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Selling your practice
You have spent a career building it. Selling it should be the calmest part, not the part that keeps you awake. Here is exactly how we do it, and what it costs.
Home › Selling
You have spent a career building it. Selling it should be the calmest part, not the part that keeps you awake. Here is exactly how we do it, and what it costs.
Almost every owner we speak to has delayed the call for the same reason: not price, but exposure. If word gets out that you are selling, your best staff start taking calls and your best clients start wondering. That risk is entirely manageable — but only if the firm handling it never puts you in a shop window without asking you first.
By default nothing appears anywhere — no website entry, no mailshot, no circular. Some owners later ask us to run an anonymised entry to widen the search. That is your call, and you can pull it any time.
We agree a shortlist of buyers with you by name. You strike off anyone — a local rival, a former partner, a consolidator you dislike — before we go anywhere.
A single buyer hears about you at a time, and only after signing. Your firm is not named until you agree to the introduction.
How a sale runs
Twenty minutes on the phone and an indicative range. No documents, no NDA, no obligation, and nobody else hears anything.
We put a named list of buyers in front of you. You cross off anyone you would rather not know your firm is available.
One buyer at a time, under NDA. Your firm is not named until a buyer has signed and you have agreed to the introduction.
Offers compared like for like, heads of terms, diligence and handover — all tracked in Deal Engine so you can see exactly where it is.
No retainer, no upfront marketing fee, no charge for the valuation. We are paid a percentage of the completed sale, and only when the money reaches you. If the sale does not complete, you owe us nothing.
It depends on far more than a multiple of fees: how much of the income is genuinely recurring, how dependent the clients are on you personally, the mix of compliance and advisory work, your staff, and how long you will stay to hand over. We will give you an honest indicative range on the first call, and we would rather tell you a number you do not like than one you do.
Not until you decide. Employment obligations bite at the point of transfer, not at the point you start a conversation, and we will walk you through the timing before anything is committed.
Usually for a handover period, and that is as much in your interest as the buyer's — client retention is what most of the consideration depends on. Anything from three months to two years is normal, and it is negotiable.
Part of the price is paid later and depends on the clients staying. It is standard in this market. What matters is how it is measured, over how long, and what happens if a client leaves for reasons that have nothing to do with you. We will go through the mechanics in plain English before you sign anything.
Yes. Fee blocks — a payroll book, a bookkeeping book, a group of clients in one sector — sell perfectly well on their own, and it is a common way to scale back without stopping.
Said on the first call, not at heads of terms
Practice Group buys and runs accountancy practices, and it is part of the same group as Practice Brokers. Every broker in this market has favoured buyers. Most never mention it.
Say the word and Practice Group never sees your file — and nothing else about how we work for you changes.
Practice Group sees no other offer before making its own, and every offer you receive is put in front of you in the same format.
We are paid identically whether you sell to Practice Group or to anyone else. There is nothing in it for us to steer you.
Twenty minutes on the phone. No documents, no NDA, no obligation — and the market hears nothing.