When you want to sell the business in twelve months

When you want to sell the business in twelve months

But the margins say it isn't ready

Does this sound familiar?

• Holiday-home property manager, substantial revenue
• You've decided: sell within twelve months
• But wafer-thin margins, chaotic operations
• Too many different tasks, inefficiencies everywhere
• And the question is: who would buy it like this?

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The trap of selling before optimising

You've decided.

12 months to prepare the business for sale.
You want out.
Sell and move on.

But the business isn't sellable.

€1M revenue, €50K profit.
5% margins.
2024 performance worse than 2023 (a negative trend).
Chaotic operations (too many different tasks, inefficiency, trivial issues taking up your time).

And you:
Think that preparing for the sale means "tidying things up".
Outsourcing admin.
Optimising maintenance processes.

But the real problem is something else.

With 5% margins:
The business is worth practically nothing to a buyer.
Or rather: it's worth 1-2 years of profit = €50-100K.
You've built €1M in revenue that's worth as much as a used runabout.

To sell well, you first have to run it well.

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Why selling now means selling badly

There's a type of buyer who looks at the numbers.

And they see this:
Substantial revenue, razor-thin margins.
A business that only works if you're in it.
Declining performance.

Valuation?
A few years of profit.
Like a used car.

Years of work worth a weekend getaway.

And the team:
People who work.
But no system that carries on without you.
No manual, no autonomy.

The apartments?
Performance worse than last year.
Owners leaving.
Stock shrinking.

You want to sell but there's nothing to buy.

Just you, working fifty hours a week.

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Why it happens

You thought preparing for the sale meant tidying things up.

Outsourcing admin.
Optimising maintenance.
Keeping better control of the numbers.

But preparing for the sale is something else entirely.

It's turning something that depends on you
into something that works without you.

And you can't do that with razor-thin margins.
You can't do it with chaotic operations.
You can't do it in twelve months.

With these margins, you don't sell.

You give it away.

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The method

Margins come first

Bringing margins from embarrassing numbers to respectable ones.
Rationalising staff.
Optimising suppliers.
Renegotiating commissions.

Systems that run themselves

Write down what to do when a guest arrives.
What to do when maintenance is needed.
How to handle an owner.

Not in your head.
On paper.

A manager who decides

Someone who takes your place.
Who handles the trivial problems.
Who manages the day-to-day.

Try disappearing for two weeks.
If everything falls apart, you can't sell.

Performance that starts growing again

Reverse the trend.
Win back the lost apartments.
Make owners happy.

Real time

Not twelve months.
Eighteen, maybe twenty-four.

Selling well takes time.
Selling badly is quick.

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What changes afterwards

You know what it's really worth.

No longer significant revenue with embarrassing margins.
But real profit.
A real valuation.

The team works without you.

They solve the trivial issues.
The manager decides.
You watch from the outside.

Owners come back.

Performance that grows.
Apartments that stay.
A trend heading in the right direction.

And finally, you can sell.

Not at a laughable price.
But at a price that respects the years of work.

Twelve months will become eighteen.
Maybe twenty-four.

**But the difference between selling too soon and badly
and selling later and well
is worth every month of waiting.**

The exit isn't an escape.
It's capitalisation.