Raise profit and make the business run without you.
Nick Hunt works with you on profit, structure and decision-making, so the electrical business you sell does not depend on you being there.
Part of the Reads Pre-Sale Programme. Led by Nick Hunt, Strategic Growth & Exit Adviser.
Why owner dependence costs you at the sale.
A buyer of an electrical contractor is buying what carries on after you leave: the testing contracts, the client relationships, the qualified electricians and the NICEIC or NAPIT registration. If too much of that runs through you, the buyer prices in the risk.
The ECA's 2026 Electrical Skills Index found apprenticeship starts falling while demand rises. That makes a retained, JIB-graded team with supervisors who can run jobs one of the hardest things for an acquirer to build for itself.
Profit matters as much as structure. Electrical businesses generally sell on a multiple of adjusted profit, so margin that holds up without the owner's own hours is worth working on early.
What Nick works on with you.
A plan for the business
Agree where the business needs to be by the time you sell, and what has to change in the structure, the team and the numbers to get there.
Decisions that do not wait for you
People in place who can price, schedule and sign off work, with clear authority, so the business keeps moving when you are not on site.
People and contracts
Employment contracts, JIB grading records and cover for key roles, so the qualified electricians a buyer is paying for have reasons to stay.
Accreditations in good order
NICEIC or NAPIT registration, ECA membership and scheme memberships kept current, with the whole team working to the current amendment of BS 7671.
Margin over turnover
Pricing, the balance of reactive and planned work, and the jobs that tie up engineers for little return, with the aim of profit that holds up without your own hours.
Who leads this work.
Nick Hunt, Strategic Growth & Exit Adviser
Nick is a former FTSE100 financial services executive, a non-executive director and an EMCC-accredited executive coach. He leads this service for Reads, working with owners on strategy, governance and the decisions that let a business stand on its own.
When to start.
Structural change takes time to bed in and show in the accounts, so this work runs from about two years out, and earlier if you can.
See every stage of the programme · Next: Financial preparation
Find out what a buyer would see today.
The valuation calculator gives you a range for the business as it stands, and the factors behind it.