Estate agent Denise Barnes has revealed the nightmare world she entered when selling her business.

Her book Seller Beware - How not to sell your Business. One Woman’s Road to Ruin tells a harrowing story that is a warning to any business owner considering selling up.

She lost a lot of money when she hired the wrong advisers to sell her Pembury-based estate agency. She wonders whether the sale went wrong because the advisers thought that as a woman she would be a pushover.

“But I know of many men who have not sold their business successfully,” she says. “I thought I was going to be comfortably off but I was wrong. I felt physically ill. It was nightmare. I’m very tough on the outside but deep down I’m full of nerves and sensitivities. Now I’m fine.”

She offered this advice for others: “Even if you get knocked to the ground, somehow you’ve got to look into yourself and say I’m not going to let this beat me. Don’t take tranquillisers. And friends are more important than money.”

Desmond High, of Maidstone-based EMC Corporate Finance, has been involved in the sale of several companies. He has read the book. He says its a rattling good yarn that had him “squirming at the sheer naivety of Ms Barnes.” She used an agent “notably absent in key discussions, a solicitor who appears not to have put any sensible protections into the sale and purchase agreement, and most critically, a couple of spivvy buyers.”

He says it’s vital to choose the right advisers. “Check their track record. Do you want the high street mass market version – sticking it on the website – or a bespoke service that takes time to understand your business before considering value?”

But the story had a happier ending, with Ms Barnes bouncing back, now working with Howard Kingsnorth in the joint estate agency venture Barnes Kingsnorth based in Pembury.

[blob] Seller Beware - How not to sell your Business. One Woman’s Road to Ruin, by Denise Barnes, is published by Biteback Publishing, at £12.99. See May edition of Kent Business for a special reader offer.