How To Value And Sell Your Business carries the subtitle “The essential guide to preparing, valuing and selling a company for maximum profit”, which perfectly describes what this book is about; preparing, valuing and selling your business for the most you possibly can. It guides you through the entire process of selling a business including who will buy your business, valuing a business, developing an exit strategy, choosing professional advisors, marketing the business, managing the sales process, the legal documentation and dealing with a lock-in after you’ve sold.
The chapter on valuing a business is fantastic it starts with the quote:
There are not two certainties in life but three. Death, taxes and the valuation is wrong.
He goes on to point out that valuing a business is more of an art than a science, which is true, at the end of the day a business is worth what a buyer is prepared to pay for it. Something many of the entrepreneurs that appear on Dragons’ Den should take note of.
Andrew Heslop is an entrepreneur who has brought, developed and sold businesses, so he’s been through the process himself. He’s also made good use of case studies to illustrate key points. I was pleasantly surprised by his writing too, it’s hardly an exciting subject yet he’s produced an interesting, easy to read and at times funny book.
One thing that would have really put me off this book had I been browsing it in a bookshop is the numerous adverts that are printed within it, for example there are 12 pages of adverts between the three pages that make up the table of contents, which is quite frankly annoying. Yes I appreciate that a book like this will only sell in small numbers and is unlikely to break even (let alone be profitable) without them, but when they get in the way of the content to such an extent I can’t help feeling that all they do is annoy the reader.
Despite the annoying adverts, it’s by far the best book on valuing and selling a business that I’ve read, so if you need to know how to value and sell your business, or you are one day planning to sell your business, I suggest you go buy a copy.
You can buy it from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
is it worth reading if you want to buy a company?
Tom,
Yes it is, as you’ll better understand how to value your acquisition.
Thanks for reading the book and writing a review (and for reading the review). I’m glad the amusing bits have been spotted - not easy to put humour into a book on this subject.
Andy Heslop - author