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Eight Greatest Ideas for Growing by Acquisition • 147

negotiation got a second offer of the £1 million this time for only 20% of the share
capital.

Another popular way of going about a takeover that reduces the downside risk
of the thing not happening is to negotiate what are sometimes called 'contingent
fees'. You pay only if the deal comesoff.

Don't, however, stint on tax advice when discussing and making bids for busi-
nesses. You cannot ever know enough about tax unless you dedicate yourself to it
entirely; so buy it in.

They will tell you about disposals through stock dividends, things to do prior to
the sale of a business, bonus dividends of shares and multiple other ways of ensuring
that you do not pay more tax than your activities warrant.

It came home to me in another way the other day, when a friend of mine was
talking about filing for probate for his father's estate. The estate, mainly because of
the property involved, had to pay inheritance tax. This made a huge difference to
the amount of time and effort required to make a settlement with the tax office that
was appropriate for both parties - taxed and taxers. With inheritance tax at your
marginal rate, say 40%, you need to put in the time.

It's the same in business although not so personally immediate and clear cut.

Idea 94 - Plan bottom-up os well as top-down

We have given some space to planning top-down. Here is a bit of advice from a
serial takeover specialist. 'When you have done your top-down plan, present it to
the managers below and get them to put the detail into it. The devil is indeed in the
detail. This does two important things. Firstly it is a good, practical sanity check on
the viability of the plan, secondly it enables you to spot the problem areas when
things go wrong.'