Small Businesses for Sale

Axis Partnership are business transfer agents with a range of medium and small businesses for sale in a variety of sectors including health care, recruitment, property management, logistics, manufacturing and engineering, cleaning and packaging. We operate nationwide and have UK small businesses for sale in Suffolk, Essex, London, East Anglia, South East, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Home Counties, England, South West, North West, South East, Midlands and West Midlands.

Small Businesses For Sale – click on the links below to view our current selection of business opportunities.

health care businesses for sale | recruitment businesses for sale | property management businesses for sale | cleaning businesses for sale | packaging businesses for sale | logistics businesses for sale | service businesses for sale | manufacturing / engineering businesses for sale

About Small Businesses
Small businesses are defined as those with a turnover of between £150,000 – £200,000 turnover per annum. They will typically be run by a single person or a partnership, with perhaps one or two employees.

The saleability of a small business depends on the degree to which the business can be handed over to a new buyer without loss of value. It will need to show either a product or service which can be easily sold by a new owner. Small businesses for sale which are highly dependent on the personal qualifications or skills of the owner, or are based on a personal rapport between owner and customers, are not easy for a new owner to replicate and therefore have less appeal to a buyer.

For instance, a husband and wife team operating a home business does not have much value to hand over to a new buyer once the knowledge and experience of the owners is taken away, and if there are no premises involved. However, if the business has a physical product or service being sold online, with key tasks outsourced, there may be scope for a buyer to take over the business and continue benefiting from the brand presence and existing customer base.

One example of a saleable home based business was on our books just recently and involved the sale of a Managed Lettings Book – a portfolio of fully managed rental properties with an annual turnover of £47,000. The “business” being sold involved no staff or premises or even a trading name, just the list of properties and the ongoing income stream – an ideal acquisition for an existing property management company.

In some cases, a business which may be small in terms of turnover can involve many of the value aspects of a medium sized business such as premises and a significant team of staff. Small businesses for sale in this category are often highly sought after by buyers as they offer significant value for relatively low acquisition costs.

Here are a few examples of the type of quality uk small businesses for sale on our books at the time of writing:

Health Care – Adult Learning Disability Care Home with a turnover of £177,000 and a gross profit of £156,000. (South East)

Recruitment – Niche Marketing Recruitment Company with turnover of £260,000 and adjusted profit of £120,000. (Berkshire)

Property Management – Professionally Managed Lettings Company with turnover of £138,000 and adjusted profits of £56,000. (Middlesex)

Unique Businesses – Leadership & Management Coaching Company with turnover of £100,000 and adjusted profits of £43,000. (South East)

About Medium Businesses
Medium sized businesses are defined as those with a turnover of between £200,000 – 5 million turnover per annum. They will typically involve several staff aside from the owners and will have premises associated with the business, providing either physical property value or a brand presence in the area. At the lower end of the turnover scale, such businesses can still be considered small, especially in relation to a larger nation chain on the lookout for acquisitions.

Saleability depends, as before, on how easily the revenue generation capability of the business remains intact if the existing owners leave. Buyers will look for solid business processes and procedures which can be kept in place, a good reputation which they can build on, and a solid customer base or order book on which to forecast future revenues.
If a buyer’s motivation for acquiring a business is to add specialist capability to their portfolio,
they may also wish to acquire key staff with specialist skills, for instance in engineering or creative industries.

Here are a few examples of medium businesses in different sectors that were on our books at the time of writing:

Health Care – Home Care Agency, providing domiciliary care, turnover £230,000, profit £80,000. (South)

Recruitment – Professional Services Recruitment Company with turnover of £2,000,000 and gross profit of £740,000. (South)

Cleaning – Cleaning and Maintenance Company with turnover of £1.4million and gross profit of £400,000. (South East)

Logistics – Heavy Duty Plant Hire Business with turnover of £1.8m and adjusted profits of £600,000. (East Anglia)

Manufacturing and Engineering – Heating Installation and Maintenance Company with turnover of £510,000 and gross profits of £158,000. (South East)

Buying a Small Business
Buying an existing small business with a proven client base and revenue stream is very attractive both to other prospective small business owners, and to national chains looking for acquisitions. The attrition rate for start up small businesses is well known – at least a third of new small businesses fail within their first year. By buying a small business which has weathered the start up stage and is generating revenues, a would-be small business owner can save themselves a lot of the time, cost and stress of starting up from scratch.

At Axis we offer buyers looking for medium and small businesses for sale two forms of assistance.

The first involves registering your requirements with us. We will then contact you automatically when new businesses come onto the market.

The second involves a unique service whereby we pro actively target suitable businesses which meet your requirements. In this case, the buyer retains us to carry out research and to make initial, confidential approached to business owners.

Using Axis to approach companies on your behalf means that your identity can be kept confidential until the point that the vendor wishes to go ahead with a sale. It also means that you have less competition from other potential purchasers.

Selling a Small Business
Axis have been assisting in the buying and selling of small and medium businesses for many years and are well placed to help you find a suitable buyer for your business.

Our first stage will be to value your business, taking into account obvious factors such as turnover and profits, but also noting where the value actually lies within your business (e.g. premises, unique products, customer base, reputation etc). The other side of our business involves helping large operating companies find small independent businesses to acquire, which means we are highly tuned to what appeals to buyers and how to present a business to its best advantage. We can also make suggestions regarding improvements in organisation or other aspects to make your business more appealing to a buyer.

If instructed, we then proceed to market your business via our own website listings and other channels. We also ensure your business is made known to our existing customer list, taking care to match requirements.

We then arrange introductions with interested buyers, arranging meetings and assisting with negotiations to create an acceptable deal.

Finally, we monitor the deal through to completion, assisting with communications where needed to ensure the deal goes through to everyone’s satisfaction.

To find out more about how Axis can help you find your next acquisition or sell your business, please contact us or register your requirements.