities develop.
Read further
From the journal
Explore the detail, then discuss how it applies to your business.
From the journal
Explore the detail, then discuss how it applies to your business.
Business exit planning turns an owner’s objectives into a preparation roadmap. Start by deciding when you could sell, what role you want afterwards and how much uncertainty you can accept around deferred payments or a handover.
Reconcile the management accounts to the statutory accounts and document material differences. For proposed EBITDA adjustments, keep the amount, period, evidence and reason each cost or income item may be exceptional. A buyer can still challenge whether an adjustment reflects ongoing trading.
Identify customer relationships that depend on the owner, work that only one person knows how to do and contracts that need specialist review before a transfer. Assign a person and deadline to each dependency, then gather evidence as changes take hold.
Compare the cash paid at completion with deferred consideration, any earn-out and any equity retained. Cash, debt and working capital adjustments can affect the eventual proceeds, depending on the deal terms. Work with legal and tax advisers on the implications of the proposed structure.
If you already have an approach or a target sale date, share the timing and the questions you expect a buyer to raise. That helps establish whether a roadmap or immediate diligence preparation is more useful.
Your questions
Start when you want more control over your options, even if a transaction is not imminent. Some changes need sustained management attention. There is no single preparation period that fits every business.
No. Exit planning can help you improve readiness and preserve choices while you keep running the business. An active sale mandate is a separate decision and engagement.
We can agree a valuation workstream or use valuation context in the planning discussion. A formal report needs a defined purpose, date, scope and intended use. Future transaction prices are not guaranteed.
A partial sale or staged transition may be worth exploring. It changes control, future obligations and exposure to the remaining business. We help compare the commercial implications alongside legal and tax advice.
We can consider the financial implications of possible routes within our agreed scope. Their suitability, legal structure, tax treatment and funding need specialist assessment before implementation.
Yes. Reporting improvements, forecasting, financial preparation and finance leadership can be scoped as workstreams, with responsibilities and fees agreed.
The proposal sets out the work, outputs, fee, VAT treatment, timing and responsibilities. A future sale process, valuation or specialist project may require a separate engagement.
No. Preparation can help explain the business and address issues earlier. Buyer appetite, market conditions, performance and transaction terms still determine the eventual outcome.
Work directly with the adviser
Tell us what is changing, what you need to achieve and any important deadline.
Kishen Patel leads Consult EFC engagements. He is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant with a background in Big Four audit, investment banking and corporate advisory. Consult EFC has advised 100+ businesses and remains sector agnostic.
We agree the scope, deliverables, responsibilities, fee, VAT treatment and timing before work starts. An introductory conversation does not commit you to an engagement.