Tips on Selling Your Recruitment Business
Are you running a recruitment agency or a lifestyle business? Most recruitment owners only think about exiting when they are facing burnout, partner disputes, or life-changing events—often leading to "distressed sales" where private equity firms snap up great businesses at a discounted price. In this episode of RecTalk, host Nitan Sharma is joined by Punam Moana (Isuki Accounts) and Christian Ma (One Day Wealth) to reveal how to get both you and your business "exit-ready." We dive deep into the financial, strategic, and psychological shifts required to move from a lifestyle operation to a high-value asset. In this video, we cover: • The 4 Main Exit Routes: Understanding Trade Sales, Private Equity, Management Buy-Outs (MBO), and the pros/cons of Employee Ownership Trusts (EOT). • The "Freedom Number": A simple 60-second methodology to calculate exactly how much you need to retire and maintain your current lifestyle. • Skeletons in the Closet: Why things like "employment intermediaries reporting," missing P1Ds, and having family members on the payroll can decrease your valuation or kill a deal during due diligence. • The EBITDA Benchmark: Why reaching £500k to £1m EBITDA opens the door to the most meaningful exit options. • Post-Sale Identity Crisis: How to avoid the "180-day itch" and the "post-sale fail" where owners lose their sense of purpose after the "baby" they spent 20 years building is gone. Key Takeaway: You shouldn't just view your business as your pension. Start planning your "Freedom Number" early so the eventual sale is the "cherry on top" rather than a desperate necessity. Timestamps: 0:00 - The reality of recruitment exits 3:15 - Trade Sale vs. Private Equity vs. EOT 8:45 - The "Freedom Number" calculation 12:30 - Cleaning up your accounts: Skeletons to avoid 18:20 - Why you need a documented Business Plan 25:00 - Life after the exit: Avoiding the "180-day itch" Episode curated using Ai from the Podcast Appearance of Christian Mather and Poonam Mawani on @rectalkpodcast
