Julian is founder of Exit by Design, is a business growth strategist, exit planning adviser and M&A dealmaker.
He helps business owners prepare and position their companies for the highest value exit possible, or simply to run stronger, more resilient businesses that are ready for whatever comes next….
Having built Midshire Business Systems from a standing start to a £35 million turnover before selling to Sharp in 2017, Stafford speaks from experience.
His message to dealer principals is simple – build your business as if you were preparing to sell it – even if you never intend to.
Ask most dealer principals about exit planning and the answer is usually the same: “That’s for when I’m ready to sell.” It’s an understandable view, but according to Stafford, it’s also the one that costs business owners the most. He argues that exit preparation isn’t a pre-sale checklist; it’s a business improvement discipline that makes a company stronger, more profitable and easier to run.
Having spent over two decades building Midshire Business Systems into one of the UK’s leading MPS providers, Stafford knows that the same systems, data and margin discipline that made his company saleable, also made it a better business long before any deal was on the table. His advice to dealers and managed IT providers is grounded in that experience.
Use the data you already have
Few sectors generate as much operational data as MPS – think meter reads, click charges, service tickets and SLA performance metrics. Yet most of this information sits unused in service management software and never makes it into a board-level view of the business.
Stafford said: “A buyer will want real-time insight into revenue per device, margin per contract and engineer utilisation. Build that visibility for yourself now and you’ll make sharper decisions years before any sale conversation starts.”
He notes that many smaller companies can’t accurately measure the profitability of individual machines on their base and points out that this is a critical gap.
Protect recurring revenue
Contracted, recurring income from leasing agreements, managed service contracts and consumables, is the lifeblood of the MPS industry. “It’s a genuine advantage, but one that can hide risk,” Stafford warns.
“A handful of large public sector or NHS framework accounts can quietly dominate turnover, and any sophisticated buyer or sharp-eyed bank will price that concentration risk in immediately.
“Diversifying your account base isn’t just an exit task, it’s basic resilience,” he added.
Reduce dependency on key people
Many dealers still rely on two or three individuals who hold the technical relationships, OEM knowledge and customer trust. According to Stafford, that’s a single point of failure and one of the first things due diligence exposes.
He advises documenting processes, cross-training engineers and shifting account knowledge from personal relationships to CRM systems.
The result – a business that’s not just more attractive to a future buyer, but one that is less fragile, easier to run, easier to delegate, and easier to take a holiday from.
Margin discipline beats volume chasing
Hardware margins have been squeezed for years, tempting dealers to chase page volume and device count. But, says Stafford, valuation and genuine business health tracks margin, not turnover. “Know your margin by device type, contract and consumable line and protect it deliberately.
“A business with modest but well understood margins is stronger than one with impressive volume and thin, poorly tracked profitability.”
Exit readiness is resilience
Illness, changing personal circumstances, key supplier relationships ending, or economic shocks can all threaten a business.
“None of these require you to be planning an exit, but all are less dangerous when the company doesn’t depend entirely on its owner.
Building exit readiness is effectively building resilience against everything else too,” he said.
Keep your options open
He continued: “Whatever the future holds, every conversation goes better from a position of strength – clean numbers, low key-person dependency and a credible growth story.
“You don’t have to know which path you’ll take; you just have to avoid closing any of them off by neglecting the basics.
“Here’s the paradox I see often with clients. The better you build a business to sell, the more you may find you don’t want to. It becomes more profitable, less stressful and more enjoyable to run.
Whether you exit in three years, hand it to your children, or keep building for another decade, the work is the same, and it should start well before you need to,” he concluded.
