Selling or buying a business should be simple — a willing seller, a willing buyer, a fair deal. Somehow it rarely is. Here’s why, and who profits from keeping it that way.
Follow the money
First, follow the money.
We’ll keep this honest, because someone should. Between every owner who wants to sell and every buyer who wants to buy sits an entire industry that gets paid whether a deal happens or not. Once you see how each part of it actually makes its money, a lot of things start to make sense.
Follow the money · 01 / 04
The broker.
They’ll tell you your business is worth ten times some wildly “adjusted” EBITDA, and that they’ve already got six cash buyers circling. All you need to do to get started is pay a modest upfront fee — somewhere between ten and twenty grand. So you pay it. And then? Silence. Here’s the quiet part: the broker never needed your business to sell. The listing fee is the business model. Get enough owners paying to be listed and you never have to close a single deal to do very nicely indeed.
£10–20kUpfront feeAnd then? Silence.
Follow the money · 02 / 04
The lawyer.
There’s an old joke. You ask a commercial lawyer about their favourite deal, and they say: “the one that took two years to complete — and then didn’t.” It’s funny because it’s a little too true. Some of them bill every hour of those two years, carry none of the risk when it collapses, and walk away whole — while you’re left holding the legal bill and no deal. The incentives don’t point at getting you over the line. They point at the meter running.
17,520hours on the meter — two years, billed. And then it didn’t complete.
Follow the money · 03 / 04
The accountant.
Your accountant is brilliant at what they’re actually for: keeping you compliant and your tax bill sensible. M&A is a completely different sport — and almost nobody plays it. Only a tiny fraction of businesses change hands in any given year, so where would the deal reps even come from? It’s no knock on them. It simply isn’t the job.
ComplianceTaxM&A
Follow the money · 04 / 04
Private equity.
This one’s more of a slow dance. They take an interest. They sniff around. They ask for the numbers, they take their time, and you start to believe it’s really happening. What you don’t see is the other dozen owners they’re doing the exact same dance with at the exact same time. The moment they decide there’s no easy angle to exploit, they drift away — but not before leaving you a parting gift: a big, flattering number for what your business is “worth.” A number they have no intention of paying. Call it big-number-no-deal syndrome. They tell you it’s worth a fortune. They just don’t buy it. Funny, that.
“A fortune.”Big-number-no-deal syndrome
Here’s the truth.
If all these people simply got out of the way, far more businesses would actually change hands — willing seller, willing buyer, done. Intermediaries are for divorces. Buying and selling a business isn’t a divorce; it’s the start of a relationship. And you wouldn’t bring an intermediary along on a first date — or a second, or a third, or a fifth. You just wouldn’t. At some point the two people who actually want this have to stop bringing chaperones and get into bed together.
How we work instead
So we instruct them.
And to be clear — we’re not against advisers. The good ones matter. But they do their best work when they arrive late and briefed, with one clear instruction from both sides: get this deal done. Without that instruction, they won’t.