Undrawn Get your Undrawn Check
Growth and exit for UK agency founders

Your agency owes you more.

Undrawn gets agency founders more out of what they've built. We drive more value into your agency, and make sure more of it reaches you now and when you sell.

Get your Undrawn Check See an example
6 April 2027 Exit tax relief halves from £1m to £500k. That's up to £30,000 more tax.
Don't wait for the exit

Take more now. Take more when you sell.

Most founders hold out for one big payday and hope the business is still standing for it. Clients leave, a key hire walks, a market turns. Plenty of agencies never sell at all.

Now

The business should pay you properly every year: pension, idle cash, how you're paid. Money you take today is money no one can take back.

On a sale

A stronger agency sells for more, and better timing and structure mean you keep more of it.

How we work

First, your number. Then we go and get it.

We help with both. Your number is where you want to end up. Your Undrawn number is what your agency could be giving you to get there.

£1m£10m£100m

Write it down. The bigger the better. We're not scared of big numbers.

  1. Step 1

    Write down your number

    What would let you walk away for good? We put a figure on it, in writing, and work out what your agency would need to sell for to get you there.

  2. Step 2

    Take more now

    While we build, we set the business up to pay you properly: pension, idle cash, how you're paid, and cover for your family.

  3. Step 3

    Build the value

    Then we go to work on the agency: pipeline, margin, and everything in your head written down as playbooks. Until it runs without you, and sells for your number.

It stays undrawn until it's drawn up.

Your number. In your head, it's a wish. Written down, with a date, it's a plan you can work to.

Your agency. What only you know, a buyer can't pay for. Written down as playbooks your team runs, it's an asset they can.

Your floor. Buyers chip the price late in a deal. Write down the number you'd be happy with first, and a chip becomes a decision, not a disappointment.

A worked example

Same agency. Very different founder.

A £2m agency making £400k profit, one founder with two young children, £600k in the bank and a sale in about three years.

By default

Paid out of habit

Salary£12.6k
Dividends£100k
Pension from the company£0
Idle cash interest£0
Dividends held back, still yours£0
Childcare and allowance kept£0
Each year, to you£113k

Also stays in the company, after tax: about £200k a year, on top of the £600k already there.

Income £112.6k: inside the £100k trap. Tax near 60% on the slice above £100k, and Tax-Free Childcare and free childcare hours for two young children are lost.

Agency value£1.0m2.5× on £400k profit: relies on you, few repeat clients
By design, with Undrawn

Set up to pay you

Salary£12.6k
Dividends£87k
Pension from the company£60k
Idle cash interest£16k
Dividends held back, still yours£13k
Childcare and allowance kept£16k
Each year, to you£205k

Also stays in the company, after tax: about £168k a year, after the £60k pension.

Income £99.6k: just under the line. Allowance and childcare support kept, counted here at a cautious £16k a year. For two very young children it can be far more.

Agency value£2.4m4× on £600k profit (up 50% from £400k): runs without you, recurring revenue, better margin
+£92kmore each year, working for you
+£1.4mmore on the day you sell

Three years to a sale: £1.68m. That is this agency's Undrawn number.

Illustrative figures using the same assumptions as the Undrawn Check below. Between £100k and £125,140 of income the personal allowance is withdrawn; in England, Tax-Free Childcare and funded childcare hours are also lost at £100k. The £13k not drawn as dividends stays in the company, still yours. Childcare is counted at a cautious £7k a child a year. Pension and idle cash interest stay invested for you rather than landing in your current account, and the extra profit assumes Undrawn lifts profit by 50% within 12 months, through margin and growth work, not from pay. What's right for you depends on your circumstances: this is education, not advice.

Definition

Undrawn number noun

The money your agency could be giving you, but isn't. What you could be taking out of the business now, plus the value you could unlock when you sell.

We help with both. Your number is what you'd need to walk away for good. Your Undrawn number is how much of the way there your agency could already take you. We set the first, then close the gap with the second.

Sell next year or never, the gap is there today.

Sitting in the business

Cash, pension and pay you could be drawing now

+
Value not yet built

What a buyer would pay for a stronger agency

+
Lost to tax

What poor timing and structure would cost you

=
Your Undrawn number

One figure. We help you draw it.

Why Undrawn

Your advisers only see one side.

Your business consultant

"I'll help your business grow."

They build the agency. They stop at the company bank account.

Your financial adviser

"I'll help you take home more money."

They look after your money. They stay out of the business.

Undrawn

Undrawn does both,

We grow the agency and what reaches you, side by side, and work alongside your accountant and adviser.

What we do

We work on the business. You get the difference.

You get: a more valuable agency

Grow

A sales pipeline the agency owns, that keeps running when you step back.

You get: more to draw now

Profit

More margin, and the cash, pension and pay set up to reach you properly.

You get: a bigger cheque, kept

Exit

A business buyers pay up for, written down so it runs without you, then sold with the timing and structure that keep more of it.

The levers

Twelve levers most founders never pull.

Each one is worth money, either now or when you sell. The Undrawn Check shows you which ones your agency is leaving alone.

  • Now

    Interest on idle cash

    Cash sitting in a current account earns nothing. Put to work safely, it pays you.

  • Now

    Employer pension

    Paid by the company, it can be tax-efficient and it's money you keep.

  • Now

    Referral strategy

    Your best clients already know who else needs you. A system for it costs far less than pitching cold.

  • Now

    R&D tax credits

    Agencies building tools, software or new methods can qualify. Most never claim.

  • Now

    AI optimisation

    Find where AI cuts the cost of delivery, and keep the saving as margin.

  • Now

    Offshoring and blended teams

    Move the right work to lower-cost teams without losing quality or the client.

  • Now

    Pricing and spend

    Rate cards that haven't moved, and software and suppliers nobody has reviewed.

  • On a sale

    Recurring revenue

    Retainers are worth more to a buyer than projects. Turn one into the other.

  • On a sale

    Client concentration

    One client over a quarter of revenue pulls the price down. Spread it.

  • On a sale

    Founder dependence

    If it needs you, a buyer pays less. Written down and delegated, it sells for more.

  • Both

    Who owns the shares

    Structure and timing, including the April 2027 relief change, decide how much of the price you keep.

  • Both

    GTM strategy

    A pipeline you own and can predict, not one that depends on you. Buyers pay more for revenue they can see coming.

Education, not advice. Which levers apply depends on your agency and your circumstances, and R&D relief in particular has strict criteria.

Work with us

Start free. Climb when it pays.

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Undrawn Check

Your Undrawn number in five minutes, on this page.

Free
1

Profit Audit

Two weeks. Pays for itself, guaranteed.

From £3k
2

Founder's Seat

A monthly board session with someone who's sold.

£1.5k / mo
3

Multiple Method

Twelve months across Grow, Profit and Exit.

£4k / mo
4

Exit Partnership

Up to two years out. Through the sale.

Retainer + uplift
The founder

I retired at 37. Now I help founders do the same.

Fergus Byrne. I co-founded an agency with no outside money, sold it, and sat on the buyer's board, so I saw how agencies get priced from the other side. And for the founders who never sell, the agency should still pay you properly along the way.

£0
Raised
~40%
Profit margin
8 fig.
Exit
Board
Seat at the buyer

The Profit Audit finds more than it costs, or it's free.

Start with the free Check
The Undrawn Check

Get your Undrawn number. Five minutes. Free.

Fifteen questions, including the number you'd need to walk away. Rough numbers are fine.

  1. Your agency
  2. How you're paid
  3. What drives value
  4. Your number
Your agency
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