Exit Plan

Realisation…

Having just had my birthday in December, and looking at the forthcoming, unavoidable 2025 edition which will clock up the next big numerical milestone, my mind has to realise that we can’t do this forever and that the next chapter will one day be imminent!

We started this in 2012 with virtually nothing, thinking there was little hope but taking money wherever we could. Film photography was considered an also-ran back then but unknown to us was about to take an upward turn.

It started out with a V700 scanner, a 24″ printer that we thought might be the key to generating income (how wrong you can be!). Our film processor was a Phototherm Super Sidekick capable of doing four rolls of 35mm at a time, and we had about 50 rolls of Foma film.

When you see the photos from back then, the shop looks SO bare! 😀

Hard to believe when you see it as it is today, with how much stuff that we have to keep in here now! Harder to believe we actually built this, from such bare bones….by Grafting.

Earning what we could where we could, even taking on some photographic work, some speciality stuff etc to our surprise we came out of year one intact, decided then to keep going.

The first lesson learned was this, a business has it’s own life, takes on it’s own form, it’s own identity, this we discovered, in the intervening years it has evolved into what you see today.

All that has been done has been done “organically” For the first few years every penny earned was turned back into the business, literally nothing drawn by way of personal income, no loans, no borrowing.

Same applies to our customer base and followers, reviews etc. You can go out and purchase such things, clock up the numbers, but like manipulationg a cars odometer, we find that to be less than honest 😉

As it stands then, involved have we been, it’s just of late that we realise that we’re into the last few years in terms of career.

The time has come to think ahead and to reluctantly let people know that this busness will one day be coming up for sale, and that will happen in a low number of the next few years. But only when we’re ready!

Having built this proud thing the last thing we want to do is to have to undo all that hard work, blood, sweat, worry and tears. No way do we want to have to dismantle this living. breathing little entity with all the potential it holds.

Promise

Let’s be frank and honest: being a small, independent business is bloody hard work. The hours are crap and the pay can be too.

The real reward, the good feeling comes from the independence.

It’s not, by any stretch of the imagination, a form of complete freedom though. you will be a slave to your business, albeit a happy one!

Whatever you do, don’t let the preceding words put you off in the slightest, what you get here is ready made, it’s set up, it’s well evolved, you will hit the ground running, work it and it will look after you. Read on to see why.

Investment?

Your call, for sure it can be, that all depends on your ambitions, your energy, your hard graft, for us, we reckon that anyone who’s more savvy online, more keyed into the possiblities that the internet offers than we are can take it a lot further.

That’s the area where we’re not the best by far, but we’re okay with that, let’s put it like this:

We’re content just rolling along as we are, thank you very much. We like it like this in fact, the level we have got to, or just a little more 😉 suits us just fine, simple as that.

Someone with the energy who can better utilse things like Google, Social Media, Ebay Amazon Etsy or whatever’s out there sure can take this to whole new levels. Much of that potential we have pretty inbuilt even now so here is a great opportunity for the right person/persons.

Why don’t we do that?

Good question, and the answer is: fatigued. The brainpower and keyboard tenacity isn’t there, we are short of internet energy! So we do as we please and try to have fun whilst retaining a serious professional, customer focused presence.

Here’s some more reasons that have made exhausting contribution over the years as to why we don’t:

It’s Tough at the Top

This has been and remains to be a sturdy little business having weathered some really challenging and harmful things and I’ll list a few for you here…

We survived the 2015 Migrant Crisis, a terrible time that affected the flow of goods across the channel, it effectively prevented people coming to Folkestone and the surrounding area and the same in Northern France. It was one of the more damaging times for a juvenile small business, there were a few around there that weren’t able to cope which was really quite tragic.

We survived Covid, thanks in no small part to Governmental financial assistance, online sales and not least of all, once again, customer support.

We survived the most horrendous trolling campaign ever seen in analogue photography, yes REALLY.

This truly is the lowest form of internet activity after fraud and hacking.

In this case led by and based solely upon lies, fantasies and fictional fabrications of a certain individual, who also orchestrated the most shameful attacks and activities of the people he managed to convince.

We are still shocked at the behaviours, still struggling to even imagine what kind of insipid personality has the capability to enter into that zone.

To this day we remain on alert, that is just one part of the long term effects. Should there ever be another peep then there will be Police involvement. You see times change: his evidenced & recorded activities are now criminal offences under new laws.

That campaign was on many levels, the most hurtful and damaging thing we have personally ever encountered. Involving a 30+ month stream of constant libellous attacks on us, both personally and professionally, even attacks against our family and our suppliers. The costs of this ran into tens of thousands in lost revenue. Losses that ultimately meant we could no longer retain our much needed member of staff.

