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How I Sold my Boutique Retreat

Find out more about how the owners of a unique award-winning boutique retreat in the Isle of Skye found the process of selling the business.

Maggie and Richard Hilton are the owners of Enchanted Manor a hotel that specialises in anniversaries, birthdays, engagements and intimate weddings.

After spending time building up a unique business for which they have gained a lot of recognition, they wanted to make sure that they found the right buyer for the business. They were looking for a buyer that could continue their legacy.

Deciding to sell the business

Building a business from the ground up is not an easy process and turning a run-down manor house into a distinctive specialised hotel is even more of a challenge. This is, however, what Maggie and Richard did.

With all the work that the couple put into Enchanted Manor hotel, they were hoping to find the perfect buyer that they could entrust to carry on the legacy that they had created. Finding the right buyer would allow the couple to retire after decades of running hotels comfortable in the knowledge that their business would be in good hands.

Country Garden

Sell Your Business Finding a buyer 

After the decision to sell had been made, Maggie and Richard listed their business with an agent. They didn’t receive any enquiries during this time and that’s when they found BusinessesForSale.com.

“Well, … I was looking for the right place to advertise. I just typed in ‘unusual hotels for sale’ or ‘specialised hotels for sale’ … and BusinessesForSale.com came up top of the list every time,” Maggie Hilton says.

After their business had been listed online with BusinessesForSale.com, they received several enquiries within a few weeks. Due to the quick responses that they had to their advert, it was only a month or so before they had found a buyer. 

The enquires, in fact, carried on even after they had found the right buyers, according to Maggie, “I did have other enquiries and, funnily enough, after we sold the lease to the couple that is getting it now, we did have another buyer from [BusinessesForSale.com] but it was too late, and we knew the couple that we got are the right people.”

Another benefit that they got from advertising on BusinessesForSale.com is the quality of the enquiries, “I would say 90 per cent [of the enquiries] were genuine.”

Garden

The perfect fitSell Your Business

Once Maggie and Richard had found the right people to buy their business, they also wanted to find the right handover process.

“I think they still want us to be a bit involved which we would love to do and, you know, it’s all worked out really well because we're still keeping part of the property on the grounds, so we'll still be here to help them establish themselves. So, we're quite looking forward to passing on our legacy and helping them.” 

Both parties found that they were able to find the right option for them. Maggie and Richard are able to stay on and hand over for a while. The couple that have bought the business were able to buy a business in a way that is more financially viable for them.

“The couple that are going to buy the lease, I know that they were over the moon because, … although they couldn't afford to buy the freehold, they are going to lease it for a couple of years and then hopefully by that time they will have enough money to buy the freehold as well.”

Garden

Selling through BusinessesForSale.com

The service that Maggie and Richard received from BusinessesForSale.com was one that was personal from beginning to end.

“I just kept [customer services] up to date with the feedback that we had, and they wrote back, and it was a lovely personal service and you could tell that the people I dealt with they weren’t just ticking little boxes or anything. They were really interested in the progress of our sale, so I couldn't fault the service that we've had at all. It’s been excellent.” 

“We're just so pleased that we went with your company [BusinessesForSale.com] and we didn't stay with [the other agents]. … We found the whole experience really good.”



Anthea Taylor

About the author

Anthea Taylor is Content Producer at Dynamis and writes for all titles in the Dynamis stable including BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com and PropertySales.com as well as other industry publications.