BUSINESS ADVICE
Protecting the greatest assets in your business
by Jon Gratland , Chief Executive at Wiltshire Friendly Society
Do you have challenging targets for growth in 2018 ? Will your employees be there to support you ?
Group Income Protection – that doesn ’ t need to cost you anything ! Your employees are your business ’ s greatest asset and business owners like yourself are getting wiser to the need to look after staff . Many are putting in place employee benefits to help attract and retain the right people to support their growth plans . A useful benefit is a Group Income Protection Scheme that provides replacement income to your employees if they are unable to work due to illness or injury . Have you thought about this valuable insurance protection ? And if not , why not ? You may be saying to yourself that you |
can ’ t afford it … after all you could already be paying for , or contributing towards , pensions and life cover .
Did you know there are a range of options that mean you can put a Group Income Protection Scheme in place from fully , to partially funded , to no cost to the business at all ?
You have options An employer-funded scheme is the traditional approach where the business chooses the level of benefits it wants to put in place for its employees , within its budget .
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There is now a new option where just your employees contribute , at a discounted rate , still as part of a group scheme that you set up for them . They choose the level of benefits that ’ s right for them and fits within their budget .
Whichever option you take everyone can benefit :
• You deliver a really valuable benefit to your staff that can help retain them .
• Illnesses and absences can be more effectively managed .
• You , and or your employees , can choose the level of benefits and budget that ’ s appropriate .
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• You both have the security and peace of mind that their income is protected and they have some financial security if illness or injury strikes .
Wiltshire Friendly Society is a local , specialist , income protection provider who can assist in helping you better understand how this insurance could be valuable to you and your employees .
For more info : www . wiltshirefriendly . com
01225 752120
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Thinking of selling your business ?
By Thomas Webb , partner in the company commercial team at Mogers Drewett
If you own a business , there may come a point when you start to think about selling it . Maybe this has always been your plan – to invest and build the business up before making a profitable exit . Or maybe things have changed in your life and you want to take a new direction , such as retirement or exiting to launch something else . There could be many reasons , but regardless of the motives there are number of things that you will need to consider . Here are my five key tips to achieving a successful sale .
1 . Plan ahead Selling a business is not like selling a house or a car – it can take many months and even years to happen . We usually recommend to our clients that they start planning approximately three years ahead . This preparation also allows the sales to be as tax efficient as possible , as the closer you get to the sale date , the less options there are for assisting in this aspect of the transaction .
2 . Make sure your books and records are in order Part of the reason for forward planning is to ensure all your books and records are complete and accurate . Do you have proper accounts ? Are you recording sales accurately ? Can you show all of your income and expenses ? Is your business compliant with all the various regulations and do you have evidence of that ? Any prospective buyer will want to see and know all of this . If information is incomplete or missing , they will use this as a bargaining chip to bring the price down .
3 . Is your business incurring unnecessary expenses ? To maximise the sale price , you want your business to be as profitable as possible . You want that anyway of course , but planning for sale is a good opportunity to stand back and look at your business with fresh eyes . Are you wasting money unnecessarily and dragging down your profitability ? Are you getting the best possible price from suppliers ? Are there subscriptions or nice-to-haves that you don ’ t really need ?
4 . Try to broaden your customer and supplier base One thing any potential buyer will want to do before they sign on the dotted line is satisfy themselves that they are not taking on too much risk . Your business may have traded well last year for example – but is it sustainable ? If your business is very dependent on just one or two big customers , that could be an amber light – because what happens if that customer goes elsewhere ? The more you can show a diverse customer base , the better . So even if things are ticking over nicely with your key customers , push yourself to try to find new ones . The same goes for suppliers - if you are very dependent on one or two key suppliers , what would you do if they went out of business or dramatically increased their prices ? Having options and fallbacks can only be a good thing .
5 . Do you have a good team around you ? If you have a management team and other staff , do they understand the business as well as you do ? Have you given them the training and support they need ? Do they enjoy their jobs ? A potential buyer will want to meet and talk to staff – and if they can see that there is a good and well-motivated team in place , that will make the business a more attractive proposition . There are plenty of other issues to think about . What sale price do you need to achieve , and is that realistic ? Are there any similar businesses that have sold recently that you can benchmark against ? Then there is the structure of the sale – which could be different if you sell to an outside party or if it ’ s an MBO ( management buyout ) to the management team . Are you selling shares or assets or both ?
These are all issues that we , as experienced commercial lawyers , can help you with . If you want to sell your business , there is plenty to think about – and at Mogers Drewett we can advise you every step of the way .
For more info : www . mogersdrewett . com 01225 750000
@ mogersdrewett
8 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018