Instructing An Agent? - Look Before You Leap

25/06/2009 by info.

Selling your business is for a lot of people the second most important transaction they will have. If you have been particularly successful in business it may be the highest single value transaction in your life.

I am therefore constantly surprised that sellers of businesses do not carry out research on a business transfer agency before they instruct them, but rely on the agents version and the opinion that they are the best business agents in the country.

For there are certain number of high profile business agents in the UK who, if you search their name, not only does their website and their marketing story result but also complaints about unfair contracts, over valuing, excessive fees, intrusive telemarketing calls and broken promises also appear.

One particular business owner I recently became aware about signed a contract with RTA business agents to make life easy for the valuer (on the understanding that he would inform him the next day whether he wished to proceed). You may say that he was silly to sign a contract without being sure that he wished to use their services but he trusted the valuer.

The next day he telephoned the valuer informing him that he did not wish to proceed, however this valuer had already processed the documentation, when he contacted RTA to withdraw his instruction they threatened him with legal action for c. £8,000, even though they had not done any work whatsoever. This situation is still ongoing.

Now if that business owner had simply googled this agents name they would have seen a number of complaints from other dissatisfied business owners, and presumably he would not have instructed this agent.

So before you contact any agent I would suggest that you google their name, if you do not find anything negative about them perhaps it indicates that you might be making the right choice of agent.

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