For larger HVAC businesses, and sales meant to do more.
Mentoring for owners of larger HVAC businesses, and for owners who want their sale to do more than fund a retirement.
For businesses with several branches, a management team or a large commercial contract book.
Led by Ian Mills, Non-Executive Director.
What you get
- Mentoring for you and your senior team.
- Clear measures of how the business performs.
- A view on which kind of buyer fits what you want.
- Agreement on what you want the sale to achieve beyond the price.
How it works
A private conversation
Tell us what you are aiming for.
Agree what the sale is for
Beyond the price, before anything else is decided.
Lead beyond the owner
Mentoring for you and your senior team.
Simon runs the sale
Larger business sales runs alongside, not instead.
What we look at
Why a larger sale is a different sale
An HVAC business with several branches, a management team or a large commercial contract book tends to attract a different kind of buyer, often a group backed by private equity, the investment firms that buy companies to grow and sell on, or a strategic investor.
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.
What the sale is for
Some owners want more from a sale than the price: a secure future for the engineers who built the business with them, a role in what comes next, or proceeds they mean to put to work.
That changes what a good outcome looks like, and it is worth deciding early. Agreeing what you want the sale to achieve beyond the price means the structure of the deal can be shaped to serve it, rather than discovered at the end.
Leadership beyond the owner
Ian mentors you and your senior team, so the business is led by people a buyer would want to back.
A buyer of a larger business will ask who can run the team without asking the owner. Service 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.
Performance a buyer can check
Clear measures of how the business performs mean the case you put to a buyer rests on numbers they can test.
For an HVAC business those usually include margin by type of work, how much income comes from contracted maintenance, how much rests on the largest customers, 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.
The right kind of buyer
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.
HVAC buyers range from regional rivals looking for engineers and contracts to private equity-backed groups buying for geography and heat pump capability. Knowing which of them suits your business, your staff and your plans for afterwards matters as much as the price.
What you'll need to have ready
- Your management accounts and the measures you use to run the business.
- An outline of your senior team and who is responsible for what.
- Your own view of what you want the sale to achieve.
What happens after
Larger business sales runs alongside the other parts of the programme rather than replacing them, and Simon still runs the sale itself.
Questions owners ask
Does Ian run the sale?
No. Ian mentors the owners and senior teams of larger businesses; Simon still runs the sale.
Who is this for?
Owners of larger HVAC businesses, and owners who want their sale to do more than fund a retirement.
Does it replace the rest of the programme?
No. It runs alongside the other parts of the programme rather than replacing them.
Start with a private conversation.
Tell us what you are aiming for. Nothing is shared, and nothing is decided until you are ready.