Unlocking Wealth Case Study: What I did after selling a business for $1.5m

Hey ,

Welcome to the second case study in our series on Unlocking Wealth Weekly, this time I think I’ll bring it closer to home using myself as an example for a business exit.

I bought my first company at the end of 2018 when I was 20, a distressed property developer in England. The way I stumbled into that deal is an interesting story, but not the focus of this column. I held onto that business for six years while adding bolt-on acquisitions to it, and over time I brought it to seven figures in assets and six figures in profit.

But after several years I was tired of running it.

These sorts of businesses require lots of capital and you are constantly looking for new deals and funding to keep growing. On top of that I realized just how vulnerable the property markets are to government policies and macro trends, I felt like I wasn’t being a ‘real’ entrepreneur. Then I fell in love with travelling and the nomad lifestyle and I realized having a business in a strict location simply wasn’t what I wanted.

I decided to sell, as long as the price was over a million pounds (about $1.3m USD at the time). I didn’t know too much about getting a business sold, but as a buyer myself previously I knew what investors wanted. 

Even with this, it took over a year to find a proper cash buyer, who would scoop everything up in one deal, upfront cash, with no earn-out.

I reached out to three different brokers, each with a different type of buyer. One deal got close to completion, then the buyer’s financing fell through.

Everything went quiet for 3 painful months. I mentally checked out

Thankfully, in what felt like finding some hay in a needlestack, I was able to find a new buyer who wanted to close for cash with no debt or earn out. I flew back to England to complete in the deal in October 2024. There was a final threat of a pullout if the signing wasn’t done two weeks earlier than expected. I rushed over and closed the deal after two months of legal and a year of searching. 

£ 1 200 000.

I took a deep breath, celebrated in some dive bars in Skegness, and put into motion what I wanted to do with the rest of my life

I think the deal succeed for two main reasons:

Firstly, they were a serious buyer with a lot of capital. If someone’s putting all their chips into a buy, then they’re going to be much more cautious with their money and time, and much more likely to get cold feet.

Secondly, I had built a good personal relationship with the buyer. There were several points of contention in the details and due diligence where the deal almost fell apart twice, but a personal pitch with the occasional drink salvaged the situation every time 

What did I do after my exit?

You’d expect I’d have felt relief, but in reality once you get a cash exit you rush into action, you start chopping away at all the things you wanted to do and purchase that you couldn’t before. There’s a lot of tying loose ends and ticking off boxes that had spent several years on your to-do list.

By November 2024, I’d become an accredited falconer, certified bodyguard and road tripped the entire Iberian Peninsula looking for Wild Bears (I didn’t find any). 

Most of you will have a similar story in the short term, but I think you’ll feel the same way I felt after a while, which is you’re itching to get back in the game. You have all this flexibility and capital, but most of all you have the knowledge it takes to scale a business. It’s very hard to let that experience go, and everyone I know who’s sold for seven figures and above hasn’t been ‘retired’ for long. 

Hope you enjoyed this one, obviously hits close to home. I hope to hear from you about your exit stories in the replies!

To your next deal,

Michael