A business valuation isn’t only for selling a company. For UK SME owners, the right time often comes with a bigger event, a shift in risk, fresh growth plans, or a legal or tax question that affects what the business is worth. If you’re raising money, bringing in a shareholder, planning an exit, dealing with…
Director pay can look straightforward until an SME business valuation starts. Then the question changes from “what was paid?” to “what should have been paid?” That shift can move the final valuation result more than many owners expect. In a UK SME, a director’s salary is not always treated like an ordinary wage. Sometimes it…
Valuation is not just about profit. It is also about how much cash the business needs to keep moving every day. If stock is too high, customers pay late, or suppliers are being stretched, the price can shift fast. Buyers, investors, and advisers all look at stock, debtors, creditors, and cash because they change both…
What if last year’s profit tells the wrong story? Many SME owners expect valuation to follow earnings. Often, that’s sensible. But when profits are weak, uneven, or distorted, that logic breaks down fast. A startup may be investing hard for growth. A manufacturer may have a slow year despite strong machinery and stock. A family…
Exit Planning · M&A Debt Free Cash Free Explained: What UK SME Sellers Must Know Before Going to Market By Kishen Patel, BFP ACA · ICAEW Chartered Accountant Updated March 2026 12 min read If you are planning to sell your company, Debt Free Cash Free is one of the most important deal terms to…
Net debt adjustments are the bit that turns a headline valuation into a proper price. In plain English, if a business has cash, loans, overdrafts, tax bills, lease liabilities, or other debt-like items on the balance sheet, those amounts can change what a buyer will actually pay for the shares. For UK SME owners, that…
A deal can look clean on paper and still leave you waiting for part of the money after completion. That’s where deferred consideration comes in, the sale price paid later, not all at once. It’s common in UK business sales when the buyer and seller need a bit more flexibility, whether that’s to bridge a…
When you value a manufacturing SME, the machinery on the shop floor is the easiest thing to see- but it is rarely the whole story. A workshop packed with heavy equipment looks impressive. However, it will easily be mispriced if you treat accounting depreciation as a shortcut to determine what the actual business is worth.…
It is the middle of a normal working week, and out of the blue, an email or phone call lands on your desk with an unexpected offer to buy your business. Your first reaction? You might feel flattered, slightly nervous, or even tempted to say yes before the moment slips away. That is the exact…
A valuation can feel like a number pulled from thin air. It isn’t. For founders raising money, business valuation is a story about risk, growth and proof. That story changes with the round. Seed investors buy belief, Series A wants evidence, and Series B wants scale. If you’re building a UK SME or start-up, the…