When Is It Time To Sell The Business You Built? | Rachel Hill, Hillside Childcare | ScaleUp Radio

When do you know it is time to sell the business you built? Rachel Hill spent 16 years building a four site childcare group in Wakefield, sold it in five months without ever putting it on the market, and now owns Yorkshire's only model village. Rachel started with a 16 place nursery in the granny flat of a house she and her partner could barely afford. The business plan was one handwritten sheet of A4, the marketing was posters in the post office and the fish and chip shop, and she opened on a Monday morning with two children on the roll, herself and one helper. Sixteen years later Hillside Childcare was four sites. She sold after a decision she made on a dog walk, told nobody except her accountant and her solicitor for months, approached the buyer herself with no agents involved, and turned down their first offer. In this episode she talks about what made the business worth buying, why she thinks a business only becomes truly valuable once the owner is no longer required, what the due diligence process actually asked of her, and the non negotiables she would not trade for a higher price. She is also candid about the ten years before that, when she was doing three or four full time roles she had already recruited for and could not bring herself to hand any of them over. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:59 Rachel Hill, and the village she bought on a coffee break 05:58 What a seasonal attraction taught her about being stubborn 08:34 Reopening it, the candles, and scaling on purpose 16:14 A granny flat, a handwritten business plan, two children on roll 20:07 Following the need: from 16 places to four sites 22:42 "Was I a control freak? Probably" 27:24 Running four sites without being in all four 32:38 Staffing, regulation and the emotional load 37:21 The dog walk, and deciding to sell 38:51 Due diligence, and telling nobody 44:23 The non-negotiables, and picking her own buyer 46:10 What made the business worth buying 48:18 Arriving at a number 55:12 Telling the staff, and the quickfire round About the guest Rachel Hill, founder of Hillside Childcare and owner of Bondville Model Village https://visitbondville.com   / rachel-hill-7ab16ab2   Mentioned in this episode Diptyque, the candle house Rachel names as the standard she follows rather than her local competitors About the show ScaleUp Radio is a podcast for founders of established businesses who have hit a ceiling, or can see one coming. More than 600 episodes with the founders who got past it. All 600 episodes: https://smart90.co.uk/scaleup-radio Subscribe on YouTube:    / @scaleupradio   From Smart90 Smart90 is the 90 day planning platform behind this show. If something in this episode sounded familiar, the Scaleup Challenges II report analyses what 305 founders said about the same problem: https://smart90.co.uk/scaleup-challen... #ScaleUpRadio #BusinessPodcast #SellingYourBusiness