The first offer an owner receives is almost never the best one available. It usually arrives unsolicited, from a buyer who has modelled your business more carefully than you have.

They know what a roofing company with your revenue and your customer mix trades for. They know which of your costs come back as add-backs and which do not. They know that if they are the only bidder, they set the price.

Our entire job is to remove that asymmetry — first by telling you the number, then by making sure more than one buyer is competing for it.

I have bought dozens of companies, run three and sold four. I have been on the receiving end of a retrade at week eleven. When I tell you a number is achievable, it is because I have paid it or been paid it.

Matt Hultquist — Founder

The process, end to end

Nine months is typical. Twelve is common. Anyone promising sixty days is selling a listing, not a process.

01 Week 1–2

Valuation and comps

Comparable companies, comparable transactions, add-back normalisation, and a defensible range. This is the free part, and if the range disappoints you we stop here and talk about exit planning instead.

What we needThree years of P&L and balance sheet, a customer concentration list, and an honest account of what you pay yourself.
02 Month 1–2

Clean-up and preparation

The two or three things suppressing your multiple usually get fixed here: financials that will survive a quality-of-earnings review, a customer concentration story, and a management layer that means the business is not you.

What changes priceThis stage moves the number more than the negotiation does. Owners consistently underestimate it.
03 Month 2

The buyer list, by name

Strategics, sponsors and search funds, drawn from our own database of 10,000 private North Carolina businesses across 19 industries. You approve every name before anyone is contacted, and you can strike a competitor off the list without explaining why.

ConfidentialityBlind profile first, NDA before the name. Your people and your customers do not find out from the market.
04 Month 3–5

Market and negotiate

Deck, management meetings, and — the whole point — more than one letter of intent on the table at the same time. Competing LOIs are worth more than any clever clause we could draft for you.

What we push onNot just headline price: cash at close, escrow size, earnout mechanics, and how long you are obliged to stay.
05 Month 5–8

Diligence and quality of earnings

Where deals die and where prices get retraded. A third-party accounting firm rebuilds your earnings from source. We prepare for this in stage 02 precisely so it produces no surprises in stage 05.

Read firstWhat is a quality of earnings report? — link once the article is published.
06 Month 9

Close

Documents, wire, and the strange quiet afterwards. We stay reachable through the transition period, because the earnout is usually still live and so is your reputation with your old team.

AfterMost of our sellers stay in the Roundtable. Several have become our co-investors.

When we tell you not to sell

Roughly A THIRD of the owners who ask for a valuation should wait. Saying so costs us a fee and earns us the referral.

One customer is 40% of revenue

Every buyer will discount for it, heavily. Eighteen months of deliberate diversification is worth more than any negotiation we could run for you.

The business is you

If the relationships, the pricing and the estimating all live in your head, you are selling a job. Build the layer beneath you first.

Last year was the anomaly

A single exceptional year does not set the multiple, and a quality-of-earnings review will find that out in month six. Better to know now.

Common questions

How long does it take to sell a business?

Nine months from engagement to wire is typical; twelve is common in the trades. The valuation itself takes two weeks.

How much can I sell my business for?

A multiple of normalised EBITDA, set by your sector, your growth and your risk profile. The range is wide enough that guessing is pointless — get the valuation.

Do I need a broker at all?

Under about $5M of value, often a broker is the right economics. Above it, a single unrepresented bidder will cost you more than any fee.

Will my employees find out?

Not from us. Blind profile first, NDA before your name is disclosed, and management meetings off-site until an LOI is signed.

Do I have to stay on after the sale?

Usually some transition, often twelve months, sometimes an earnout that runs longer. It is negotiable, and it is one of the things we push hardest on.

Request my valuation

Start with the number

Two weeks. Comparable companies, comparable transactions, and a range we can defend line by line. Free, confidential, no obligation to open a process.

NDA before anything sensitive. One reply from Matt, then it is your move.

Keep reading

How to value a business for sale

The method, not the marketing.

Letter of intent: what to negotiate

The clauses that decide your outcome.

Selling to a private equity firm

What changes when the buyer is a sponsor.

Selling a roofing company

Written from owning one.