Selling a Business — Stage 2: Getting Ready
The year before you go to market
What's actually happening
The structural work of this stage is underway. Documents are moving between parties, expectations are being set, and the timeline is shifting.
Where your broker is right now
They are managing the high-level relationship with the buyer, pushing to keep momentum, and staying out of the operational weeds. They aren't reading the 80-page agreements.
What this costs you if it goes wrong
You lose leverage, you accept terms that claw back your purchase price later, or the deal collapses completely.
What I'd be doing here
I sit with you, read the documents, explain exactly what the terms mean for your post-close reality, and tell you where to push back.
Related Insights for this Stage
Customer concentration: the number that decides your multiple
If your top customer accounts for 30% of revenue, you don't have a business to sell. You have a job with that customer.
The head start nobody explained to me
An attorney once told me to start a year or two before I actually started selling. I nodded, filed it away, and had no idea what he meant. He was right — and he undersold it.
What does an offer actually look like?
A purchase price is usually not one thing. It's several kinds of money, and they don't carry the same weight — two offers with the identical headline number can be wildly different deals.
The business sale glossary
The financial, legal, and transaction vocabulary you'll hear during a sale — from adjusted EBITDA and add-backs to working capital pegs and tax elections.
Selling Your Texas HVAC Business
Two HVAC companies with nearly identical revenue and profit can draw completely different valuations. What produces the difference is the kind of work you do.
Selling Your Texas Plumbing Business
Buyers sort you into a category first — residential service, commercial construction, or specialty — and everything in the sale follows from where you land.
Selling Your Texas Electrical Business
In Texas, a master electrician's license can serve one contractor — unless the master owns a majority. Majority ownership is exactly what you're selling.
Are you in this stage right now?
If you are navigating getting ready and need a second set of eyes on the details, let's talk.
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