Buying an Accounting Practice: Retention and Price
Buying an accounting practice: screen client transfer risk, test fee quality, check independence and ownership, tie price to retained fees, plan integration.
Buying an Engineering Firm: Licenses and Backlog
Buying an engineering or architecture firm: check ownership rules and licenses, test backlog durability, read liability history and plan key staff retention.
Consumer Manufacturing Valuation Guides
Valuation guides for food, beverage, supplement, personal care, pet and home product makers: value drivers, add-backs, likely buyers and public multiples.
Building Products Valuation Guides
Valuation guides for window, roofing, cabinet, flooring, HVAC, electrical and distribution businesses: value drivers, add-backs, buyers and public multiples.
Professional Services Valuation Guides
Valuation guides for consulting, IT services, staffing, marketing, engineering, accounting and information firms: value drivers, add-backs, buyers and multiples.
Business Valuation Methods Explained
The income, market and asset approaches to valuing a private company, the methods inside each, when each fits and how valuers reconcile the results.
Customer Concentration and Business Valuation
Why buyers pay less for businesses that depend on a few customers, how they measure concentration, and what owners can do to reduce the discount before a sale.
Valuation Discounts and Premiums Explained
Control premiums, minority discounts and the discount for lack of marketability explained: what each adjusts for, how they stack and when they apply.
Earnouts Explained: Contingent Payments in a Sale
An earnout ties part of the purchase price to future results. Learn how earnouts are structured, why buyers propose them and how sellers can value the risk.
EBITDA Add-Backs: What Buyers Accept and Reject
Learn which EBITDA add-backs buyers accept in a sale, which they reject, and how adjusted EBITDA changes enterprise value, with a worked illustration.
Enterprise Value to Equity Value Bridge Explained
Enterprise value is the price of the business. Equity value is what owners receive after debt, debt-like items, cash and working capital. See the bridge.
Key-Person Risk and Business Valuation
How buyers measure owner dependence, why it lowers value and shapes deal structure, and what an owner can change in the years before a sale to reduce it.
Net Working Capital Peg: How the Adjustment Works
The working capital peg sets the level of working capital a seller must leave in the business at closing. See how it is calculated, negotiated and adjusted.
Quality of Earnings Report: What Buyers Test
A quality of earnings report tests whether a company's reported profit is real and repeatable. See what buyers examine, how it affects price and how sellers prepare.
Rollover Equity and Seller Notes Explained
Rollover equity and seller notes defer part of a sale price. Learn how each works, how their risks differ and what to ask before accepting either.
Valuation Multiples Explained: EV/EBITDA and More
What valuation multiples are, how EV/EBITDA, EV/revenue and EV/EBIT work, what drives a higher or lower multiple, and how to use public data with care.
Transactional Valuation: What It Is and How It Works
A transactional valuation estimates what a strategic or financial buyer would pay for a business. Learn what goes into one and how it differs from an appraisal.
Asset Sale vs Stock Sale: Structure and Proceeds
In an asset sale the buyer picks the assets and liabilities it takes. In a stock sale it buys the owner's shares. See how each affects taxes, risk and proceeds.
M&A Advisor vs Business Broker: Which Fits?
M&A advisors and business brokers both help sell companies, but they usually serve different sizes of business and buyers. Compare the two and see which fits.
SDE vs EBITDA: Which Earnings Measure Applies?
SDE adds back one owner's pay to show what an owner-operator earns. EBITDA treats the owner's role as a market-rate cost. Learn which measure fits your business.