There is however a bright side here too: We will ever be grateful to the people who provided some of the evidence we retain, their support, moral support and the battling they did on our behalf.

Last but not least we survived the other lowest form of online lowlife with a hacking attack on the website which effectively meant that we stopped appearing in Google, Bing and other search engines. This too cost us a lot of lost revenue a remedial work, the damage is still affecting the Domain Authority but that’s slowly building again…plus side is that dealing with this has left a site that is faster and much more secure for both us and for clients.

Yes, this little business had the organic strength not just to get through those things but to learn from them and to improve.

Onwards and Upwards…it’s the only way!

Okay we’ve said more than ever before already, so you partly know how it’s come about, hopefully our going through those things means our buyer won’t have to!

Oh, and I haven’t said about some of the really good things that helped set us up: like the nice commission to photograph the Harbour Arm renovations, commission for hand printing a major exhibition and such. We grafted!

We’ve said what we don’t want to do, don’t let that influence you. We have every desire to continue improving this business, far from it so as I write this there’s further investment in stocks that we feel will mean bit more future proofing our business can benefit from, especially in light of that last budget.

There will be more functionality added to the website for example, to internal IT, further upgrades to equipment most notably to the amazing Noritsu HS-1800 scanner that will enure durabilty and also permit the offering of a range scanning options. These will generate more income for sure.

I won’t go into more detail from here, we just wanted you to know that we are fully committed to this, we still have more passion than we see elsewhere in the industry. Over the years we have caused or brought more new products to the analogue market than almost any combination of anyone else. Whoever buys us out will reap the full benefits of that.

Laying cards on the Table

That’s the back story and we trust that so far you’re assured that we are as ever, being open and completely honest. We will naturally expect the same from any potential buyer, and they’ll need that!

This business, is driven by our passion and our integrity, those things are incredibly valuable, intangibles that are to us priceless…so, when it comes to offering it up, what’s it worth?

Autopsy or Crystal Ball?

How does one go about valuing a business anyway?

Everything is very mobile in the life blood of a business so we’re not going to mention figures even if we could, nor would we do so in such a public arena. We’ll discuss such things with potential buyers whom we can see are serious, as and when the time comes.

So to lubricate the thought process let’s cut it into sections in order to consider and analyse the possibilities. Again we shall be quite open though there are obviously things that are trade secret, there’s information that’s not for public domain or debate, the same will apply any business.

The Shop

This seems like the logical place to start, it is after all, the base of operations.

Nicely situated in Folkestone’s lovely Old High Street, leased from Creative Foundation at a reasonable rent it is nestled within a terrific community that works well together, folk here help each other for the mutual benefit of everyone.

We are surrounded by good people.

To maintain continuity, we hereby promise to everything we can in order to facitlitate a seamless changeover with them thereby ensuring mutual benefit to all. Our off site storage unit, same rule applies: that will be transferred over with some ease complete with stock held within, any personal belongings cleared.

Shop Fixture & Fittings:

The counter, the chairs, phones, cabinets, displays. Price will be negotiable won’t it? We could state values but will they be acceptable? There will be lots of haggling to do yet!

IT Gear: The computers, the networking gear, CCTV, printers etc Prices T.B.A.

Professional Equipment: Ha, this is where it begins!! Most of the specialist equipment is increasing in value as demand for this gear rapidly grows against decreasing supply.

Fuji Minilab: Whatever price I put on that will be incorrect when sale time comes. I’ll give you an estimate on one thing though: HS-1800, currently changing hands at £12,000 to £17,000 depending on a few factors.

We have other scanners too, V700, V750 and GT-15000 by Epson. Price T.B.A. of course 😀

Jobo ATL2500, another professional film processing machine, recently professionally rebuilt, value is a best guess, but demand for these is also high. Four Figures despite it’s age.

Kiosk and Dry Lab…Four Figures but they generate income.

The Darkroom, yes, we built that and phew, there’s thousands worth of miscellaneous gear in there to haggle over as you can imagine!

That’s just the stuff that I can think of right now but just take a look at how brilliant our HS-1800 is!

Stock

This is the important bit as we do carry a lot of stock.

The value of stock is a given, it is measurable and value determined…but what’s held and the levels varies so much it will require a stock take so again, I can’t give you an answer on this.

Plus, right now we’re currently building stock value with some strategic ordering, thus figures will be up and down like a fiddler’s elbow. Consider well into five figures and it will be a determinate figure.

