Irrespective of your business, complexity of your exit or the circumstances surrounding your decision to depart, you will want to exit having achieved maximum sales value, tax efficiency, financial security and legal protection. ESP is dedicated to success and has the expertise to ensure that your plans are watertight and that the process is completed without delay, disruption or complication. We will tailor a strategy to satisfy both your corporate and personal objectives and that delivers:-

The right buyer
you only sell once so obtaining maximum sale price is essential

Proactive tax planning
to guide you through the taxation maze, ensuring only minimum tax liability is incurred

Specialist & comprehensive financial advice
to ensure your pre-exit plans are sound and post-exit strategy achieves personal objectives in the best way possible

A structured legal framework and advice
preparation and completion of your contracts of sale

Unique, professional solutions.
Whilst we understand that no two situations are the same, an approach similar to the one below would be adopted by our business sales advisers to suit your individual needs:-

	initial meeting to understand business and personal objectives
	a review of the business
	the preparation of a comprehensive strategic planning and marketing document
	thorough research into potential buyers (from Europe and the USA)
	marketing of the business
	an assessment of the indicative bids received
	the management of the negotiation process on your behalf
	finally, ensuring that you ultimately receive the funds due to you. Pre-sale tax planning is highly beneficial, even before you totally commit to selling, as it will provide opportunities to eliminate, or at least, defer taxes. It will also help to protect your achievements to date and guarantee realisation of objectives.

Tax legislation was introduced to encourage the development of owner managed businesses but there are still complex pitfalls that you need to be protected from. Our thorough interpretation and understanding of the tax rules and regulations ensures that corporate taxes for your company, capital gains tax for the owners and all other hidden taxes can be mitigated. Each sale transaction is different and must be considered in its tax context, whilst appreciating the vendors overall objectives. Our taxation advisers will offer a complete tax solution to reduce the overall tax burden and increase the value of the sale to the vendor.

Capital tax regimes are fundamental to your business exit and these can be regarded as voluntary in that successful planning will maximise reliefs and exemptions that you are entitled to. Following your exit, we will also protect the value derived from your business and overall wealth by implementing efficient tax strategies to ensure optimum value is retained by you and your family.

The decision to sell your business is huge and needs a great deal of thought and planning as it will probably be the greatest decision of your business life. There are no two identical sale situations as the characteristics of clients' businesses vary even when in an identical industry. What is common however is that all businesses ESP sell are valued at over £1m and owners will always have their own personal agendas and financial goals.

Two general rules can be applied to most business sales though:-

	the buyer that is going to pay the highest price is not normally the most obvious one, hence the importance of thorough research
	an unsolicited bid will not usually result in the best price but, from experience, some form of competitive bidding will.

The selling process is time consuming and can be a major distraction which, if managed ineffectively, could result in an aborted sale or deterioration in your business' performance. By appointing ESP, our business sales specialists take the strain so you can continue to focus on guaranteeing continuity within your business. We make sure that we really understand your business as selling it can be an emotive process and ultimately there has to be the right personal chemistry between you, the seller, and us as advisers.

The legalities involved in selling businesses are vast and often confusing. ESP law partners have the experience to ensure that you are protected throughout the sale process and in a secure position upon completion.

Consultation
Our legal partners should be instructed early to make sure:-

	you are in a good position to sell the company
	any deal has a clear strategy and is structured in an efficient manner
	all potential issues are identified

Agreement of Terms
When a buyer has been identified, we will need to agree Terms of Sale and help to finalise the Heads of Agreement which set out the main aspects of the deal.