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Business Acquisition Through An Accountant’s Eyes— with Johann G.

It’s the nerve center of a business – the books are critical to a company’s financial health and prosperity. But how do you know how your business will perform when it comes time to buy another? In this episode, we talk to Johann G, the managing director of on-point accounting firm. He shares his tips on what to look at when presented with a set of accounts and more accounting insights for potential business buyers. Johann also shares some words of advice to those interested in purchasing their businesses and haven’t owing to some fears. 

Key Highlights

[00:14] What Johan does in his accounting firm

[02:14] Top three things that Johan looks at when presented with a set of accounts

[06:06] How to deal with vendors of businesses who don’t have up-to-date information and blame it on accountants

[10:36] Acquisitions done by Johan

[13:54] How to deal with business owners who say they have fixed assets of a certain value, they’ve got stock of a certain value, and they want 100% of that value

[18:20] Johan’s take on the purchase of business without including the firm’s assets

[25:304] How to finance business acquisitions

[27:47] Advice to the people who want to buy businesses but they haven’t

Notable Quotes

• Profit is a figure that can be moved on paper. What’s more important is how’s the cash flow.
• If you’re looking to sell your business, you want to have instant accessible financial data, and you want it to be live so you can get the best value for your business because the accounts that are two or three months old on 12 months old may not be the true reflection of where your business is now.
• If you are trying, if you’re a vendor, and you’re trying to sell your business, you need to start planning ahead. So if you know, in the next year, you want to sell your business, talk to your accountant about getting cloud systems.
• If you’ve got a slow solicitor and you’ve got a slow vendor or a slow acquirer, then don’t start financial due diligence until you are comfortable that you are within a month of the close of the business.
• If you are planning on raising finance on this company that you’re going to buy, so you can finance the deal, then get the, get the lenders to do most of your financial due diligence.
• If you don’t take that first step, you’re not going to get it.
• I think there is a joint responsibility between accountants and business owners to have modern accounting systems and processes.
• So if you know, in the next year, you want to sell your business, talk to your accountant about getting cloud systems.

Resources

If you are looking for a lawyer in the UK to help you get the deal over the line, then use my guy John Andrews. You can phone his office at +03452412494 or email him at johandrew.dolawyers.jmw.co.uk.

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on

Website: https://www.thedealmakersacademy.com/

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-jay-3556b230/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDealmakersAcademy

Softwares

QuickBooks: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/global/

Xero: https://www.xero.com/

Firms

Grant Thornton Accountancy Firm: https://www.grantthornton.global/en/

On-point accounting firm: https://onpointaccounting.co.uk/

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Ian Leslie’s 40 years of Buying, Building, and Selling Businesses

In this episode, Jonathan is joined by Ian Leslie, Company Director, pilot and professional photographer specializing in high-quality, stunning photography and video. With over forty years in business, Ian has built, grown, and exited more than eight businesses. He joins us to share his story, how he started acquiring businesses, his subsequent acquisitions, and he also shares some words of advice to people who want to start dealmaking. 

Key Highlights

[00:14] How Ian ventured into business

[01:58] What Ian has learned over the 40 years in business

[04:16] Ian’s first business acquisition

[05:51] Deals negotiation process

[10:51] The development of the business after the first acquisition

[12:21] The best people to buy a business from

[18:26] How much money is enough for a one to live a satisfying life

[21:12] Who else would you add to your deal team?

[22:51] Importance of having the right people in a deal

[27:13] Ian’s advice to prospective business buyers

Notable Quotes

• Go with your gut. Absolutely. And if you want to do something, go for it. Find a way to do it. Don’t procrastinate.
• Having a figure in mind at all times if somebody came along and knocked on your door, so I will give you X for your business; if that figure matches, go, just take the money and run.
• The beauty of being in business is you’ve got the ability to, I’ll use the word passive income, because that, but it’s never passive. But you’ve you’ve built a business that’s generating an income. And if you get the right management team in there, they will be able to sustain so it almost becomes a pension.
• Read, learn, digest, and ask questions.
• My view through life is always learning. I’ve always been curious. And it’s an interesting one because it’s never been part of my published valleys that we’ve written. And I’ve actually thought curious people make progress.

