Straight writing about buying and selling businesses.
No theory and no recycled LinkedIn advice. What I actually see across 32 M&A transactions: what moves a valuation, what a structured deal looks like on paper, and where owners lose money without ever knowing they did.
Start with these.
Four published guides, free and with no call required, plus two pieces sent on request. The turnaround guides are for owners whose business is underperforming but still worth saving. The rest are for owners weighing an exit, and for anyone working out what their company is actually worth.
- Guide · For owners
What is a business turnaround specialist?
What they do, what they cost, how a specialist differs from a turnaround manager, consultant or insolvency practitioner, and the six signs owners recognise but usually ignore.
Read the guide - Guide · For owners
Business turnaround services, in order
The five workstreams a recovery is actually made of, what lands in the first ninety days, and why cost cutting sits fourth rather than first.
Read the guide - Guide · For owners
The five types of business buyer
Who they are, what each pays, what each does to your brand and your team, and the five things that attract a serious buyer rather than any buyer.
Read the guide - Guide · For directors
CVA finance and the alternatives
What a Company Voluntary Arrangement is, what it really costs, whether you can still raise finance, and the four other options worth weighing first.
Read the guide - Guide · For owners
The Valuation Gap
Why most owners are quoted a number 30 to 50% below what a properly structured deal can deliver, and the five things that actually move it.
Request the guide - Explainer · For owners
Selling 100% is the wrong default
What a 70% partnership pays an owner over five years against a straight full sale at the same valuation, laid out line by line.
See the numbers
From the archive.
Four pieces carried over from the old site, at the same web addresses they have always been at, rewritten where they had gone out of date or still described me as an adviser rather than a buyer.
- Guide · For owners
The 5 Pitfalls of Business Broker Valuations
The five things that go wrong in a broker valuation: biased opinion, ignored market conditions, thin financial review, missed assets, no forward view.
Read the post - Guide · For owners
How to Choose the Right Business Buyer
How to judge a business buyer on more than price: their model and motive, whether a management team is ready, and whether the culture survives handover.
Read the post - Explainer · For owners
Why Now Is the Right Time to Sell Your Business
The four conditions that decide whether it is the right time to sell: tax treatment, the economic cycle, available buyer capital and the cost of debt.
Read the post - About · Recognition
Mergers and Acquisitions Award Winner
Lee Smith on award recognition in UK M&A, the track record behind it, and why an award matters far less to a seller than what happens after completion.
Read the post
The rest is on LinkedIn, two or three times a week.
Deal breakdowns, structures, and what the market actually looks like in HVAC, Renewable Energy and Construction right now. That is where most of it goes first.
Want one of the guides sent over?
Say which one and it comes straight back to you. No newsletter, no sequence, and your details are not used for anything else.
Prefer to talk now? Call 020 3475 5475 or email lee@verdanicapital.co.uk.
What legacy do you want to leave behind?
Reading only gets you so far. Fifteen minutes on a call will tell you more about your own position than anything on this page.
Featured on BBC Radio, Sky News and various podcasts