We know UK healthcareBetter than anyone advising in it

Six to nine months is typical, from the day you formally engage an adviser to the day the wire clears. Preparation adds anywhere from three to twelve months on top of that, and is usually where the most value is built or lost. Complex deals, contested negotiations, or unprepared businesses extend this materially. The deals that complete most cleanly, at the right number, are the ones where the preparation has been taken seriously well before the process begins.

There isn't a single answer, which is the first thing any honest adviser should say. A business is worth what the right buyer will pay, and the right buyer is rarely the obvious one. Valuation depends on financial performance, growth trajectory, sector dynamics, the strategic value to specific acquirers, and how well the business has been prepared to be seen by them. We give an indicative range early, refine it through a proper diagnostic, and let the market settle it when the time comes. Try our valuation calculator in the footer.

Earlier than most owners do. Twelve to twenty-four months before going to market is where preparation makes the most material difference to valuation. Six months is workable. Less than three months is reactive, usually triggered by an unsolicited offer or an external event, and almost always leaves money on the table. The honest answer: if the question has crossed your mind, it's already worth a conversation, even if a sale is years away. Take our Exit Readiness Audit in the footer.

Trade buyers: competitors, complementary businesses, and international groups looking for UK presence. Private equity, typically as platforms or bolt-ons depending on size and profile. Family offices. Management teams, through an MBO or an Employee Ownership Trust. The right buyer is the one who values what you've built most highly, and that is rarely the most obvious name. Our job is to map the full universe, including the off-market acquirers who never appear on a broker's list, and run a process that creates competition between them.

Healthcare is all we do. Stone & Co is a brokerage firm specialising entirely in healthcare, and residential and domiciliary care forms the basis of everything we do, with dental practices and aesthetic clinics alongside. If your business sits outside healthcare, we will say so on the first call and introduce you to one of the established M&A firms we work alongside in other sectors.

The big firms list your business and let their reputation bring buyers to them. We work the other way round: our data covers every active buyer in the sector, including the ones who never watch the marketplaces, and we approach them directly. More buyers at the table means more competition for your business, and competition is what gets you a better price. Taking on a handful of clients at a time is what makes that level of work possible on every deal.

That's often the moment owners realise they need an adviser. An unsolicited approach can be flattering, but it's almost always undervalued, because buyers don't pay full price when they don't have to compete. The right response depends on the credibility of the buyer, the strategic logic behind the offer, and what a properly run process would likely produce instead. We help owners decide whether to engage, negotiate, or open the conversation up to a wider field. What you share in the first meeting matters more than most people realise. Get advice before that meeting, not after.

The same job at different scales. A broker and an adviser both prepare a business for sale, find the buyers, run the offers and see the deal through to the money arriving; the label tends to follow the size of the deal. Stone & Co is a specialist healthcare broker and adviser, and whatever the size of your business the work is the same: preparation, a direct approach to the right buyers, competition between them and a partner on the deal to completion.

Buyer outreach is anonymous until a non-disclosure agreement is signed. Information memoranda are released in stages, with the most sensitive material gated behind further commitments. We never market a business publicly without explicit consent. The harder confidentiality question, the one most advisers avoid, is internal: when and how to tell key employees, customers, or suppliers. We work through that with you well before any external outreach begins, because how it's handled materially affects both the deal and the business that follows.

Your first conversation with a partner and a full valuation of your business are free. If you decide to sell with us, there is a fixed fee of £3,495 when you instruct us and a success fee of 4% of the sale price when the sale completes, with a minimum of £5,000, plus VAT. Smaller businesses, including single-practitioner clinics, are quoted a lower upfront fee, and the full picture is on our fees page.