How to Sell Your Contracting Business in the UK

Selling a contracting business you built is one of the biggest financial events of your life - and most owners only ever do it once, with no rehearsal. The sellers who get full price are not lucky; they prepare early, sell quietly and run a competitive process. Here is how to sell a contracting business in the UK, step by step, including the parts that are specific to our industry: CIS records, work-in-progress, TUPE and the tax on your exit.

Step 1: Find out what it is actually worth

Everything starts with an honest number. UK contracting businesses typically sell for 2x to 3.5x adjusted annual profit, and where you land in that range is driven by how much of your revenue is contracted and recurring, how owner-dependent the business is, and whether your workforce would stay. We break the whole mechanism down - with a worked example - in our UK contracting valuation guide, and you can get an instant ballpark with the free valuation tool in under a minute.

Price it too high and it sits unsold while buyers scroll past. Price it too low and you hand a stranger years of your work for free. A vetted broker confirms the real figure before you list - that first valuation costs you nothing through us.

Step 2: Prepare - ideally a year before you list

The work you do before listing moves your final price more than anything you do after. In rough order of payoff:

• Get the books provable. Three years of clean accounts, business and personal spending separated, add-backs documented, and profit that traces into the bank. In contracting, that includes honest job-by-job work-in-progress valuations, applications and certifications reconciled, and retentions aged realistically - these are the first things a buyer's accountant tests.
• Put your HMRC house in order. CIS returns filed on time, subcontractors verified, PAYE and VAT current, and gross payment status protected - buyers check it, and losing it mid-sale damages both cash flow and confidence.
• Convert relationships into contracts. Handshake maintenance work that has run for years is worth far more written down. Term contracts, framework renewals and service agreements signed before you list turn goodwill into an asset a buyer can pay for.
• Build the second tier. A contracts manager, estimator or supervisors who can price and run work without you is the difference between a 2x business and a 3x business. Start delegating a year out, visibly.
• Document the workforce. Staff list with roles, tenure and tickets (CSCS, SMSTS, Gas Safe, NICEIC), plus your vetted subcontractor bench. The buyer is buying capability - show it on paper.

Step 3: Go to market quietly

A leaked sale is expensive: good people start job-hunting, clients get nervous at renewal, and competitors whisper to your customers. That is why contracting businesses sell through blind listings - the trade, region, financials and story, but never the company name. Identifying details are only shared after a buyer enquires, is qualified, and signs an NDA. Every listing on ContractorExit works this way by default, and yours goes in front of the buyers browsing contractor businesses for sale in the UK - owner-operators, trade acquirers and investors looking for exactly what you have built.

Step 4: Offers and deal structure

Qualified buyers get the full picture under NDA, and strong businesses attract more than one offer - competition is what gets you full price. Offers usually arrive as heads of terms: the headline price plus structure. Expect structure to be part of the negotiation:

• Share sale vs asset sale. Selling the company's shares usually keeps contracts, accreditations and staff undisturbed and is often cleaner for the seller; selling the assets means the buyer picks and chooses, and your staff transfer to them under TUPE (more below). The tax outcomes differ too - this is a decision to take with your accountant.
• Deferred consideration and earn-outs. Part of the price paid over time, or tied to the business's performance after completion. Common and reasonable in contracting deals - but cap what is at risk, and get the deferred element properly secured.
• Handover. Most deals include a transition period - a few weeks to a few months of you introducing clients and passing on what is in your head.

Step 5: Due diligence and your TUPE duties

Once terms are agreed, the buyer verifies everything: accounts, HMRC standing, contracts, WIP, retentions, insurance, health and safety record. If your preparation from step 2 was real, this is a formality; if not, this is where prices get chipped and deals die. Answer quickly and completely - momentum protects deals.

If the deal is structured as an asset sale, the TUPE regulations apply to your people: employees transfer to the buyer automatically on their existing terms, and you have a legal duty to inform and consult affected staff (through representatives where required) before the transfer. Get the timing and process right with your solicitor - TUPE missteps create claims that outlive the sale. On a share sale the employer does not change, so TUPE is not triggered, though buyers will still examine employment terms closely.

Step 6: Understand the tax on your exit

For most owners selling a trading company they have held for at least two years, the headline relief is Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR). Under BADR, qualifying gains are taxed at 18% for disposals on or after 6 April 2026 (the rate was 14% in 2025-26 and 10% before April 2025), on up to a £1 million lifetime limit of gains - against a standard higher-rate capital gains tax rate of 24%. On a £600,000 gain, that difference is worth tens of thousands of pounds, so confirm you qualify and structure the deal accordingly. Tax on business sales moves with each Budget - take advice from your accountant before heads of terms, not after completion.

Step 7: Completion - and what happens next

Your solicitor and the buyer's negotiate the sale agreement: what is included, warranties and indemnities (what you remain on the hook for), how and when you are paid. When it is signed and funds clear, the business is theirs, the proceeds are yours, and the handover begins. Done well, the crew keeps working, the clients barely notice, and the thing you built keeps running under a new name on the insurance documents.

Ready when you are

You do not assemble the team for this yourself. List your business with us - it is free, the listing is blind from day one, and we connect you with a vetted broker and solicitor who do contracting deals for a living. Not sure you are ready? Start with the free valuation, see your ballpark, and use the levers in this guide to raise it before you sell. And if you want to understand exactly what the person across the table is checking for, read how buyers evaluate a UK contractor business - then make sure yours passes every test.