Possibly selling business - Advice required

[Justin]

I'm looking into the possibility of selling my printing business and would like some advice if possible.

I have a good range of equipment and stock so was thinking about trying to sell as a going concern, equipment, stock, websites/shops and so on. I guess price would depend on turnover/profit and obviously value of equipment and stock.

Alternatively I can split it into a couple of sections and sell as smaller businesses.

Lastly I could just close the business and sell all equipment separately.

Interested to hear opinions on possible best route please.

Ideally I'd like to sell everything in one go, literally someone can move into the rented printers and hit the ground running making money from day one.

Would be good to find out best places to sell a business, websites etc.

[dsknecctd]

if you dont want to 'run' yourself couldnt you pay someone to run it for you

[Earl Smith]

Im in the same situation as you Justine and I made a post about this around a year ago.
Ive been told the value is the last 3 years turnover, divided by 3. Plus the value of the used machines.
There is then the tax consideration to be considered too.
Finding someone wont be easy, I have two people interested but they earn more being employed and covered by their employees health insurance and holiday pay, they are big things to loose when going self employed.
Anyways, good luck and I hope you find someone to take over or buy your equipment.

[pw66]

The problems with selling a small printing business is that the 'barriers to entry' are relatively low. Equipment is easily available and relatively easy to master. When you take the premium being charged for the business, plus the second hand value of the machines into account, any potential purchaser could start up for less money from scratch with brand new equipment.
Do you have anything that is particularly valuable to a purchaser - unique product/IP, skilled staff, customer contracts etc?

This is a problem that I was hoping to be facing in 5 years time (I was planning to move to Spain at 60). Now that is very unlikely to happen I will probably work on until I reach retirement age. The last two or three years I will just work part time to get the profits low enough to minimise the taxation issue, and then sell the equipment off on ebay.

I hope you find someone, but talk to your accountant before you sell.

[Earl Smith]

The problems with selling a small printing business is that the 'barriers to entry' are relatively low. Equipment is easily available and relatively easy to master. When you take the premium being charged for the business, plus the second hand value of the machines into account, any potential purchaser could start up for less money from scratch with brand new equipment.
Do you have anything that is particularly valuable to a purchaser - unique product/IP, skilled staff, customer contracts etc?

This is a problem that I was hoping to be facing in 5 years time (I was planning to move to Spain at 60). Now that is very unlikely to happen I will probably work on until I reach retirement age. The last two or three years I will just work part time to get the profits low enough to minimise the taxation issue, and then sell the equipment off on ebay.

I hope you find someone, but talk to your accountant before you sell.

I believe you could move to Spain if you have a minimum of 500K in the bank in Spain and you can support yourself. Or maybe its buy a property for 500K or over , Im not sure. I lived there for 15 years and enjoyed every minute . Great weather, lovely food, great social life . I moved there in 91 and then moved onto Germany when I met a German lady. Now , thanks to Brexit, I have duel citizenship and can move and live where I like in the EU.

[pw66]

I believe you could move to Spain if you have a minimum of 500K in the bank in Spain and you can support yourself. Or maybe its buy a property for 500K or over , Im not sure. I lived there for 15 years and enjoyed every minute . Great weather, lovely food, great social life . I moved there in 91 and then moved onto Germany when I met a German lady. Now , thanks to Brexit, I have duel citizenship and can move and live where I like in the EU.

I had planned to take a private pension at 60 and move part of the business to Spain with me to top up my income (some of the t-shirts come from Spain, so it makes little difference if they come to UK blank or printed). Unfortunately, post Brexit, I need to show an income of nearly £25K pa plus £6k for the wife, and my ability to run a micro business would be limited. My private pension won't cover that. On top of that the wife is 10 years younger than me so she would need/want to work.
It is ironic that I have less rights to live in Spain now than my father did when he moved there in 1982 (5 years before Spain was in the EU).

I'm Scottish by birth, so my only hope is one day I will be entitled to dual citizenship....


None of that helps Justin (sorry).:biggrin:

[Justin]

Appreciate all of the comments thank you.

Yes, understand about the barriers to entry. To build up to the level of equipment we have would take some time so I was thinking it might suit someone who's been in the business for a short while, started having success and wanted to shift to the next level.

We have active shops, website, Etsy etc. from which we do get daily orders. We also have a number of Trade customers who have been ordering for many years so the business would be making money from day 1 for the new owner.

We have a well known brand in the markets we sell.

My accountant confirmed the value of the company and as we'd expected explained about the value of an online business, equipment and so on.

[Justin]

if you dont want to 'run' yourself couldnt you pay someone to run it for you

Yes, we could put someone in to manage it but time is the biggest issue right now so I'd prefer to move it on lock stock and barrel if possible.

[pw66]

We have active shops, website, Etsy etc. from which we do get daily orders. We also have a number of Trade customers who have been ordering for many years so the business would be making money from day 1 for the new owner.

We have a well known brand in the markets we sell.

.

Those are the unique things you can't buy from P&P Live, and where a lot of your value lies.
It is only jobbing printshops (like me) who rely on through the door trade who have limited value in their business.

[Justin]

Yes we have a healthy turnover and a good number of loyal trade customers. The business does well which is why I'd prefer not to break it up but it could do so much better if someone came in and ran with it.