Jonathan Jay, Managing Director – Dealmakers Academy
Laurie Stone
OWNERS of struggling UK businesses blame soaring costs, wage pressures and government policy but serial entrepreneur Jonathan Jay says stop waiting for the economy to improve – start building your own.
Backed by experience across multiple ventures, acquisitions and exits, Jay argues that external conditions are always an easy copout: “Whinging is a British thing, but there’s never a time when everyone agrees it’s brilliant to be in business.”
Instead, his philosophy centres on what he calls ‘the personal economy’, a mindset where entrepreneurs focus on what they can control rather than external pressures. Strengthening personal balance sheets, reducing debt, and investing in income-producing assets are, he says, far more important than trying to predict macroeconomic trends.
“Yes, rising minimum wages and employment costs are squeezing margins, but such challenges can actually improve a business” says Jay.
“Companies often coast along until they’re pressure-tested and realise it’s time to rethink their business model: take more control, be more creative, attract more customers, become more profitable.”
With redundancies in some sectors, many might fancy using severance payments or savings to start a business but Jay, 54, disagrees: “Startups are risky. You might think you’ve found a market niche or bright idea, but you don’t know if there’s real demand or profitability, you can hire the right people, or whether you’ll run out of cash before the business really lifts off.
“But if you buy a company that’s been running for five years, with customers, cash flow and proven profitability, you remove most of those risks.”
It’s a pragmatic approach that strips away the emotional element many attach to entrepreneurship.
“People treat startups like a personal journey,” Jay adds. “But if your goal is financial security – paying your mortgage, funding your lifestyle – does it really matter whether you’re selling tables or chairs?”
Perhaps most striking is Jay’s claim that businesses can often be acquired without using personal funds.
Through structured deals – linking payments to future profits, leveraging assets as collateral, or agreeing deferred payments – buyers can stitch together funding in creative ways.
For example, a £500,000 business might be purchased by paying the owner a share of future profits over several years, rather than upfront. Alternatively, equipment or property owned by the business can be used to secure financing.
“The key is removing risk,” Jay says. “You don’t want to sink your life savings into a deal you might regret.”
For many, the idea that a business owner would accept delayed or conditional payments seems unlikely. but Jay says this reflects a common misunderstanding: “People think sellers only care about money. That’s not true.
“The drivers for selling are often retirement, ill health, or desire for a better quality of life. Many older owners worry less about maximising immediate cash and focus more on exiting quickly, reducing stress, and ensuring their business and staff are looked after.
“Thousands of businesses across Britain have owners just wanting out. If you approach them at the right time, deals happen.”
Contrary to the glamour often associated with tech startups, Jay champions what he calls ‘boring businesses’ like cleaning services, basic manufacturing, and care providers.
“They’re not sexy,” he admits. “But boring businesses make beautiful profits.”
He argues these traditional sectors are often more stable and less vulnerable to disruption from technologies like AI: “A sheet metal fabrication business won’t disappear overnight, but a tech product might be obsolete next year.”
What about after the sale? “Sometimes the owner tends to still want to run it, even though they’ve sold it,” admits Jay. “They find it hard to let go, and act as though it’s still theirs, which can be confusing for the staff.
“But we also like to keep the owner involved, because it’s better than kicking them out the door – which isn’t a good look. So, typically, we move the owner onto a consultancy agreement, so they can play a part, often in sales because it’s usually their contacts that built the company.”
Jay also highlights a demographic trend driving many UK businesses to be sold; baby boomer business owners who want to retire but can’t find family members willing to take over.
“Now is the best time to take over a business. In the past, they passed from father to son,” Jay says. “The next generation now wants a completely different lifestyle – maybe as an influencer or simply enjoying their inheritance.”
The result is a growing supply of established, profitable businesses with no succession plan or desire to simply shutdown, which is often costly and emotionally difficult for someone who has proudly built a successful firm. Selling to someone who will continue the legacy and secure the family’s inheritance is usually more attractive.
Jay now shares his strategies through a training platform, Dealmakers’ Academy, part of the wider Dealmakers network.
The venture grew organically after one of his own deals, buying a struggling digital marketing business for £1 and selling it less than a year later for £1.25 million, sparked interest from others eager to learn his methods.
Since then, thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs have taken part, many going on to acquire multiple businesses.
Jonathan Jay sold his first business in 1999 and made more money in one day than he did in the two and a half years running the operation, and it opened his eyes to the opportunities of buying and selling businesses. Since then, he has bought and sold some 70 concerns but is now largely retired from that aspect of his life and spends more time helping other budding entrepreneurs.
Growing up in Essex, Jonathan Jay had no urge to go into business – both his parents were teachers – and opted for a French degree at the University of London, while he worked out his future, but he dropped out in 1989 and started a succession of ventures, including a talent agency and a magazine publishing firm.
He then built up a successful adult education training company Coaching Academy in Portsmouth before his first knockback in business when a customer and some of his own staff set up in competition as UK College of Life, taking away half his clientele.
“I was 27 years old and thought that was the end of the world. I was £50,000 pounds in debt, but I stepped up a gear and put in place what has become my ‘go to’ positive mindset. Five years later I bought my rival, giving me the scale needed for serious growth to sell the combined company in a life-changing multi-million pound deal the following year.”