Liablilities

This is the best bit 😉 for us as there are literally none, not that anyone needs to know but it could assure a buyer that nothing we’ve done will come back and bite!

Invoices have never been overdue, our track record is like no other on that one. There are no outstanding loans just a small overdraft which is a nice cushion, at this point in time it’s in credit.

In keeping with having grown the business so organically part of that has been our management of this area, it’s that which is responsible for our survival as much as, or more than anything else.

Debenture

Before we move onto the intangible assets, just a quick word about stuff that belongs to us or that we have leant to the business or allowed it to use.

ie Family negative archive and storage, the photography backup server, the Classic Quad Hi-Fi (could be included) and such.

Things, mostly personal, that are not part of the deal as anyone will understand.

Things you can see but can’t you touch…

Well this is all about internet isn’t it.

The most important tool now of any business of course is to be online. A webiste can be one of the most substantial investments made by any modern business, especially a specialist one like this.

How on earth do you value a website??

After all these years our website has evolved, both in unison with the business and in tune with the internet, or vice versa? The back end of our website will be totally different to any other, no two will be the same anyway.

The hours and money that has gone into that over the years…you can only imagine!

Like the preverbial swimming Swan, all grace and beauty and elegance on the surface. Underneath, paddling like f**k.

We prefer to use local businesses as you probably know, so our web administrator is just that, setting up the platform site for us in 2013 and since day one, like any commercial website it has had to deal with many things, it has had to be made to do more things, let’s just glimpse a few that we’ve installed and invoked:

Software licences, Payment Gateways, Marketing, Security, Anti-Spam, Contact Forms, Coupons & Vouchers, Wholesale, SEO, WooCommerce, POS and most vitally the Shipping Software that we helped the vendor developer, it’s been a lifesaver!

We post things from the size of an enamel pin to the size of a shopping trolley, without this one, we’d never have managed, before this, postage was a nightmare. It’s a veritable lifesaver.

Those are just a few of the things we’ve got running, having sorted all conflicts and any issues so everything is all working in harmony.

At a guess, to built a site like this from scratch would easily cost well over £10,000, and that’s if all goes smoothly (it won’t), so the cost of making one like this from the ground up?

Know what I now know, I can’t even begin to imagine that to be completely honest.

Taking this on is a no-brainer and again, we will help facilitate the changeover. The domain name will remain our property so I’m afraid that you will be required to rebrand once migrated, a bit of a ball ache but a good thing to do anyway. Again, we’ll do our bit, using our domain to bounce to yours for an agreed period.

Oh, then there’s also our lovely Mobile App…this will come complete with the source code, so that will ensure it’s futureproofing for years to come.

We’re very proud of that bit, and it’s easy to manage via the back en of the website too.

All of that will make is so much easier for our buyer to continue looking after the loyal customer base that we’ve built and it means we won’t have to feel bad!

Those lovely guys need and deserve for this to be seamless which is best for all anyway.

Goodwill

When a business changes hands there is usually a pay off for all the hard work, blood, sweat, tears etc! What that could be beats me!

Goodwill works both ways, ie you won’t want us to go off then set up in direct competition would you?

We won’t do that. What we will do I don’t know, there may well be something, but after a fair break of a year at least and on a cottage industry scale just to make sure I don’t die!

To ensure a seamless a changeover as possible you will also get us for a couple of days per week, to help you hit the ground rolling, to reassure existing customers and such. It’s only fair.

Goodwill also extends most vitally, to suppliers, we’ll make sure you know the UK 3rd party distributors, service engineers and so on. We shall guide you to having accounts with them.

We also have some very special relations with certain factories, you’ll already know the main ones we mean here. These guys must to be nurtured and looked after, worked with and listened to.

A fair chunk of business and possibly survival could depend on the relationship you build with these lovely people.

Again, we’ll help. Whoever buys us, takes our suppliers and our customers aboard, all parties the way we see it, needing to know that Nik & Trick won’t leave anyone or anything in the lurch, far from it.

We will NOT repeat for example what one of our competitors did in 2024…sell up, say nothing to anyone just hit send on an email before walking out the door and buggering off into the ether!

You’re lucky it us, we can’t do that, it’s not within us.

As one door closes…

So, if you want to be the next Nik & Trick, no don’t do that, be yourself!

Here the turf laid out for you and the going is good. This article being a brief snippet of an insight that we hope goes some way demonstrate what happens. Take this and you’ll have a good business on your hands, saving years of potential grief, one with incredibly proud reputation to build on.

It won’t make you rich, or it might who knows but simply put, it will be rewarding in ways that money will never be able to buy.

So let’s start talking 😉
(serious enquiries only)

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