Resources

If you are looking for a lawyer in the UK to help you get the deal over the line, then use one of my deal-making team members, John Andrews. You can phone his office at +03452412494 or email him at johandrew.dolawyers.jmw.co.uk.

You can connect with Jonathan Jay on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-jay-3556b230/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDealmakersAcademy

Website: https://www.thedealmakersacademy.com/

You can as well connect with Ian Leslie on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iandrleslie/

Website: http://www.highlevelphotography.co.uk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iandrleslie

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Scale up your business to exit Part 2

In this week’s episode, I’m joined once more by Paul Avins, an award-winning business growth coach, speaker, and mentor. Paul has been involved in the business buying and selling field for over 17 years. He joins us to talk about acquiring and growing a business and when it’s time to exit. We’ll talk about what you need to know if you want to buy a business but aren’t sure where to start. He also shares his thoughts about entrepreneurs who have held into a business for so long and shares some tips that help business owners create real Shareholder Value.

Key Highlights

[00:30] Paul’s advice when it comes to hiring staff

[01:50] Paul’s thoughts on entrepreneurs holding to businesses for too long

[05:45] Advice to entrepreneurs about selling businesses

[07:50] Why people tolerate businesses they are not passionate about

[10:14] About optimism bias

[11:08] Knowing when to exit a business

[13:00] Why people massively overestimate how much money they need

[16:12] Language of a business

[17:00] Journey to owning a business

[17:35] Advice to people interested in buying businesses but haven’t

Notable Quotes

• At some point, you have to know how much is enough for me to achieve the next level of the game; well, whatever I want to do for myself.
• So if you get the right offer and that’s what you want, get out. Well, there is a saying that the best offer is the one that’s being presented to you right at that very moment.
• Being a business owner and being anything you want to be successful in life is more about maths than we want to admit.
• The biggest lie we tell ourselves is, I’ve got time.
• You can replace the money, and you can get your energy back, but you can’t get your time back.
• Whatever it is, start today, you know, the great Zig Zigler used to say that you don’t have to be great to get started, but you do have to start to get great.

Resources

You can connect with Paul Avins on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram or visit his website.

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on Dealmakers Academy, follow him on LinkedIn, or get his videos

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Scale up your business to exit Part 1

In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Paul Avins, a business growth coach, speaker, and mentor. Paul shares some of the most important things with those who want to buy or sell a business. Paul talks about the most important thing to get a business off the ground. He details how one can develop good ideas for marketing and selling their businesses. He also shares strategies for finding good employees and what matters when selling or buying a business.

Key Highlights

[00:00] Paul’s grown-up business concept

[02:36] What most people aspire

[03:54] Success According to some people

[04:50] Biggest things where people make mistakes

[05:34] Reasons why vendors associate the value of a business with the number of years they have run it

[05:54] What matters when selling a business

[10:24] Tips for Building Grown-Up business for exit

[11:14] How you value your own business

[12:30] Questions that most people fail to ask

[14:00] How to come up with the best ideas

[18:30] Biggest challenge when you buy a business

Notable Quotes

• I think some of the biggest robberies in history have happened in boardrooms over pieces of paper, where it looked very innocuous, and people thought, oh, I’m getting a good deal.
• Don’t get seduced by the numbers all because you are having a bad month or a bad quarter.
• I often say that your next great idea won’t come while you sit behind your desk. Never right. You have to get out of your environment.
• The biggest challenge when you buy a business isn’t the P and L stuff. Actually, you can manage all of that. It’s actually the people.

Resources

You can connect with Paul Avins on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram or visit his website.

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on Dealmakers Academy, follow him on LinkedIn, or get his videos on YouTube.

