What does a business sale really look like?

The first truth is that It’s not like in the films. In films the point at which a business sale is completed is when the champagne corks pop, men in suits start back slapping and shaking hands and a huge celebration begins.

It’s not like that in real life. Yes, of course it’s an amazing feeling, but it’s not like the movies.

3 years ago today we confirmed the sale of our business, WhichBingo.

To be honest I don’t actually remember the day itself that well. I very much remember the run up to it; lots of to-ing and fro-ing of documents with the lawyers, lots of phone calls and lots of discussions over what seemed to me to be legalise minutiae. But the day we actually signed off the deal isn’t so clear. Bearing in mind that this was the end of an 18 year journey that had taken is from accidental kitchen table start-up, with all the ups and downs and blood sweat and tears, to sale to a PLC, that in itself says a lot. Such a hugely momentous day, both personally and professionally, and it’s just a vague memory.

All I remember of the day itself is that we drove down to our lawyer’s offices, we signed lots of bits of paper in one of their meeting rooms, we shook hands, and then just walked out into the car park. That was it. An enormous life-changing moment. All pretty ‘meh’ to be honest. 🤷‍♂️

It may sound odd, but the emotion that day wasn’t one of joy, but of relief, one of ‘thank fuck that’s done’, and a little bit of ‘have we done the right thing?‘

The buzz of a business sale and the celebrations come at varying points, and yes it’s brilliant to sell your business, but the day you sign isn’t one of them. The buzz comes at points like the original deal being agreed, seeing the deal in print for the first time, the money landing in the bank and the ‘ahhhh and rellaaaaax’ moment by the pool.

And in fact, I was warned of this by a close friend who is in M&A and has seen this many times, so our situation and our emotion wasn’t unique.

When you talk to businesses, whether they be start-ups or mature businesses, one of the things that always gets discussed is The Exit. The Sale. The End Game. As per above, this actually ends up being about minutiae in contracts, legalise, handover dates, who does what and when, guarantees and earn outs.

What then followed the day after we signed the documents was the hardest thing that I ever had to do in my whole business career.

The hardest thing that I ever had to do was to walk into a meeting room filled with all of my brilliant team and tell them that a) we’d sold the business and b) the new owners didn’t want them.

I had to do it as respectfully as I could, and as clearly as I could, knowing it would be a bombshell. I’d practised it, word-for-word for weeks; played it through in my mind over and over again. When the time came, it took me three attempts to get from my desk to the door of my office to walk into the meeting room.

I’ve just been tagged on this interview between two of old my team (Wayne Howe and Roger Knowles) discussing that very meeting. Please give it a listen between 03.15min and 8.00min. It’s a huge mix of emotions from me listening to them as they discuss THAT meeting. It’s the first time I’ve really heard ‘the other side’ first hand like this.

So, as you can see, as I originally said, it really isn’t like you see in the films. There’s a lot more to it, and there’s a huge amount of emotion, effort and hard work. The money almost is an irrelevance.

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