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Is The UK at Risk of Losing Skills and Funding?
 Being
a small business owner is never easy, with
lots of hard work and planning required all
the time. The work is so hard that now more
than a quarter of SMEs owner-managers in the
UK are considering selling their business in
the coming few years; which could
potentially leave the UK short of business
talent and venture capital.
It is no surprise that some of Britain’s
hardest working and most experienced
business leaders are hoping to drop down a
gear in the near future. What is worrying,
however, is how many wish to opt out of
business altogether.
Research for the Tenon Forum found that 66%
of those who are thinking about selling have
no plans to reinvest any of the money into
another business. As most venture capital is
money gained from the sales of a business,
this could lead to a large drop in the
amount of venture capital available to small
businesses in the coming years.
The results do vary significantly by
business sector however, with manufacturing
owners most keen to re-invest (54%), and
construction owners the least keen (12%).
Harry Dhand, Director of Corporate Finance
at Tenon, comments: "The frenzied lifestyle
of the UK’s owner-manager is one that only
the strong-willed can handle for a concerted
period of time. The stress and strain of
business owner- management can take its toll
and its common practice to see
owner-managers thinking of selling after 10
years of hard work building their business."
Many business owners also underestimate the
amount of work that goes into selling a
business properly. It can often take up to 3
years of preparation, work, and discussion
to get a worthwhile deal.
Find out more about how to effectively sell
your business in our free article here.
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