Articles
Field notes from the owner’s side of the table
Exit planning, valuation, the deal process, and what advisors should know before a client sells. They are short, specific, and written for the owner who will do this once.
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The System Is the Star
Companies where the owner is the hub are 20% less likely to get an acquisition offer at all. Cameron Passmore built an…
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Why Some Businesses Sell for Twice as Much
Owners who know who will buy their business, and what that buyer will pay for, build differently. The data on 30,000 owners…
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Three Times More Likely to Get Lowballed
Owners whose largest customer is more than half of revenue draw a lowball offer about three times as often. And a customer…
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How Not to Be a Buridan’s Donkey When Selling a Company
A hungry donkey set between two identical piles of hay starves because it cannot see a difference. Owners do the same thing…
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How to Fix Customer Concentration Without Shrinking
Murray Kent bought a four-person business with one customer at 40% of revenue. A decade later a buyer paid 6.2 times EBITDA,…
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The First Number Is Easy. The Business Sale Is Not.
AI valuations will keep showing up. That is not the problem. Treating them like a closeable price is.
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The Hidden Metric That Can Transform the Value of Your Business
Jeff Church had a $120 million juice company losing $9 million a year. Two years later it sold for $325 million. Revenue…
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Is There a Rembrandt in Your Attic?
Most owners value the business by how it performs for them today. A strategic buyer values what it would be worth inside…
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Customer Satisfaction Doubles Your Multiple. Owner Dependence Gives It Back.
Businesses where more than 75% of customers are very satisfied sell for 4.1 times earnings. Below 25%, the multiple drops to 2.2.…
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A Sellable Service Business in Four Moves
Gavin Bell was “the Facebook ads guy,” making good money and completely unsellable. Four moves turned a personal brand into a company…
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The Biggest Mistake Owners Make When Selling
It starts with a compliment and a lunch invitation. By the time the numbers get serious, the buyer knows nobody else is…
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Four Traps to Avoid When Selling Your Company
Due diligence has a checklist. It also has tricks. Here are four ways an acquirer quietly tests how much the business depends…
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8 Questions You Will Be Asked When Selling Your Business
Management presentations are where owners get grilled. These are the eight questions you can count on, and what the buyer is really…
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Why You Should Exit While You Are Ahead: A Cautionary Tale
The best time to sell your business is when someone wants to buy it. Rand Fishkin turned down $25 million for Moz…
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How to Avoid Disappointment When It Is Time to Cash Out
Industry rules of thumb are useful for tax planning. They are a poor way to decide what your life’s work is worth…
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How to Protect Your Equity When Your Business Is Thirsty for Cash
Selling shares costs you equity. Bank debt costs you interest and a personal guarantee. Brad Lorge chose a third option and still…
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Four Reasons It Is Better to Own a Big Chunk of a Small Company
A small slice of a big pie worked out for Musk and Bezos. For most owners, selling part of the business comes…
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A Blood Pressure Test for Your Business
One number tells a doctor a lot about your health. One number can tell you a lot about what your company is…
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What a Study of 14,000 Businesses Reveals About How You Should Not Be Spending Your Time
Owners who know every customer by first name get offers of 2.93 times profit. Owners who rarely get involved with individual customers…
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Five Ways to Attract the Attention of an Acquirer
In a sale, it is better to be courted than to do the courting. Five ways to get on an acquirer’s shopping…
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Successful Entrepreneurs Can Be the Doer and the Dealmaker
Some owners run the plan. Some are always chasing the next deal. Jonathan Jay’s story shows what happens when you tilt too…
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You Don’t Know Me
What a buyer fears and what a seller mourns are never the same. That gap is where most deals quietly fall apart,…
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Can AI Save the Lifestyle Business?
The lifestyle business was never the problem. Concentrated risk was. For the first time, that risk can be distributed without giving up…
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The Wabi-Sabi Exit: Why Imperfection Is Your Greatest Asset
Most founders spend the last chapter of ownership trying to erase the evidence of the journey. Due diligence finds it anyway. There…
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The Real Risk to Your Exit Isn’t AI. It’s Obsolescence.
Obsolescence is a slow leak that erodes earnings. Risk is how buyers read that leak. Together they hit business value twice. Here…
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Sell-Side Shifts in Small Business Acquisitions
What the IBBA Market Pulse says about seller confidence, multiples, and deal structure for businesses between $500K and $5M, and what it…
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Rethinking the Silver Tsunami
The wave of retiring owners never arrived. It is a slow tide, and the reason owners stay put comes down to math,…
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AI Is Coming for My Business Brokerage. But Not How You Think.
AI will not switch the lights off on business brokerage. It will reshape sourcing, valuation, and execution over the next decade. Here…
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The Dunning-Kruger Effect Shows Up in Business Sales Too
Low performers overestimate their ability. In a business exit, the owner’s confidence is often the very thing that keeps them from asking…
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