Listing index
Business sale guides.
The reference library behind our sale process: what each step actually involves, what buyers test, and where the money moves between headline price and the amount that reaches your bank account.
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These guides cover the parts of a business sale that decide the outcome and are usually explained least well: how a headline offer becomes a completion statement, what a buyer's advisers actually look for, and which points in a set of heads of terms are worth arguing about. They are written for owner-managers of established UK companies rather than for corporate finance teams.
How to use them
If you are early in your thinking, start with preparation and valuation. If you have an approach on the table, read enterprise value against equity value, the cash-free debt-free guide and the working-capital guide together — those three explain almost every gap between an offer and a final figure. Each guide states its sources and the date it was last reviewed.
What each guide contains
Every guide opens with a direct answer to the question in its title, so a reader who needs one paragraph is not made to read nine. Below that, the detail is organised by the order the issue arises in a real transaction: what the term means, how it is calculated or negotiated, what a buyer will argue for, what protections a seller should ask for, and where the answer genuinely depends on circumstances rather than on a rule. Where a point is a matter of professional judgement rather than settled fact, the guide says so instead of presenting an opinion as a standard.
The library is deliberately narrow. It covers the mechanics of a UK owner-managed company sale — preparation, verification, pricing mechanisms and deal structure — rather than general business advice. Sector context sits on the sector pages, live requirements and opportunities sit in the listings archives, and definitions of individual terms sit in the jargon buster, which links back to whichever guide explains the mechanism in full.
Where the boundaries are
Tax, legal and accounting points are given as general information with the jurisdiction and date stated, and are linked to the primary source. Nothing here is personal advice, and no guide substitutes for your own accountant and solicitor on your own numbers.
Latest records.
Cornerstone guide
Business exit planning: how to plan an exit years before you sell
Exit planning is the work an owner does before any sale process begins — deciding what they want, which route suits it, and making the company worth buying without them.
Cornerstone guide
How buyers are found for a private business sale
Buyers for a private company are researched and approached rather than simply waited for, and the strongest acquirer is often one that was not looking at advertised listings.
Cornerstone guide
Negotiating the sale of a business: price, terms and leverage
A business sale is negotiated across price, structure, conditions and certainty at once, which is why the highest headline offer is not reliably the best one.
Cornerstone guide
How to prepare a business for sale: a UK owner's checklist
Preparation is the part of a sale an owner fully controls. It rarely changes what a business is worth in principle; it decides how much of that value survives verification and negotiation.
Cornerstone guide
Due diligence when selling a business: what buyers check
Due diligence is the buyer's verification of the business before completion. It shapes price, structure, warranties and whether the buyer proceeds at all.
Cornerstone guide
Heads of terms: what they cover and what happens next
Heads of terms record the agreed commercial shape of a sale before legal drafting begins. Most of the document is not binding, and almost all of it is decisive.
Cornerstone guide
How a business is valued before sale: multiples, EBITDA and proceeds
Valuation starts with the profit a buyer believes is repeatable, applies a multiple set by risk and appetite, and then converts that headline figure into equity proceeds through cash, debt and working
Cornerstone guide
Cash-free, debt-free: why the headline price is not what you receive
A cash-free, debt-free offer prices the trading business and settles cash and borrowings separately. It is the standard basis for UK company sales, and it explains most of the gap between an offer and
Cornerstone guide
Working capital adjustments: how price chips happen at completion
Buyers expect a normal level of working capital to remain in the business at completion. Where the delivered position differs from the agreed target, the price moves, and the movement can run in eithe
Cornerstone guide
Earn-outs and deferred consideration: how sellers get paid
Deferred consideration is part of the price paid later. An earn-out is part of the price paid later only if performance targets are met. The risk profiles are not comparable.
Cornerstone guide
Selling a business to retire: timing, tax and handover
Preparation usually has to begin well before the date an owner wants to stop working, because owner dependence, financial presentation and succession cannot be fixed quickly. Planning time and transac
Cornerstone guide
How to sell a business confidentially
A privately owned business can be taken to market without being publicly named. Confidentiality is a process — anonymised information, selected approaches, buyer qualification and staged disclosure un
Cornerstone guide
How long does it take to sell a business in the UK?
Six to twelve months from launch to completion is the realistic range for a prepared UK owner-managed company, with three to twelve months of preparation before that and defined obligations afterwards
Cornerstone guide
Life after completion: warranties, retentions and handover
Completion transfers ownership; it does not always end the seller's obligations. Warranties, retentions, deferred consideration, restrictive covenants and handover commitments can continue for months
Cornerstone guide
Selling a business in the UK: the complete owner's guide
A UK owner-managed company sale normally takes six to twelve months from launch to completion, after three to twelve months of preparation. Value follows maintainable profit, evidence and competition