After five years working in the recruitment industry, Susan set up her own specialist recruitment agency in 2001. Working with her husband Rob, they built the agency up to a sizeable business within seven years.
The industry sector they operated in suffered during the Global Financial Crisis, forcing Susan and Rob to scale the business down and refocus on their local area.
Rob was subsequently offered a senior position working overseas, but Susan had to remain in Australia to run the business. At this point they decided to sell, and got in touch with BBQld.
Not having sold a business before (despite having gone through the motions once when approached by another broker), Susan now admits that the whole process was a very steep learning curve, but one that she was happy to have with BBQld and her broker at BBQld, Corey.
Susan explains:
“When we decided to sell the business, the first thing we did was to do a search on the internet for business brokers, and the BBQld site was very prominent, in fact one of the smarter and more informative websites. I then called and spoke with Corey. I could tell from the word go that he knew his stuff and he also told me a bit about how experienced their team was*, which was reassuring.
The process Corey then took us through was really valuable, particularly the financial situation review, from which they were able to put together a document offering the business as a ‘saleable product’ – something easy for potential buyers to understand. Having had some previous dealings with business brokers I know that a lot of brokers don’t go this far – they’re often real estate agents doing some business broking, not specialists.”
Once the business was on the market, support from Corey at BBQld continued:
“Corey was incredibly dynamic on our behalf, making sure that only genuine buyers were put forward to us and staying in regular contact with us over the 18 month process – at least once a month and often up to two to four times a week. What’s more, although the timeline was longer than we’d hoped, we did achieve the price we were looking for, thanks to BBQld finding us the right buyer and sticking with us through the process.”
What advice does Susan have for someone wanting to sell their business?
“Selling a business is a unique situation that business owners do not experience very often – that’s why it’s important to have the right broker on board. Although the learning curve is steep and getting all the information together for the broker is time consuming, it’s vital to a successful outcome. My advice is simple – get a good broker! I’m happy to recommend BBQld to anyone selling their business, in fact I’ve already recommended them to someone I know.”
