BUSINESS IDEAS
for use as restaurants. I like to see that; some of them are wonderful buildings, and even a rural pub can be a success, if they can get the right chef. Incidentally, I hate seeing a pub sold with a covenant forbidding the sale of alcohol – I think that’s really wrong. Changes in legislation can also have a
major effect, as we’ve seen with post offices and care homes. Care homes were a very difficult market a couple of years back; the government was proposing to bring in minimum standards, and at the same time local councils were finding funding very difficult and trying to cut the fees they paid. The market is slowly coming back to normal, as the higher standards were never imposed in England, and in Wales the authorities are now being more flexible. Newsagents have been through similar
travails with the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, and that opened up the business so newsagents have lost that unique position in the High Street.
Q What are the problems facing buyers at the moment? Are there any types of business that you look at and just think, ‘no one’s going to buy that’?
A A big deal blocker at the moment is finance. The market at the moment is dominated by the difficulty in getting finance – one of the major banks has practically dismantled its business lending department. So that’s a big issue. Some businesses are always difficult to
sell. Jewellery shops, clothes shops, gift shops, toy shops. They’re good clean businesses, but the demand for them is very small. The stock level, compared to the property price, is high, and the stock level is something the banks won’t lend on. A convenience store might have four or
CHRISTIE + CO offer
this freehold day nursery in Brierley
Hill, Worcestershire.
BUSINESSESFOR
SALE.COM have this£1.3 million
residential care home in Kent. (below)
business then was either work for a big corporate or set up as a franchise, as there was no training available – that has changed of course now. Most people come into business transfer
£1.15 million
five weeks’ stock, for instance; the turnover is quite high. A fashion store might have six months’ stock, and it might be worth £60,000 while the property is just worth £10,000. That’s an impossible finance proposition.
Q How do business transfer agents enter the business? It’s not widely seen as a career option in the way that estate agency or surveying is.
There aren’t that many of us. There are 150 members of ICBA, specialising in business transfer, compared to 10,000 or so in residential agency. I came into the profession after I’d been
working for a Housing Association on development projects and I was made redundant. The only way into the property
agency after experience in another field. Some people come from the property field, as I have done, others from an industrial or accountancy background. All these disciplines are useful for business transfer agents.
Q What makes you get out of bed in the morning – what is it that you really enjoy about being a business transfer agent?
A I’ve always found the business fascinating. You meet some
interesting characters; you never know what you’re going to see next. It’s very varied – that’s the nature of the business. No two businesses are the same. Owners sometimes find the process
quite therapeutic. They open up to me in a way they wouldn’t do to anyone else – not their accountant, there’s often not time, and definitely not their bank. Over the course of my career I’ve learned that people are all different. I’m sure some people are quite happy in that process of selling another house, another house, and another house. I’m afraid I’d get bored with that.
£295,000
42 MARCH 2010 PROPERTYdrum
CHESTERTON HUMBERTS:
A bargain at £295,000? This village Post Office, a 3 bed owners cottage and a B&B, in Spaxton, Somerset.
CheCk for hidden Clauses….
If you fancy the challenge of selling a seasonal business, the Lapland theme park in Kent is for sale after visitor numbers plummeted last Christmas. The 10,000 acre LaplandUK sold 40,000 tickets in 2009, 10,000 fewer than in the previous year partly due, ironically, to the heavy snow(!) but the economic situation is also blamed. Since opening in 2006, it has had 120,000 visitors.
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