Tony Vaughan has spent more than 30 years in business. He has started, built, run and sold companies of his own, and since 2010 he has advised other owners on business sales, acquisitions, partial exits and other strategic transactions. He has worked on more than 100 completed deals in that time.
An owner before an adviser
Tony's background is entrepreneurial rather than institutional. Before advising on transactions he spent years running privately owned businesses, dealing with the things owners actually deal with: cash flow, staff, customers, growth that arrives faster than expected, and the point at which the business becomes hard to step away from. That experience shapes how he advises. He has sat on the owner's side of the table, and he knows how a sale process feels from there.
Deal experience since 2010
Since 2010 Tony has worked almost exclusively with SME business owners on sales and acquisitions. The work spans full sales to trade and private buyers, acquisitions on behalf of buyers, partial exits where an owner sells a stake and stays involved, management buy-outs and succession-driven transactions. Over 100 completed transactions have given him a practical read on what buyers will pay for, where deals slow down, and which issues are worth fighting over.
Negotiation and dealmaking
Most of the value in a sale is won or lost after the first offer. Tony handles the negotiation personally: price and structure, deferred consideration and earn-outs, warranties, working capital and the detail that emerges during due diligence. His approach is calm and commercial rather than combative. The aim is a deal that completes on terms the owner is genuinely comfortable with, not a headline number that erodes before completion.
Working with owners directly
Owners who contact EXITS.co.uk speak to Tony, not to a call centre or a junior handler who passes the file on. He runs a deliberately small number of mandates so that the person giving the advice is the person doing the work. If a business is not one he can help with, he will say so early and explain why.
What matters to owners, not just to the numbers
Selling a business is rarely a purely financial decision. It affects staff who have been loyal for years, customers who trust the owner personally, family plans, and what the owner does next. Tony takes those considerations seriously and factors them into how a sale is positioned, which buyers are approached and how the process is paced.
How he advises
Direct, experienced and commercially realistic. Tony will give you a straight view of what your business is likely to be worth, what needs attention before it goes to market, and how long a sale is likely to take. Confidentiality is maintained throughout, and you will always know where a process stands and what happens next.