Andrew Gibbs

My name is Andrew Gibbs and I sold my business in February 2022.

When you were looking for a partner to help sell your business, what was important to you?

They needed to understand that I was not necessarily looking for the biggest amount of money for selling the business. I was looking for somebody to purchase the business to keep it going and look after my clients.

Why did you choose to work with The Exit Partnership?

Because Vicky had a depth of knowledge about the subject, she gave me confidence that she knew what she was talking about and she knew the business. So I felt that she would find an appropriate partner for me.

What was the hardest part of the sale process?

For me, the hardest thing was to come to terms with the fact that I was going to let my business go. But once I had accepted that, then the process was not that difficult, with the help from Vicky.

How did The Exit Partnership make you feel during the sale process?

I was completely comfortable with the people they put in front of me as potential purchasers. They gave me confidence that they knew what they were doing, so I didn’t have to question who they were putting in front of me.

How did you prepare emotionally for the sale of the business?

It was a fairly long process, the emotional journey of preparing to sell. I suppose, for the first while, I hadn’t actually convinced myself that I would go through with it, but I was just checking things out. As we moved along and I gained confidence from the fact that Vicky knew what she was doing, that helped me tremendously, feeling confident about allowing the process to proceed further. 

What advice would you give to other people thinking about selling their business?

Prepare your business well before you start the process. Make sure your compliance and documentation and your client files are clean and tidy. Get a good understanding of what you’ve actually got to sell, where the assets are and how they’re being looked after, then get help from somebody who’s actually sold businesses. Because, in my brief experience, I’d never sold my business before, this was a one-off event and I had to get it right. The only way I could be sure of doing that was with the help of a professional that knew what they were doing.

How did The Exit Partnership help you after the sale of your business?

When we got to the position of having accepted an offer, and we had gone through the process of drawing up heads of terms and so on, there were lots of negotiations with the purchaser. Vicky intervened on my behalf on a couple of occasions, just to get the purchaser to change their viewpoint and be more attuned to what I was hoping to get from the deal.

How did you feel on the day you completed the sale?

I felt very relieved. I was a little bit “mixed emotions”, but mainly relieved because we’d gone through all the due diligence and everything, so I was confident that I was selling to the right people. I was relieved that it had gone through and I could now relax and not be worrying anymore.

What was the best thing about working with The Exit Partnership?

It was mainly the fact that I didn’t go out looking for people. They found the potential purchasers for me, and vetted them. So because there had been this pre-screening, it just made my life relatively easy. All I had to do was choose which one of them I wanted to do business with.

Would you recommend The Exit Partnership to other advisers?

Yes, I would have no hesitation in recommending them, and they do a good job. They give you the confidence that you know that you’re not going to be dealing with an organisation that hasn’t got the capacity to complete the deal. They look for things that might be detrimental or beneficial on either side of the case so that you can structure your deal accordingly.