06 Jan 2012, Posted by admin in Business,News,Opinion, 0 Comments

DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?

After 30 years  as a dentist, Ian had developed a substantial operation.

What had started as a one man operation with his wife as the receptionist had grown into a booming business including four other dentists plus administrative staff in purpose built premises.

Now in his mid 50s, Ian was looking to retire in the near future but was facing the problem of how to dispose of the business.

With no family involved in the industry, there was no one to pass it on to and none of his staff were interested in running their own practice, preferring to continue earning a good income without having the day to day hassles that come with being the “boss”.

The obvious solution was to sell it and accordingly Ian had asked his accountant to give him an estimate of what it might be worth as a going concern.

After doing some research, his accountant came up with what seemed a very attractive figure to Ian.

The problem was now how to get it. He knew of  some of the bigger players buying but how to ensure he was making the best decision was impossible.

He knew none of his immediate competitors would be interested as they had their hands full with running their own operations and, in any case, were all in a similar age group to himself and were probably looking to get out themselves.

The thought of putting the practice on the open market didn’t appeal much at all to Ian and the chances were, according to his accountant, that a potential buyer might be someone in a much younger age bracket who may have trouble raising the necessary funds to complete the purchase which would mean Ian would have to effectively become a financier of at least part of the purchase price which wasn’t an attractive concept at all.

Besides how did he know if someone so much younger would have the experience and necessary skills to run the business as well as he did.

Ian cared a lot about his staff and clients and the thought that they wouldn’t be looked after as they were used to filled him with dismay.

Luckily for Ian, a colleague suggested he contact Collins Acquisitions and we met with Ian to get clear on his needs and concerns.

It turned out Ian still enjoyed the interaction with his patients, many of whom he had known for years and he confessed that he would really miss that.

In short, although Ian was tired of running the business on a day to day basis, he wasn’t really ready to retire just yet.

His accountant had also advised him that there would be some significant financial benefits if he could continue working a bit longer.

Once we were clear on Ian’s situation, we were able to come back to him in a relatively short time with a couple of options for him to consider.

One was an attractive offer to purchase the business on the basis that he walked away at settlement and the other allowed him to stay on for an agreed period earning a good salary without having to worry about running the business.

After due consideration and discussing both proposals with his wife and accountant, Ian chose the second option and today happily remains interacting with his much loved clients and former staff without the hassles of being the boss.

Oh and the purchase price… well let’s just say the accountant was also surprised!