Am I for sale?

Toto

Yesterday we were working on a sub-contract job for one of our main competition. During the day the owner of this huge company pulled my partner and I to one side and asked if we would consider selling our business to him because he wants to expand more into our field. He said he would then employ us both to run that division of his business, he has been watching us grow for the past 2 years and decided 12 months ago he wanted us as a part of his company. We work for his business a lot because his clients request that we are there, he gets quite a lot of business based on agreeing to subcontract to us. We would obviously be contractually tied to working for him, and wouldn't be allowed to just sell up then start a new business; he is buying us as more so than the gear and clients.

Financially this would mean my partner and I could buy a lovely house outright mortgage free, both have a very decent salary and a large lump sum in the bank. Sounds like a dream and one that makes perfect sense. But, deep in my heart despite the stress, being destitute most of the time, working 20 hour days most days, in debt and all of the rest of it, I don't want to sell. Our business is our baby, we have given our lives, hearts souls, cried many tears and given up a large part of ourselves for it, and we really love our business. We have never accepted any investment offers, always wanted it to be just us, answering to us, making decisions which are right for only us and our clients. We treat our clients in a way no other company I know of does, we take care of our gear like no one else we know, we have a passion for what we do which way goes beyond money and profit. It's doubtful that we would be able to run a division of someone else’s company with the same ethics and we would have to compromise. I would still never entertain a partnership agreement; it would have to be all or nothing.

I obviously need some time to think before we enter into any discussions, I keep asking myself would we be happy selling and working for someone else, probably not, but then now knowing we could live our lives financially set for life, no money worries ever again glosses over the sadness a bit. Am I being selfish feeling like this? My children would know a life of total financial security and have parents who have more time for them rather than working every hour god sends. But it still feels like I am being asked to sell my child. I know no one else can give me an answer, but I needed to put my thoughts down on paper.

hypno06

Ooh, difficult one this. What a dilemma to be put in!

Someone on here a few days ago did a heads and tails thing. Heads you sell the business, tails you keep it sort of thing. Flip the coin, and then ask yourself what your mind was thinking WHILE THE COIN WAS IN THE AIR. That gives you a fairly good idea as to what you really want to do.

Good luck, whichever way you play it.

Willsnarf1983

what do you do?

and do you see your company making as much money as he is offering in the short term?

Will

Dumyat

maybe you keep your business and negotiate better terms. sounds like he needs you more than you need him. on the other hand...you get the cash and become an employee. if it doesnt work out being an employee what could you do? set up again?
youd have your house...money in the bank and the experience to do it all again?

AndyR_3

Maybe you could sell your business in return for cash and shares in his busienss. If he's a limited company this is quite easy for him to arrange, but I would suggest you take legal advice before agreeing to anything.

Seaxwyn

Gosh Toto, what a difficult dilemma, but what a nice one to have.

Don't make any decisions or commitments until you know what your gut feeling says. Can you think through some imaginary scenarios: how would you feel if you said yes to his offer? how would you feel if you said no and six months on were still struggling?

Is it not an option to keep the status quo - if he needs you that badly you are guaranteed plenty of business.

Good luck whatever you choose

Broken_hearted

From your post you look like you have decided to sell. Make sure you take advice and get the best deal.

sammy115

hypno06 wrote:

Someone on here a few days ago did a heads and tails thing.

I thought the heads and tails thing was that if you were disappointed with the result of your flip of the coin, you knew what you really wanted. IYSWIM

lynzpower

Toto

Personally, from what I know of your business, you guys work too hard.

At what point in the future do you believe keeping your business yours, will give you the lifestyle you really want, nice house, time with the kids and a successful career?

If its only say a year away, then fine, if its longer than that you have to work out whats more important, use a time line for this helps to make decisions I find.

But then Im greedy & Id sell

cattie1

I may be completely wrong here but do you think this man may feel threatened by your business?
It may be that he thinks you are doing so well he is worryed you may take over him eventually and he wants to get in there first.
It sounds like you have and do work very hard on your business and it is a massive decision, please have a really good think about the pros and cons of doing it first.
good luck to you with whatever you choose.

Toto

Hi Guys, thanks for all of the opinions, it has helped me just to put my thoughts in text. I do know that the company who want to buy us are threatened indeed. It is a funny situation where they are getting massive jobs based on the fact that our guys will be running the job, there is in fact nothing to stop us legally from just taking the client and all the business for ourselves, the only thing that stops us is ethics, you just don't do that within the industry. However, we are a rapidly growing business and it is a safer option for our competition to have us as a part of them, extra business for them and the security of knowing that business is safe. The problem for them is that although ethics do dictate an awful lot, there could be a situation where their clients say, we are absolutely not using you, we are tendering for new a new supplier, the client then approach us, we would of course have to discuss it with the original supplier but there would be little they could do other than say take the job because they had already in fact lost the client.

Lots of you already know what our business is and who we are so I am trying not to give too many of our company details here right now, for obvious reasons.

I do know that they need us far more than we need them and we are in a very strong position. I also have a ton of faith in our business, I know it's strong and will continue to grow and be profitable. The trouble is, as soon as we make money it has to be re-invested to maintain growth, then there is developing other areas of the business which we need to in order to provide a complete service. So, in effect we could be in a position where we aren't getting the lovely lifestyle personally for many years to come.

We could sell, work for the purchasing company for a few years then leave and start up again, but we wouldn't realistically be able to do it in this country, which is ok. We had already discussed starting up in the US or Canada, we wouldn't have the reputation over there which is what 99% of our business here is based on, but we would have start-up capital which we didn't at all when we started here.

I am proud of us though, we did start with nothing and although our personal finances took a hammering over the past couple of years, our business has thrived and it doesn't owe and never have owed a penny. Every item of equipment we have bought we worked for and paid cash for, no interest, no repayments, but my god it has been hard work and I'm not sure we would have the energy to start again.

There is a lot of discussion to take place before we even need to think about making a decision. Right now I am on the fence and I know when or even if the time comes I will know what is right to do. I will make sure we don't enter into discussions alone; we will have a team of legal advisors behind us to aid in any negotiations. I will let you all know how things are going and where we are at.

Thanks again for your opinions, it helps.

xx