Business Expansion
Buying a business
The quickest and easiest way to expand a business is to buy one ready-made. Helping you to buy a business is not just about the hundreds of little legal details you need to be aware of to avoid disappointment, but also about many non-legal issues like the importance of proper due diligence, of assessing the likely success of the business in ways other than just through the accounts, and of carefully assessing the seller. This is where our experience is priceless.
Company purchase
When you buy a company you’re buying a legal entity that comes to you with all its history and all its pre-existing liabilities. To protect yourself against a debt incurred before you bought the company the seller needs to provide an extensive list of warranties and to indemnify you against loss. That’s when the trouble starts. Be ahead of the game by seeking our help with the negotiations and documents necessary to ensure a trouble-free purchase; both at the time and in the future. Oh, and don’t forget to get our free due diligence checklist.
Due diligence advice
What is due diligence? Why is it necessary? How do you go about it? What things do you look for? Where does your accountant come in? What does your lawyer do? Just a few of the questions that we can answer about due diligence to take the guess-work out of it and help you to efficiently and effectively assess the health of the business or company you want to purchase link to toolkit doc.
Franchising
Whether you want to be the franchisor (the head office) or the franchisee (the local branch), franchising potentially offers much but delivers little. Often this is because the expectations of the players are unrealistic. Helping you to set those expectations is where we can help you to avoid joining the list of disaster stories.
Licensing of products or businesses
You may not have the physical and or financial resources to expand your business simply through organic growth in which case you may want to licence someone to market, sell and even manufacture your products or services in other areas. The leverage might be great but the risks are high so be sure to benefit from our deep experience in the area.
Management Buy-outs
Structuring, financing, negotiating and documenting – management buy-outs come with their own unique issues. Good advice is essential from lawyers who understand the issues.
Restraints of trade advice
When you buy a business or client base you need to ensure the seller doesn’t compete with you for the customers you’ve just purchased. You can prevent this but there are a number of traps that can undermine your efforts so always seek advice from an experienced professional at Townsends.