Finance Connect Podcast: Hugh Curley on why good businesses can be difficult to sell

The latest episode of the Finance Connect European Equipment Finance Podcast, sponsored by Alfa, is now available, featuring Hugh Curley, managing director of Curley Capital Associates Limited.

Joining host Richard O’Donohue, Curley explores a challenge facing many successful owner-led businesses: why a profitable company with loyal customers and a strong track record may still prove difficult to sell.

The conversation follows the publication of Curley’s new book, The Unsellable Business: Why Good Businesses Fail to Sell – and How to Change the Odds, which draws on his experience across asset finance, structured finance, business investment and equity raising.

Curley argues that business owners can spend decades focused on growth, customers and profitability without considering how the company would operate without them. When retirement, succession or another reason to exit eventually arrives, they can discover that the business is too dependent on its founder, its revenues are not sufficiently secure or its processes and financial information are not ready for the scrutiny of a potential buyer.

The episode explores Curley’s TRANSFER framework, developed to help owners assess how prepared their business is for a future sale and identify potential risks before they become barriers to a deal. Rather than waiting until a sale process has begun, Curley argues that preparation needs to start much earlier.

The discussion has particular relevance for the asset and equipment finance industry, where many brokers and other specialist businesses remain founder-led. Curley considers what can make these businesses more transferable and how owners can create greater choice over when – or whether – they eventually sell.

For Curley, the objective is not simply to prepare a company for sale, but to build a business that can operate successfully without its owner – creating greater flexibility and putting the owner in a stronger position when an opportunity to exit does arise.

The full episode is available now on the Finance Connect European Equipment Finance Podcast, sponsored by Alfa, as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Amazon Music