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Interview with John Hood

In this episode, I’m joined by entrepreneur John Hood. John and I met many years ago when I acquired a digital marketing agency I was gearing up to sell. By 27, John already had furniture, distribution, and IT business. We later met in 2019 after he identified Home Improvement and construction as ideal for following my buy and build strategy. John joins us to share his background, how he made his first home improvement and construction acquisition, and possible mistakes in this journey.

Key Highlights

[01:33] About John Hood

[02:03] John’s background and his first acquisition

[05:21] Business acquisition mistakes made by John

[09:04] How people approach business buying deals

[11.52] John’s plans and goals

[16:06] So are you saying that your ambitions have grown?

[17:34] The process of running one’s business

[19:04] John’s advice to those who want to buy their businesses

[21:00] Reinvesting profit generated from the acquired business

[24:00] Nature of business ventures

[25:55] John’s parting shots

Notable Quotes

• If you don’t understand your motive then your motivation will never be there.
• I haven’t quite had the courage to encourage people not to use lawyers because that’s got connotations in the future, but we always encourage them to use lawyers.
• I think the first step and the action you want to take is to go out and get the inquiry to provide yourself with the lead, the deal flow, the needs, or whatever you want to call to give you a major choice.

Resources

If you are looking for a lawyer in the UK to help you get the deal over the line, then use one of my deal-making team members, John Andrews. You can phone his office on +03452412494 or email him at johnandrews.deallawyer@jmw.co.uk

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on Dealmakers Academy, follow him on Linkedin, or get his videos on youtube.

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Interview with Phil Hunt

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Phil Hunt, one of my private clients. Although Phil has a full-time job as an HR director of a city bank in London, this hasn’t stopped him from following the Dealmakers Academy program and making his first two acquisitions. Phil has recently acquired two hairdressing salons, and he joins us to share his experience, highs and lows, and some of his best tips on acquiring one’s business.

Key highlights from the call

[01:06] About Phil Hunt

[02:50] Freedom of owning a business

[03:28] When you were watching my videos, what was going through your head?

[04:11] Likable moments in Fasttrack Program

[08:28] How many conversations did you have before you found your first business acquisition target?

[11:33] Did you use a lawyer?

[12:10] How long did it take to complete the transaction?

[12:41] Negotiation strategies

[14:35] Hunt’s second acquisition

[16:25] Tell me why this was a share purchase

[19:08] Phil’s plans

[19:49] What is the profit margin in this sector?

[25:48] Advice to listeners

Notable Quotes

• The perfectionism then comes when you engage with the accountant and the lawyer to make sure that the deal is what you need it to be.
• I think there’s very little risk here. So it’s definitely worth doing the courses that you provide because they give you it’s not just the confidence, you’ve got to have that internally, but they kind of unlock the confidence if it’s a little bit backward going forward.
• Just go out there and do it. What on earth do you have to lose here, and nothing you lose affects business?
• I’d spent the first nine months trying almost not to send the letters out; I was thinking, well, that word won’t be right. And I’ve got the right address? And what about if the person doesn’t like to be addressed like that? And I thought, you know, if they don’t like it, they’re not going to reply.

Resources

If you are looking for a lawyer in the UK to help you get the deal over the line, then use my guy John Andrews. You can phone his office on +03452412494 or email him at johandrew.dolawyers.jmw.co.uk.

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on Dealmakers Academy, follow him on LinkedIn, or get his videos on YouTube.

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Interview with Jamie Simpson

In this episode, I talk to Jamie Simpson. When I first met Jamie he had been interested in buying a business for some time, but nothing has taken shape yet. Since then, Jamie bought three businesses without risking his own cash. Jamie joins us to share his journey and how he has managed to buy his businesses. He also shares some inspirational tips for those who want to buy their own business and haven’t started yet. 

Key Highlights

[01:01] About Jamie Simpson

[01:36] When did you think buying a business was a good idea?

[03:14] What do you feel different about the deal hanging around for four years and what you have done in four months?

[03:48] Would you have approached it differently knowing what you know now?

