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 […]
Find a Broker to Sell My Business: Or Something Better

If you’re searching for a broker to sell your business, you’ve likely reached an inflection point. Revenue has stabilized, operations run without you micromanaging every decision, and the idea of an exit has moved from abstract to concrete. The reflexive next step is to hire a business broker, the professional category most owners associate with […]
How to Sell a Small Business Without a Broker

Selling a small business without a broker is both feasible and increasingly common among owners of enterprises valued under $5 million. The decision to pursue a direct sale rather than engage intermediaries stems from multiple motivations: cost control, transaction privacy, relationship preservation with buyers, and the belief that no external party understands the business better […]
Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Business Broker

Selecting a business broker to represent your company sale or acquisition ranks among the most consequential decisions in the transaction lifecycle. The wrong broker can cost you months of wasted time, compromise your confidentiality, or leave significant value on the table. Yet most business owners approach broker selection with less rigor than they apply to […]
Private Equity vs Venture Capital: What Founders Should Know

Founders seeking growth capital face a binary choice that will shape their company’s trajectory for years: private equity or venture capital. While both deploy institutional money into private companies, the structural, operational, and strategic differences between PE and VC are profound. Understanding these distinctions is essential for founders navigating capital raises, particularly as companies scale […]
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 […]
What Is SDE? Seller’s Discretionary Earnings Explained

Home›Research›What Is SDE? Seller’s Discretionary Earnings What Is SDE? Seller’s Discretionary Earnings Explained Valuation FundamentalsPublished February 19, 2026Updated October 21, 2026 By Jeff Barrington, Founder and Managing Director OverviewWhat SDE MeasuresCalculationSDE vs EBITDACommon Add-BacksConfidentialityNormalising SDEBy industryQuality of earningsDeal structureRed flagsDocumentationTimingLimitationsFor ownersFAQ Short answer SDE, or seller’s discretionary earnings, is the total financial benefit a business […]
What Happens When Employees Find Out You’re Selling Your Business

When a mid-market software company’s CFO casually mentioned an upcoming transaction to a trusted senior developer in 2023, the owner assumed discretion was implied. Within 72 hours, twelve of seventeen engineers had updated their LinkedIn profiles to “open to opportunities.” The buyer, conducting final due diligence, discovered the exodus through routine reference checks. The purchase […]
Private Equity Concerns: How Founders Can Protect Their Companies During a Sale

The decision to sell to private equity represents one of the most consequential moments in a founder’s career. While PE firms bring capital, operational expertise, and growth resources, many entrepreneurs harbor legitimate anxieties about what happens after the transaction closes. The fear of losing control, watching company culture deteriorate, or witnessing aggressive cost-cutting measures dominates […]
Sell-Side Due Diligence

Home / Resources / Sell-Side Due Diligence SELL-SIDE M&A ADVISORY Sell-Side Due Diligence: How Proactive Preparation Protects Valuation and Accelerates Closing Every issue a buyer discovers during their diligence review becomes a negotiating lever, a reason to reduce price, widen indemnification, or restructure terms. Sell-side due diligence identifies those issues first, on the seller’s timeline, […]