| Buying a Business Case Study
| Age: | 30 | | When: | October 2004 | | Total spent: | Undisclosed | | CVs: | Neil spent 12 years in a small family business (hydraulic engineering) and Sara is a former nursery nurse | | Key advice: | "Go for it! Be patient, trust in your own ability and go and achieve all you want. You have to take some risks in life….what are you waiting for?" | Having worked for several years as a nursery nurse for under-fives, it had always been a dream of Sara Dudman’s to run her own day nursery. Sara and husband Neil opened their OFSTED registered nursery on October 1st 2004. They offer flexible nursery care and education for children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and provide full-time childcare for 50 weeks a year. “Sara and I look after different sides,” explains Neil. “I run the business side and she looks after customer service and the care/educational issues.” After consulting their family, Business Link, and their accountant, they found their perfect business on the internet.  | | SARA AND NEIL | Neil says: “It was my accountant who gave us the most helpful advice and that, combined with my experience in the family business, pushed us in the right direction. “Before we bought the property we did a lot of research. We looked at the market area, the potential of the business and the previous owners and how they ran the business. “To ensure we were paying the right price, we looked at what else was around and then put our own valuation on the deal.” Neil says one of the main problems the couple faced during the buying process was finding the capital to finance the purchase. “In the end we re-mortgaged the house and took out two personal loans. Get it right first time “Overall, we were really happy with the way things went. There isn’t much we would do differently if we had to go through the whole process again.” But what have they learned from the experience? “Do not trust anyone in business transfer. Find out all the information you need for yourself. If people do it for you, make sure they are accountable. If it feels right do it, if it doesn’t or there is one niggling doubt – walk away.” All their hard work has paid off. A year after opening, the nursery was on the shortlist of five for the 'Business Newcomer of the Year’ at the 2005 UK Nursery Management Today Awards. However, Sara and Neil narrowly missed out – they were runners up in the category. That was one of the highs of the first 12 months of business, and obviously there have been lows too. “Losing an unhappy customer or staff leaving is definitely the worst part of being your own boss – you end up taking things like that quite personally,” Neil explains. “But on the upside, now I have my own business I am much happier in myself. We both work hard for the family to succeed. “The flexible hours allow us to spend some of the daytime with the children and work during the evenings when they are in bed.” To find out more about Sara and Neil's day nursery, visit their website.
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