Alternative Exit
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Alternative Exit #67 | It Feels Too Good To Be True….but It Is | Kevin Franks, novo hair

Alternative Exit
Dela

In 1980 Kevin walked out of his accountancy studies to cut hair. Three years later he opened his first salon in Southend with five chairs and a £1,000 decorating budget. This April, 43 years on, he handed the whole business to his team. novo hair is now 100% employee owned through a UK Employee Ownership Trust, 15 people, all partners.


Kevin walks Andy through the three trade sales that fell over, why he could not stomach three years of being hated by his own staff, how he landed on a number and then deliberately took the bottom of the valuation range, and the grand announcement that landed to fifteen completely blank faces. Five months in, he shares what has actually changed: the bonus pot the team controls, the financials they now lean into, and the tumble dryer filter that suddenly matters.

Key takeaways

  • ✅ A trade sale is not the only number. Salons typically fetch one to one and a half times earnings, and every offer Kevin received came with three to five years of him staying put.
  • 💡 Leaving something on the table can be the point. Kevin took the bottom of the valuation range so the business could carry the debt and still pay the team an annual bonus from year one.
  • 🌟 Do not save the announcement for a big reveal. Fifteen people who have never heard of an EOT cannot get excited in the two minutes before you explain it.
  • ✅ Give the team a quick win they control. Retail profit and in-salon treatments go straight into a bonus pot, so ownership shows up in this month's numbers, not year five.
  • 💡 Ownership changes how the financials land. The same numbers that used to glaze people over now get real attention, because the net profit is theirs.
  • 🎧 Get your ducks in a row first. If the business cannot run without you for a month, it is not ready to be handed over.

Notable quotes

"The old adage is if it feels too good to be true, it's too good to be true. I very much feel with the EOT it feels too good to be true, but it is true."


"I can be hated to a degree, but I can't be hated for three years and be there every day."

"That won't save me a hundred and twenty pound. It will save you a hundred and twenty pound."

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