[04:25] Did you lose that money, though?

[05:36] When did you do your Fasttrack program?

[07:10] How long did you take to feel as though you were speaking confidently to business owners?

[13:15] Some of the things learned from Jonathan Jay that helped in business acquisition

[15:00] Strategies used to talk to business sellers

[16:18] Are you doing your work?

[19:45] Lessons learned about business buying

[21:00] About the Numbers game

[25:38] Parting tips to listeners

Notable Quotes

• I feel like I’ve got two options here. I can be like the tortoise in the shell. If you put your head out of the shell and something goes to bite, you can stay in the shell for the rest of your life or put your head down.
• I was hearing people say oh, we send 200 letters out, and we’ll test the water and see what happens. And I was thinking they were my competition. So if they’re going to test the water on, I’m just going to blitz the water. And I sent out about three to four thousand letters straightaway.
• A lot of people feel like they need to do their homework on the industry before they start sending letters. But actually, I found the sellers to be one of the greatest sources of information about the industry.
• Training to collect the data, trying to send the moves out in bulk like it’s just not practical. So outsourcing to the experts is the way forward because it frees up your time to focus on what you want to do and where your skill sets lie.
• I would say follow the steps given in the FastTrack program. Don’t feel like, you know, better.
• If you don’t know the industry, or you’ve never purchased the business before, you learn as you go.

Resources

If you are looking for a lawyer in the UK to help you get the deal over the line, then use my guy John Andrews. You can phone his office on +03452412494 or email him at johandrew.dolawyers.jmw.co.uk.

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on Dealmakers Academy, follow him on LinkedIn, or get his videos on youtube.

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Moving beyond the mindset of organic growth

In this episode, I am joined by Aled Davies, who runs a printing and textile printing family business. Aled had been trying to grow this business organically before listening to this podcast and joining me on one of my business acquisitions, Fasttrack Programs, in 2020. Through this program, Aled got a whole new perspective on growing his business and has since made his first acquisition. In this episode, Aled shares how he came about and how he got to make his first acquisition. He also shares some words of wisdom with those interested in buying their own business.

Key Highlights

[01:03] About Aled Davies

[04:15] Motivation towards buying his own business

[05:18] When you heard other people do what you wanted to do, did that motivate you?

[06:09] Likable moments in the Fasttrack program

[07:34] How did you go about your first call with the business owner of the business you eventually bought?

[08:39] Would you have grown your business by 10-15% in the next 12 months?

[09:25] The negotiation process

[12:56] Were you interested in his website traffic, inquiries, and existing customer list?

[17:20] Signifier of the worth of a business

[18:33] Business acquisition principles used

[20:32] Plans for the future

[21:56] Tips to listeners

Notable Quotes

• It was surprisingly easy to do when you have started to get some idea of what you are doing.
• If a deal doesn’t feel right or doesn’t look like it’s going to be the right one for you, you can always walk away if you don’t want to do it anyway.
• The first step is to get started and give it a go because you never know what will come out of it.
• All we did was make a few phone calls, went to see the guy, agreed on everything, and that was it. It was as simple as that.

Resources

If you are looking for a lawyer in the UK to help you get the deal over the line, then use my guy John Andrews. You can phone his office on +03452412494 or email him at johandrew.dolawyers.jmw.co.uk.

To join the Fasttrack Program, you can connect with Jonathan Jay on Dealmakers Academy, follow him on Linkedin, or get his videos on youtube.

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Welcome to the podcast where you find all the very best information on how to buy and sell businesses and become a successful dealmaker.

Follow or connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn https://bit.ly/2S3Xzxw

Watch our YouTube Channel The Dealmaker’s Academy https://bit.ly/3b86OFI

Subscribe …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Welcome to the podcast where you find all the very best information on how to buy and sell businesses and become a successful dealmaker.

Follow or connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn https://bit.ly/2S3Xzxw

Watch our YouTube Channel The Dealmaker’s Academy https://bit.ly/3b86OFI

Subscribe …