Interview with Lewis Haughton Wills

We’ve been very excited to share this recent story, as it goes against the “norm” of our usual process and has truly changed the lives of these individuals.

We have been working closely with lettings experts Sophie Lang and Rhiannon Llewellyn from Lewis Haughton Wills in Cornwall.

Over the last few turbulent months, we have supported them on a management buyout of the lettings arm of this successful agency. We caught up with Sophie and Rhiannon to discuss their experience after what has been one heck of a journey!

Tell us a little about the background of the business?

We have both worked for Lewis Haughton Wills for many happy years now and founded the lettings arm of the business in January 2011.

Over the years we built the lettings division as shareholders and reached the point that it was almost stand-alone from the estate agency side of the company.

We’re both ambitious and wanted to ultimately run our own agency, but after 11 years of blood, sweat, and tears we simply didn’t want to walk away from everything we had worked so hard on.

The pandemic changed so much, and for us, we saw an opportunity and decided to take a punt on approaching the main directors about us purchasing the lettings asset of the business. 

Why did you appoint Atomic Consultancy to support you?

We had never bought a business before, we’d been involved in acquisitions as part of Lewis Haughton Wills but never took the lead.

Doing it for yourself seemed like a whole new story and we knew we needed some help.

As key members of various estate agency groups, including Women in Estate Agency, we often crossed paths with Lucy and were aware of her incredible reputation within the industry.

When it came to putting our idea out there and getting advice, Lucy was the first person we wanted to speak to. We reached out on LinkedIn back in February which kickstarted the initial conversation of how Lucy could help us to turn our business goal into a reality.

How did Atomic Consultancy help?

Lucy was a huge help from start to finish. She gave us the confidence we needed to have faith in our mission and push forward. But it wasn’t just support, guidance and project management we needed.

We also needed funding to complete the buy-out, and as anyone looking to acquire right now will know, funding is the biggest challenge. 

Lucy introduced us to various investors, and we thought we had funding in place and then the government crisis cost us that deal. We thought it was over, we thought the dream was gone, and we had no choice but to hand in our notice and start up a new agency from scratch.

Then at the eleventh hour, Lucy pulled the unthinkable out of the bag. Another funding option.

Not only did she help us secure investment to purchase the lettings business, but thanks to her relationships with various funding partners, we secured investment for future acquisitions as we look to grow our new business. 

What challenges did you face?

There was a particular time I remember calling Lucy laid on the floor!

When our funding was suddenly pulled due to the financial crisis, we decided it was over and we had to consider alternative options. It was then that Lucy picked us up, got us to remain focussed, and never gave up hope on us and the deal.

We suddenly went from being a small Cornwall agency to a fully funded, independent business with our own brand name and huge growth plans.

What lessons did you learn?

I think one of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt throughout this process is to trust our gut more.

Don’t be overly cautious.

When opportunities come around, don’t hesitate and just go for it!

We’ve learnt so much about approaching people in the acquisitions market, negotiating to get the best deals available and just believing in ourselves.

So, what’s next on the agenda?

Next up, it’s all about acquisitions! We’ve been given the platform to harness growth through further acquisitions, so we’ll be continuing to work closely with Lucy on these.

We have 3 new acquisitions in the pipeline for the next 6 months already.

We just want to keep growing and excelling. We’re passionate about raising the standards in property across our county and we’re excited to begin this next chapter with our own name tied to the business we’ve built!

What advice would you give to others looking to go through this process?

Talk to experts! Get as much advice as possible from the people who can share their knowledge with you.

Getting Lucy’s expertise as an acquisition specialist has been invaluable to us. With this advice, we’ve been able to do this process the right way and make it the huge success it’s become today.