It was a good deal, on paper. The multiple was right where the broker projected, there were no surprises in diligence, the wire hit on a Friday. Six months later, the man who signed it told me he felt like he’d lost something instead of winning it. He wasn’t my client. I met him after, […]
The most expensive thing in your exit is not your advisor’s fee. It is the problems you knew about and never fixed. Sophisticated buyers don’t surface those problems to kill deals. They surface them to reprice. By the time a known issue lands on the table in diligence, you are weeks into the process, emotionally […]
He went silent for close to a minute. Not five seconds. A full, uncomfortable minute, staring at the screen between us. I’ve sat across from hundreds of owners during a valuation conversation. You learn to read the silences. This one wasn’t disappointment. It wasn’t shock in the usual direction. The number was more than double […]
She had a buyer. She had a deal. She nearly walked away from her retirement. Not because the offer was bad. Because she needed the number to mean something it was never going to mean. I worked with her early in my advisory career. She’d built a real business. Had a real buyer at the […]
The first call from a prospective buyer isn’t the start of a negotiation. It’s the end of your leverage. By the time a formal offer lands, the buyer already knows your timeline, your pressure points, and what you’ll accept. They learned it all in a conversation you thought was casual. Most owners don’t realize this […]
I talked to an owner last month who ran a $4.2M compliance consulting firm. Strong margins. Recurring revenue. Been at it 12 years. He took his first real vacation in three years. Costa Rica. Seven days. Day three, his phone started lighting up. Client needed a proposal revised. New hire had questions about protocol. Another […]
