Exit planning for UK business owners
Planning to retire, step back or hand over your business?
The decisions you make in the years before an exit can materially affect the value, saleability and options available to you. We help established owners prepare for succession, ownership transition and eventual sale.
Typically supporting owners of businesses with £1m–£25m turnover or approximately 25–500 employees.
Your timing
When are you planning to exit?
The ideal window to strengthen management, document processes and demonstrate consistent performance that supports value.
Start Your Exit PlanWant a roadmap for your own situation? Build My Exit Timeline →
Why plan early
Exit planning begins long before the sale.
Owners who begin early have more routes open to them, more negotiating leverage and more time to address the issues buyers discount for. Those who wait often find their options narrowed by circumstance — health, fatigue or an unsolicited offer.
Exit planning is not the same as selling. It is the work of making the business valuable and transferable, and making sure your personal and financial goals are clear.
Read the exit planning guideOwner dependence
Is the business dependent on you?
Owner dependence is one of the issues buyers and successors most commonly examine, and it can affect deal structure and handover. If several of these apply, it may be worth addressing well before an exit.
- Key customers expect to deal with you personally
- Pricing and major decisions require your sign-off
- Critical knowledge lives in your head, not in systems
- The business struggles when you take a fortnight off
- No one is ready to step into your role
- Check Your Owner Dependency
Exit readiness
What makes a business exit-ready?
01
Financial performance
Consistent, well-reported profits that a buyer can rely on.
02
Management
A second tier able to run the business without the owner.
03
Customers
A spread of customers with recurring or contracted revenue.
04
Systems
Documented processes, reliable reporting and modern systems.
05
Owner independence
Relationships, knowledge and decisions not concentrated in you.
06
Transferability
Clean legal, property and contractual position for a new owner.
Your exit options
More routes than a straightforward sale.
Trade sale
Sell the business to a strategic or financial buyer.
Read moreManagement buyout
Transfer ownership to the existing leadership team.
Read moreEmployee Ownership Trust
Sell a controlling stake to a trust for the benefit of employees.
Read moreFamily succession
Pass the business to the next generation.
Read morePartial sale
Realise some value while retaining a stake.
Read moreRetain equity and step back
Keep ownership but step away from day-to-day running.
Read moreFree tool
How exit-ready is your business today?
Answer 24 questions in around eight minutes and receive an overall Exit Readiness Score with category scores and commentary on where to focus.
Check Your Exit ReadinessAlso free: the Owner Dependency Score and the Exit Timeline. See all free tools →
Example result
68 / 100
Retirement and succession
Where are you starting from?
I want to retire in the next few years
Understand how much you need, what the business may realistically be worth and how to close the gap.
My children don't want the business
Explore management buyouts, employee ownership and trade sale as alternatives to family succession.
I want to step back but not sell yet
Build a management team, introduce board reporting and retain equity while reducing your involvement.
I've had an approach from a buyer
Assess whether you are ready, what the offer really means and whether to run a wider process.
For professional advisers
Supporting clients approaching an exit?
Resources and a discreet referral route for accountants, wealth advisers, solicitors and business coaches.
Adviser hub
Experience
150+
SME business sales personally completed by Tony Vaughan, who writes and reviews the guidance on this site, drawing on around 30 years of commercial experience.
Confidential consultation
The earlier you plan, the more options you keep.
A discreet, no-obligation conversation about your plans, your timing and what would make the business more transferable.