Would you buy your business without you in it?
Be honest. If the answer is no, a buyer will reach the same conclusion. Faster than you did, and at your expense.
Most owner-managed businesses that go to market never complete a sale. The ones that do can run without their founder, and prove it.
The problem
Buyers don't buy what you've built. They buy what happens next.
I've sat in a lot of rooms where a founder believes the business is ready. Revenue is healthy. The product works. The team is loyal.
Then the buyer's questions start. Who would your best customers call if you'd gone? Who makes the decisions when you're on holiday? What does the next three years look like without you driving it?
Too often the answers live in one person's head. The founder's. That's what takes money off the price. Sometimes it ends the deal.
More than 90% of small businesses brought to market never complete a sale.
Source: ExitRadar analysis of Companies House data.
The model
Two things decide the outcome
Whether your business is ready to sell. And whether you are.
Most advice deals with the first. It tidies the numbers and the paperwork. It rarely asks what you want from a sale, when, or what comes after. Founders who skip that question tend to find out the answer at the worst possible moment.
I work on both.
How I work
What I do, and what I don't
I don't sell businesses. Corporate finance advisers do that, and the good ones do it well.
I work on what they can't. Founder dependency. A leadership team that can carry the business. An equity story a buyer believes because the business is already living it.
I use OKR discipline to get there. One outcome with an end date. A small number of measurable results, owned by your leadership team. A weekly rhythm that keeps the work moving when day-to-day pressure pulls everyone back. We work in 90-day cycles and recalibrate as we go.
When you appoint a corporate finance adviser, I stay alongside you through negotiation. I step back when the paperwork is signed.
How it starts
There are two ways in. Choose whichever suits where you are.
Read the playbook
Free. What buyers look for, and why most founders find out too late. Read it in your own time.
Get the free exit playbookBook an explore call
Thirty minutes, no obligation. We talk about your business and what you want from it. Everything stays between us. Many founders haven't told their team, their family or their bank that they're thinking about selling. That's normal, and it's safe to talk to me before you talk to anyone else.
Book a confidential explore callFrom there, if it makes sense, the next step is a diagnostic. It costs £300 and gives you a clear view of where you stand, as a business and as an owner, and what would move the price. If we then work together, we build your exit programme in 90-day cycles.
Fit
Who this is for
Founders and owner-managers of established UK businesses who expect to sell in the next one to three years. You may have decided. You may not have. Either is a good time to start.
Investors and funders who want to protect the value of a business before it goes to market.
It isn't for businesses in financial distress, or for anyone hoping to sell in the next few weeks.
Who you'll work with
I'm Peter Kerr. I co-created Auxin OKR and sold it in 2023. I know where I left money on the table. That's why I do this.
Since then I've worked with leadership teams on strategy execution, from early-stage start-ups to international boards. I've supported businesses through private-equity-backed exits and helped leadership teams prepare for significant raises.
You work with me. I don't do it alone. Depending on what your business needs, I bring in partners I trust. Des Kennedy, one of my Auxin associates, has been in business for more than 30 years. He built a successful design and branding agency before exiting, and now runs his own consultancy, Applied Creativity. When the work calls for it, I also bring in finance specialists and corporate finance partners.
I'm the author of Earn the Right: Leading with Strategic Intelligence. I'm based in the North East and work across the UK.
