For larger businesses, and sales that have to achieve more than a price.

A larger security business draws a wider field, from electronic security platforms owned by private equity, the investment firms that buy companies to grow and sell on, to national guarding groups and fire businesses adding security to their offer. Each values a different part of the company.

Those buyers ask more of the management team, the reporting and the plan for the years after the sale. They will want to meet the people who will run the business once you have gone, and they will test the numbers in more depth.

Some owners also want more from a sale than the price: a management team that carries on, a name that survives, or time and capital for whatever comes next.

Those aims shape who you sell to and how the deal is put together, so they need settling early. Working out what you want before buyers are in the room means the choice between a trade buyer, a platform and an investor is made with your aims in mind.

Ian mentors you and your senior team, so the business has a management team a buyer can back, with clear roles and reporting, and decisions that no longer all run through the owner.

A buyer of a larger business will ask who can run the team without asking the owner. Operations managers and senior engineers need clear responsibilities and room to make decisions, and a buyer will want to understand who stays, what keeps them, and how they plan ahead.

Clear measures of how the business performs mean the case you put to a buyer rests on numbers they can test.

For a security business those usually include margin by type of work, how much income comes from monitoring and maintenance agreements, how much rests on the largest clients, contract renewals and how well profit turns into cash. Measured every month, and owned by the management team rather than the owner, they show a buyer a business that is run, not just busy.

Before Simon approaches anyone, it is worth thinking through whether a trade buyer, another firm in the same line of work, a private equity-backed platform or a strategic investor fits what you want.

Security buyers range from electronic security platforms backed by private equity to national guarding groups and fire businesses adding security, each buying for a different part of the company. Knowing which of them suits your business, your staff and your plans for afterwards matters as much as the price.

Ian founded, built and sold a global professional services firm himself, and mentors senior leaders of mid-sized businesses.

That makes him someone to test the plan against, from the first strategy conversation to the decisions near the end.