Last week I attended a celebratory event sponsored by Lloyds TSB and Deloitte on the day tickets became available for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012 – exactly 500 days before the opening ceremony on Friday 27 July 2012.

It was an honour and a pleasure to meet Steve Backley, former Javelin World Record Holder and Olympic Silver Medallist, and to hear him talk about what it meant to break a world record at the age of 20 and then throw all that promise away as he got caught up in the world of celebrity appearances and was dogged by injuries as he neglected his training.

Steve was heartbreakingly honest and very funny as he shared what it meant to join his heroes at the next Olympic games but not yet to feel part of that elite group and how it felt to believe he had at last won  a gold medal in Sydney in 2000 when his throw made a new Olympic Record, only to be put back in second place when his arch rival  Jan Zelezny responded with a huge 90m-plus throw.

Success means different things to each of us and Steve asked us all to spare a thought for those who compete and don’t make it to the magic rostrum places – he knows how much it hurts.

Steve will be joining the commentating team in London and I’m looking forward to hearing the insights that can only come from someone who has experienced the highs and lows of competing at the top level, delivered no doubt with his own very special brand of humour.

For onlookers like me, this is an incredible event, especially as a Londoner by birth, and the only chance to attend the Olympic games in my own country in my lifetime, but for those who are preparing to compete it is likely to be a life changing experience. Most of us armchair pundits can only imagine the level of physical, mental and emotional discipline it takes to get there and I for one will be counting down the days with great anticipation.

It’s all very corporate now, lacking the intimacy of previous rooms, but visits always bring back memories of working as a broker in the then ‘new Lloyd’s building’ in Lime Street – although it was already well past new when I worked there.

It’s interesting that the current building encompasses the site of the very first Lloyd’s building built specifically for the members in 1928

and that the 2008 Willis Building is on the site of the original ‘new’ building erected in 1958. Lloyd’s, the Willis building and the adjacent Gherkin largely occupied by Swiss Re form the centrepiece to the current city landscape.

Working on an acquisition for a client we were looking for the best deal, as always.

Despite a lot of bad press about the banks we have been able to secure the support of a high street bank under the Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme whereby the bank is only liable for 25% in the event of default.

It’s a relatively small transaction but still requires a comprehensive and extremely robust business plan, three years financial forecasts – cashflow, profit & loss and balance sheets – and a plethora of peripheral documents.

It’s a lot of work and the cost to the client is high in percentage terms compared to the loan, but sets the expanded business on the road to further growth and probably more acquisitions as the increased turnover and future profit far outweighing the initial cost.

It just shows, if you know where to look and how to put a good plan together, there is still money available from the traditional sources.

Completed the initial stage of a company sale today, with 50% passing to the new owners immediately and the current shareholders becoming silent and seeing their equity reduce to 25% over the next four years. Paperwork should be finalised this week.

It’s a sweet deal because the new owners gain control – through the contract and new shareholder agreement – but only have to fund 50% of the value. Both parties see dividends in the ensuing years and both will benefit from an eventual exit in say five years time.

Our client is particularly pleased as in total they should see 150% of their original ‘target price’.

Busy week this – starting work on the due diligence questions related to a small acquisition we are making on behalf of a client. Trying to keep it simple and appropriate to the size of business and transaction, but considerable work to reduce the usual ‘War and Peace’ type document to something sensible.

Also finalising the business plan to source the necessary funding for the acquisition – three years of projected cashflow, profit and loss and balance sheets, tempering the client’s natural enthusiasm – and optimism – with a dose of reality so that the lenders will see ambition within a well researched and conservative plan.

Turning dreams and ambitions into columns of figures that tell the right story is something I’ve always enjoyed. Even in the current climate it is still possible to find the right investor if the plan is good enough and seeing that story unfold is a source of great satisfaction.

I don’t know where that statistic comes from but I do know that it works for me.

A lot of people give up on a prospect after a couple of  calls that go nowhere but I learned from experience that being persistent often pays off.

Obviously you need to temper your persistence with a strong dose of realism so that you dump any prospects who are either never going to be converted, will be too much trouble as customers or who can’t pay (different to won’t pay!), but those who you see as genuinely worthwhile potential customers or clients – just keep them in the diary.

I recently had a very successful meeting with the MD of a clothing firm that I first met five years ago. At the time they were undecided about how they wanted to progress but I was convinced we were right for them and kept plugging away at keeping in touch. Not always as regularly as I would have liked and sometimes with little apparent result, but over time an email here and a phone call there started to bear fruit.

The MD was interested in our services but was very busy – often travelling overseas – so I just kept on trying, by now making sure I contacted him regularly, but not too often to become a nuisance. If he put me off because of a trip I would enquire in my next email how the trip went and so on – keeping his attention by talking about his interests. And so after five years and countless emails and calls I finally got the appointment – and a second meeting and eventually a new client.

Don’t give up on the worthwhile ones and if you get a call from me – expect me to keep calling!

Despite the genius of modern communications time differences can present some problems.

Australia is a vast country with several time zones and when a client moved to Perth and left us to sell his business it wasn’t too bad – he would call me at 11am UK time which was 4pm his time.

However,  I also needed to speak to his colleague who worked in Melbourne which is another couple of hours or so ahead of GMT, so once our clocks had gone back it meant an 11 hour difference.

That meant that no matter how early I called – 6.00am anyone? – it was already 5.00pm in Melbourne, so most of that discussion was completed by email. As we all know, email is not the easiest of communication tools. It is difficult to establish the right tone and get one’s meaning clear and it is not ideal for negotiating the sale of a business.

It all seemed to work out OK in the end and we’ve pretty much completed negotiations to sell their business so I’ll soon be able to get back to normal working hours!

One of the great things about my business is the number of different and fascinating people I can meet in the course of advising them or negotiating with them on behalf of clients.

Just in the past few weeks these have included: a nightclub on the South Coast, a golf and conference centre owner with very ambitious exit plans, an electrical distributor in Mumbai, a fashion clothing label wanting to move into retail, an equipment rental company on Ibiza and a more mundane  IT reseller – which was actually the most interesting business wise, a £4m MBO.

While each of these businesses has unique aspects, every business has to run to the same principles in order to be successful.

As soon as a business owner grasps that and starts to do the right things (whether they like it or not) it doesn’t matter what they are selling, they stand much more chance of making a healthy profit.

Spent part of today advising two very young entrepreneurs about business plans, cashflow forecasts and web site design and answering a hundred other related questions. Absolutely brilliant to see two early twenty somethings pitching a very credible business that makes use of their experience and plays to their strengths as individuals.

Importantly, although they are brimming with enthusiasm and just want to get started they recognise the need to plan, to raise some initial working capital and to take advantage of all the advice and support they can get.

Two future Richard Bransons by the look of it!

I’ve just been discussing the potential acquisition of a client’s business by someone who sold his automotive business some years ago and now wants to get back into the cut and thrust of business day-to-day.

He’s got the money, premises and staff – just needs the right opportunity.

If you’re thinking of selling a business allow plenty of time – and then double it

In these difficult economic times valuations can be tricky and it’s very much a buyer’s market, there is no way a sale can be rushed so always allow a lot more time than you think it will take.

People often under estimate the planning that’s needed to get a business absolutely saleable so that whatever questions are posed by potential purchasers you – or your professional advisers – can easily and efficiently provide a credible answer.

The other big issue is usually tax – after spending years trying to minimise your corporation tax bill you may need to restate some figures and work hard to show the business does make a healthy profit. Trying to establish a worthwhile valuation for a company that appears to barely break even is not easy!