Business investor Matt Haycox has unveiled a straight-talking roadmap designed to help founders and SME owners navigate one of the most misunderstood areas of entrepreneurship: buying companies, merging them and exiting at the right time. The new guidance forms part of the expanding No Bollocks Business HQ, Haycox’s execution-first platform built to help founders make sharper, faster decisions without getting lost in advisor jargon.
The roadmap sits inside the HQ’s dedicated M&A and Exit pillar and is framed as a real-world guide for operators who want to grow through acquisition, consolidate their sector position or plan a clean, profitable exit.
‘For most founders, buying or selling a business feels like smoke and mirrors,’ Haycox says. ‘Lawyers talk in riddles, brokers overpromise and founders end up going into deals blind. I wanted to break the whole process down into something practical and honest. No hype. Just what actually works.’
A Process Built From Hundreds of Real Deals
Haycox has been involved in multiple acquisitions, turnarounds and exits over his two-decade career. He says the new roadmap compresses the lessons he learned through painful mistakes, expensive missteps and the deals that paid off.
‘Everyone thinks you need to be a corporate giant to play in M&A,’ he says. ‘You don’t. Small business acquisitions are happening every day, often under the radar. The real problem is that nobody teaches founders how to do it properly.’
The roadmap walks founders through:
- How to evaluate whether you’re ready to buy
- How to assess the real value of a target business
- What numbers matter and which ones are noise
- How to approach negotiations without getting pushed around
- The due diligence traps that sink deals
- What to fix before attempting a merger
- How to structure an exit so the founder doesn’t leave money on the table
But unlike traditional guidance, the No Bollocks approach strips out the ‘corporate theatre’ that surrounds most M&A conversations.
‘Small business deals don’t need boardrooms and buzzwords,’ Haycox says. ‘They need clarity, clean numbers and a founder who knows what they want from the deal.’
Launching at a Time of Surging Entrepreneurial Activity
The UAE is becoming one of the most active SME markets for both acquisitions and new business creations. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024 to 2025 report, the UAE remains the number one country in the world for entrepreneurship for the fourth straight year. In the first half of 2025 alone, the Dubai International Chamber recorded a 138% increase in new company registrations, while the Dubai Chamber of Commerce added more than 35,000 new member companies.
With more founders entering the market, Haycox says the appetite for buying and selling SMEs is growing fast.
‘As businesses mature, owners start looking for ways to expand or exit,’ he explains. ‘But unless you understand valuation, negotiation and timing, you’ll either overpay or walk away with far less than the business is worth.’
Fixing the M&A Blind Spots That Hurt Founders Most
Haycox says the biggest issue is that founders approach acquisitions emotionally rather than operationally.
‘They fall in love with the idea of buying a business,’ he says. ‘They don’t slow down long enough to check whether the numbers tell the same story. That’s where deals go wrong.’
He adds that selling a business comes with its own pitfalls.
‘Founders wait too long. They try to exit after the business has dipped, not when it’s at peak health. That’s like selling a house after the roof caves in.’
Inside the HQ, the M&A roadmap includes founder-friendly tools, including:
- Red-flag checklists for due diligence
- Valuation benchmarks
- Negotiation templates
- Deal-structuring examples
- Exit-timing playbooks
Everything is written for real operators, not investment bankers.
‘This is not a corporate M&A manual,’ Haycox says. ‘It’s for the founder who’s sat at their kitchen table thinking, ‘Should I buy this business? Should I merge? Should I sell?’ The roadmap gives them the answers.’
A Growing Playbook for Ambitious SMEs
Haycox says the response to the HQ’s early M&A content has been strong, particularly among service businesses, construction firms, hospitality operators and online brands exploring consolidation or exit opportunities.
‘SME owners have far more options than they realise,’ he says. ‘They don’t need to grind for twenty years and burn out. They can acquire competitors. They can sell a share. They can merge to increase capacity. They can plan a clean exit. They just need someone to explain it in plain English.’
A Fresh Closing Note
For Haycox, the roadmap is part of a bigger mission: removing the mystery that stops founders from playing at a higher level.
‘M&A isn’t reserved for the big boys,’ he says. ‘It’s a tool for any founder who wants to grow smarter. Once you understand the rules of the game, the opportunities are everywhere.’
The full M&A and Exit Roadmap is now available inside Matt Haycox’s No Bollocks Business HQ, giving founders a clearer path for buying, merging or exiting their next business move.
