How should I approach valuing my business before an exit (UK, sub £10M revenue)?
Hey all,
Bit of a long one, sorry in advance.
I'm starting to think about an exit over the next 12 to 18 months, and trying to wrap my head around how to actually go about getting the business valued properly.
Quick context: UK-based SME, >£7M revenue, profitable, structure is pretty clean (no group, no weird stuff). Nothing too complicated, but enough going on that I really don't want to mess this up.
I've done a bit of digging on my own (yes, I asked ChatGPT, don't judge) and from what I can tell, the main options seem to be :
- Big 4 / large accounting firms — Deloitte, PwC, that crowd
- Mid-market corporate finance boutiques — BDO Corporate Finance and similar
- Independent valuation specialists — SeedLegal and Optival came up
Honestly, the spread in pricing and approach is huge, and I'm struggling to figure out what actually makes sense for a business my size.
Would using an M&A boutique for a valuation create bias, since they may have an incentive to present a higher value to win or shape a future mandate?
I'm not quite ready to kick off a full sell-side process yet. At this stage I really just want to:
- get a realistic sense of what the business is worth
- understand how a buyer would actually look at it
- be properly prepared before I start having conversations with potential acquirers
So for anyone who's been through this in the UK, would love to hear how you played it:
- Did you go with a big firm, a boutique, or an independent?
- Was a standalone valuation enough at this point, or did you jump straight into bringing on M&A advisors?
- What do you wish you'd paid more attention to (beyond just the final number)?
Any war stories or honest feedback welcome, especially from founders who've actually exited in roughly this range. Cheers 🙏