Plain-English guides on selling, valuing and growing UK professional services firms — plus our views on the private equity and private credit market.
Where retention counting, a buyer's mid-earn-out repricing, and a staff redundancy quietly turn into arguments over deferred consideration — with a worked example showing a £61,600 swing on identical underlying facts.
Two firms can report the same £500,000 adjusted EBITDA and sell for prices £1.6m apart. How recurring revenue, client concentration, owner-dependency and add-back scrutiny decide which one a buyer believes.
The number in your heads of terms is an enterprise value, not money. How the bridge works, why a working capital target built on the wrong three months moves £120,000 on a £2.4m deal, and the six things to settle before you grant exclusivity.
The warranties are given by you personally, not by the company, and the disclosure letter is the only thing that limits them. Why a £1.2m cap can be worth nothing when £720,000 of deferred consideration is being held against a disputed £310,000 claim.
The price in your heads of terms is not binding. The promise not to talk to anyone else is. What a thin document costs on a £1.2m fee book — £240,000 of headline and £240,000 of day-one cash — and the seven things to fix before you grant exclusivity.
Share sale or asset sale decides whether TUPE applies at all — and your partners are not covered either way. Why staff departures come straight out of your deferred consideration, with the arithmetic on a £1.2m fee book.
CGT relief on a sale to an employee ownership trust was halved for disposals from 26 November 2025. What the route now costs on a £3m gain, the tighter conditions behind it, and when an EOT still makes sense.
Sellers celebrate at heads of terms, but the price is usually decided in the eight weeks afterwards. A buyer-side walk-through of what really gets pulled apart in a fee book — and which findings cut the price.
An honest, stage-by-stage timeline for selling a practice, from getting sale-ready through to earn-out and client handover, with the factors that quietly add or remove months.
Capital Gains Tax, Business Asset Disposal Relief and the mechanics of earn-outs decide how much of a practice sale you actually keep. A measured guide to the moving parts as they stand in 2026/27.
Solicitors' firms face a genuinely different succession problem to accountancy practices — ABS ownership rules, SRA approval and six-year run-off cover. Here's how that shapes a sale.
What a GRF multiple actually is, why UK accountancy practices typically sell for 0.8–1.6x gross recurring fees, and what moves your firm up or down the range.
The full journey of selling a UK accountancy practice — from deciding it's time, through valuation, buyer types, due diligence and completion, in plain English.
Internal buyout, trade sale, consolidator, platform partnership or wind-down — the five realistic succession routes for UK firm founders, compared honestly.
Most UK practice sales include an earn-out. Here's how they work, the mechanics that protect sellers, and the clauses that quietly shift risk onto you.
Private equity has arrived in UK accountancy at scale — Grant Thornton, Evelyn Partners, Azets, Xeinadin. A map of the consolidation wave and what it means for independent firms.
The arithmetic behind buy-and-build: multiple arbitrage, shared infrastructure and compounding integration — explained in plain English.
Interviewing a PE buyer for your firm? These ten questions reveal how they operate, what happens to your people, and whether the price is real.
Thousands of UK professional services founders are approaching retirement without a succession plan. The demographic maths behind the decade's quietest investment story.
A practical pre-sale checklist for UK practice owners — twelve improvements, most costing little, that measurably raise what buyers will pay.
IFA firms have their own succession market — recurring fee books, client suitability duties and a consolidation wave of their own. A plain-English guide for advice firm founders.
Finance in the UK is biased, bureaucratic and built for insiders. From private equity for service-based SMEs to accessible private credit, we’re rewriting the funding playbook.
Not all PE is cut-throat and corporate. How we use it to grow service-based firms across the UK with care, modernisation and long-term value.
A faster, more flexible, founder-friendly way to access capital without selling equity — and why it’s core to the Founder Capital model.
Equity, debt, grants — what’s the difference, and which one’s right for your business? A plain-English guide.
The 7 truths every UK founder should know before signing a PE deal — plus how Founder Capital does it differently.
Startup grants are confusing, opaque, and often out of reach. Found Funding simplifies the process and helps UK founders unlock hidden capital.
A short, occasional email on the UK private equity and private credit market — professional services consolidation, succession trends, and what we're seeing on the ground. Commentary and information only; never a promotion. Unsubscribe any time.
