Small Business Broker vs Lower Middle Market M&A: Understanding the $3 Million EBITDA Dividing Line
The market for selling private companies in the United States operates across a spectrum of deal sizes, each characterized by distinct intermediaries, buyer profiles, valuation methodologies, and transaction structures. At the center of this spectrum lies a critical inflection point: approximately $3 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). This threshold marks […]
Business Broker Near Me: Why Geography Shouldn’t Define Your Advisor
The instinct to search for a “business broker near me” reflects decades of conventional wisdom in middle-market M&A. Business owners naturally gravitate toward local advisors, reasoning that proximity enables better communication, industry knowledge, and buyer networks. This geographic bias, while understandable, increasingly conflicts with how modern M&A transactions actually unfold. The middle market has fundamentally […]
Business Broker Fees vs M&A Advisor Fees — What You’re Actually Paying For
When preparing to sell a business, one of the first questions owners ask is how much they’ll pay in fees. The answer depends on who you hire. Business broker fees and M&A advisor fees differ substantially in structure, percentage, and what services those percentages actually purchase. Understanding these differences matters because the wrong choice can […]
What Is ARR? Annual Recurring Revenue for Founders
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) represents the value of recurring revenue a business expects to generate over a 12-month period, normalized from subscription contract terms. For software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies and other subscription-based businesses, ARR serves as the primary metric for measuring business scale, growth trajectory, and enterprise value in capital markets transactions. Unlike one-time revenue or […]
Business Broker vs M&A Advisor for SaaS Companies
Software-as-a-Service companies considering an exit face a fundamental question that shapes deal outcomes, valuation multiples, and transaction timelines: whether to engage SaaS business brokers or M&A advisors. The distinction matters significantly more for SaaS assets than for traditional businesses, given the specialized buyer universe, revenue-recognition complexities, and churn analytics that define software valuations. This analysis […]
Why Founders Regret Using Business Brokers
The decision to sell a privately-held business represents the culmination of years, often decades, of capital allocation, operational execution, and personal sacrifice. For many founders, the enterprise they’ve built constitutes the majority of their net worth. Yet when the time comes to monetize that value, a surprising number engage intermediaries whose incentive structures, expertise limitations, […]
When a Business Broker Caps Your Exit
The Structural Ceiling in Lower Middle Market M&A Most privately-held business owners selling their first company don’t recognize the execution gap between a business broker and an M&A advisor until after their deal closes, often millions of dollars too late. The difference isn’t merely one of scale or sophistication. It’s architectural. Business brokers operate within […]
How to Increase EBITDA Effectively for Sustainable Business Growth
By Jeff Barrington, Managing Director · Windsor Drake EBITDA is just a way to check how much your business is really making once you ignore stuff that isn’t tied to daily operations. It helps you see the real picture instead of getting lost in accounting details. If you want to improve it, go through your […]
Quality of Earnings Report: Key Insights for Buyers and Sellers
When businesses gear up for mergers, acquisitions, or big investments, they need more than just basic financial statements. A quality of earnings report digs deep, evaluating the sustainability and reliability of a company’s reported earnings by looking at where revenue really comes from and flagging any risks or one-off events that might mess with future […]