Not a Numbers Person? Neither Are Most of the Owners We Work With.
NOT KNOWING YOUR NUMBERS DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE UNPREPARED TO SELL. IT MEANS YOU'RE EXACTLY LIKE MOST BUSINESS OWNERS WE WORK WITH.
Every founder we sit down with is, in some way, the expert. They know their customers by name. They can tell you which client will ask for a change of scope once again, and which employee is quietly holding the whole operation together. They've built a reputation as the person who has the answer, for employees, for customers, for their industry.
Then we ask what their business is worth, and the room changes.
"Honestly, I don't know the numbers side of things." "We're not a numbers-focused industry." "I've never really looked at it that way." We hear some version of this constantly, and it's not a confession of incompetence, it's a signal of how specialized expertise actually works.
The Storm You Haven't Heard Forecast Yet: An M&A Wake-Up Call for Business Owners Planning to Sell
This summer broke weather records on four continents. At the same time, a different kind of storm has been reshaping who owns America's small businesses, and most owners haven’t seen it coming.
I Don’t Want to Retire: Why Owners Sell the Business but Keep the Work They Love
I Don't Want to Retire: Why Owners Sell the Business but Keep the Work They Love
Most exit planning conversations start with a false assumption: that selling the business means leaving the work.
For a lot of founders, that assumption is exactly backwards. They are not tired of the work. They are tired of running the business around the work. The payroll, the staffing headaches, the endless operational fires, the weight of being the person everything ultimately falls back on. What they actually want is to stop carrying the business and keep doing the thing that made them fall in love with it in the first place.
We hear a version of this constantly, including these two stories this week. A therapist who built a thriving practice wants to keep seeing clients. She does not want to be the one managing the lease, the billing system, and a team of associates anymore. A med spa owner who built a loyal patient base wants to keep practicing for her patients for years to come, but she is done being responsible for marketing spend, inventory, and the P&L.
Neither of them wants to retire. They want to sell the ownership and keep the craft.
From LOI to Close: Preserving Culture Through the Final Stretch
From LOI to Close: Preserving Culture Through the Final Stretch
(Why the Best Terms on Paper Can't Save a Deal the People Side Wasn't Ready For)
The letter of intent is signed. Price, terms, and timeline are agreed. By most owners' instincts, the hard part is over. In reality, it's just beginning: the next 60 to 90 days will determine whether this deal closes, or becomes one of the roughly one in three signed LOIs that never reach closing.
Most of that risk doesn't come from the numbers. It comes from what happens once a prospective buyer starts talking directly to your key employees.