Tony Vaughan

Who You Will Be Dealing With

Tony has been buying and selling businesses in the UK since 2010. He started out on the buying side, working for national companies looking for sites, then moved over to helping owners sell. He set up BuyMyCafe because cafés, coffee shops, tea rooms and bakeries were being sold through the same generic listing sites as everything else, when what those owners actually needed was privacy, a buyer who understood the trade and a handover that did not unsettle the team.

Alongside this he has helped owners sell to other operators, sell part of a business and keep the rest, hand over to their own management team, plan a retirement sale and move into employee ownership. He works with a number of specialist UK advisory firms, including Mergers.co.uk, VEXUS, BusinessWanted, BusinessValuation.co.uk and ExitPlanning.co.uk.

What We Help With

• Selling UK cafés, coffee shops, bakeries and tea rooms without advertising them
• Working out a realistic price, based on what your business actually earns an owner
• Leases: renewals, rent reviews, repair obligations and landlord consent
• Staff transfers under TUPE, and keeping your team and regulars on side
• Selling part of the business now and the rest later
• Checking buyers properly before they learn anything about your business
• Planning ahead for retirement, family succession or employee ownership

Who Writes the Guides on This Site

Tony writes and checks every guide and article on this site. They are written from the owner's point of view, not the buyer's, because that is who we act for. Where something technical is involved, such as how a business is valued, how leases work, staff transfers or the tax on a sale, it reflects what actually happens on the sales we handle rather than textbook theory.

His comments on selling smaller UK businesses also appear across the wider advisory network, including ExitPlanning.co.uk, BusinessWanted and Mergers.co.uk. He has been involved in developing specialist platforms covering business sales, valuations, exit planning and employee ownership across the UK SME market.

How We Work

• We act for sellers. We never act for the buyer and the seller on the same sale.
• Privacy comes first. No business is ever advertised without the owner asking us to, in writing.
• Written for the UK. Everything here applies to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, not borrowed from American advice.
• Dated and kept current. Every article shows when it was written and last updated, and we revise it when the law or the market moves.
• Written by a person. Tony writes and signs off every piece himself.