There’s an old saying in the markets: “Sell in May and go away”. The concept originated in England, where the wealthy would get out of London to go enjoy the summer in the countryside. There will always be debate in the markets around seasonally weaker periods for stocks, but that’s beyond the scope of what we focus on here at bizval.

What we do know is that if you’re planning to sell in May and go away, you should’ve started planning for it many months ago. Exit strategies take time and require a different type of thinking to what most founders are used to on an operational level.

Even if May 2025 is a more realistic target right now for your sale and related disappearance to an exotic island (or even the UK countryside), you’re in the right place to get insights into building a business for sale.

Stefanie Unger is Managing Director of Agency Berlin, which supports companies across everything from funding and recruiting through to M&A transactions. She works with a wide variety of start-ups, ranging from tech businesses trying to raise Silicon Valley funding through restaurant chains in Europe.

Broad experience means deep insights, which is exactly what Stefanie delivered on our recent bizval webinar as part of our start-up series. For both funders and founders, this is a great recording to make time for.

Speaking of start-up webinars, our next one is scheduled for Thursday, May 23^rd. Co-founders The Finance Ghost and Graham Stephen will be running through global examples of start-ups that have moved through the critical inflection point for profitability (like Uber and Google Cloud), showing why these types of operations need specialist valuation thinking.

Attendance is free but you must register.

Check out our latest podcast featuring Lien de Pau, where she shares her journey from freelancer to freedompreneur. Known for her unique lifestyle of waking up without an alarm, despite her busy schedule, she provides actionable advice to move beyond feelings that life will always be unbalanced. Listen to the podcast here.

Lien de Pau helps small business owners get the best possible exit. After all the work to build a business, you want to get paid a great price for it, don’t you?

We’ve been collaborating with Lien on various things, so we thought we should make you aware of her latest offering to help business owners prepare and sell their businesses. If you take the course, you’ll get a complimentary bizval live valuation as part of it.

The course is available on pre-sale and this offer only applies to pre-sale purchases before 1 June.

*Boring Old Business

Search funds are unknown in South Africa, yet they have become popular overseas as a way for a young entrepreneurially-minded executive to provide an exit solution to a founder. Simply, the searcher is backed by funding and looking for a business that has a succession problem. The idea is to buy the business, step into the CEO role and execute the growth strategy.

Interesting, isn’t it? You can learn far more about this from Sibusiso in the latest bizval podcast.

Global uncertainty – now there’s a term you’ve heard before. It’s an odd one really, as uncertainty never seems to go away. That sounds rather… certain?

In this article aimed at those who want to understand more about how markets and global conditions interact and what this means for small businesses, The Finance Ghost wrote about concepts like mark-to-market, information asymmetry and the techniques used by buyers to manage risk.

Take your knowledge to the next level with this article.

Our CEO Graham Stephen will be presenting on a webinar next week Tuesday 14^th May.

The topic? Valuing your business the right way. This will include topics like different types of valuations, common misconceptions and the key drivers of value. The webinar is organised by Business Exit Academy and you can register for it now.

In our quest to improve the understanding of valuations among founders, Graham Stephen partnered with The Startup Tribe to create a free video series on business valuations. A variety of topics are covered across 17 succinct videos, with a total runtime of 0.5 hours.

Set some time aside, get out the pen and paper and enjoy the videos.

We are always keen to discuss your business needs and how our service offering can address what you’re looking for. Whether you’re in the early stages of exit planning or in the throes of a transaction, we are here to help.

We recently launched bizval express and we couldn’t be happier with the results we are seeing. As a first stab at a valuation, express uses the core of our methodology and delivers a plausible valuation range. For those seeking a more accurate answer, our live and concierge offerings are perfect.