Exit Strategy Workshop.

We start with you: when you would like to step back, the figure that would make you financially free of the business, and what else matters to you, such as the future of your engineers or a role after the sale.

Shareholders often want different things at different times. We give that conversation proper room, working from facts, because it decides which buyers suit you and how long there is to work on the value.

Buyers pay for confidence in what the business will earn after you.

A firm that earns more with the same engineers is worth more to them than one that is simply busier.

So we look at how good and how steady your profit is, how much of your income repeats each year through maintenance contracts, how your customers are mixed between domestic, landlord and commercial work, and whether too much rests on a few of them.

Each of these moves what a buyer will pay, and each can be changed over two to five years.

Different buyers want different things. A regional competitor may want your engineers and your contracts.

An investor-backed group building a larger business may be buying for geography, commercial clients or heat pump capability.

We go through what trade buyers, firms already in the same line of work, and investors building larger groups, tend to examine first, so the plan works on the things the likely buyers of your business will actually test, rather than on everything at once.

If you hold the key client relationships, price every job and act as the Gas Safe responsible person, a buyer is really buying your time.

The aim is a business that thrives without you.

We look at who else could hold the customer relationships, such as a service manager or senior engineer, who could deal with emergency callouts and escalations, and which routines live only in your head.

We also look at the team around you, because a buyer is more willing to engage when the business has leadership beyond the owner. These changes take time to show, which is why they come early.

Not all growth helps a sale. A year of extra installations can raise turnover and leave profit, and next year's income, much where it was.

We look at the steps that raise profit and make it steadier: pricing, the mix of jobs, costs that have crept up, and winning more of the planned maintenance, commercial and accredited F-Gas, MCS or OFTEC work that buyers value.

The aim is growth a buyer can see in the accounts, with a credible route to more.

Qualified engineers are hard to hire, and a buyer knows it. The work can cover formal contracts, a skills matrix, and Gas Safe, F-Gas, OFTEC and MCS registrations held across the business rather than resting on you alone.

A buyer will also ask about pay set against the market, and about any engineer close to retirement, because they want to know who stays and why.

A sale to a trade buyer is not the only route. Some owners sell to an investor-backed group, some to their managers, and some to an employee ownership trust.

Each route suits different owners and is taxed differently, so we look at which ones fit what you want before the plan is set.

We do not give tax or legal advice. Where a route needs it, we will say so and work alongside your own accountant and solicitor.

The two days work best with every shareholder present, and with any senior managers you want involved.

Hearing a buyer's view together tends to settle questions that would otherwise drag on, such as who will run the business after you and what each shareholder needs from the sale.

Nick acts as a sounding board: he listens, challenges and says plainly what he sees. Before you book, we suggest who should attend and when to hold it.

The two days end in a written plan: the priorities in order and the agreed actions, with who does what and by when. It may look 12 to 36 months ahead.

Take it away and deliver it yourselves, or keep Nick with you. On the longer journey the plan looks at least three years ahead, and Nick checks progress with you monthly, every two months or at least quarterly.

That planning horizon is separate from the Reads Pre-Sale Programme, which runs 12 to 24 months, priced to your plan, paid monthly if you want us working alongside you on the plan. Each step stands on its own.