01
The books don’t tell the real story.
Personal expenses, one-off costs and tax-driven accounting hide what the business really earns. Buyers and banks only pay for profit they can verify.
You spent decades building it. Let’s make sure it sells.
01 · The problem
Many small businesses go to market before they are ready.
The reasons are usually the same: the books are hard to follow, too much depends on the owner, or the price has little evidence behind it.
Half
of businesses that go to market don’t sell, even with an experienced broker.
Source: IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse, Q4 2022 (survey of 493 brokers and M&A advisers).
Why good businesses don’t sell
02
The business is the owner.
If the customers, the know-how and the decisions all sit with you, a buyer sees a job, not a business.
03
There’s no story.
A buyer needs a reason to want this business and a believable way to grow it. A listing with neither gets passed over.
04
The price isn’t backed by data.
A number based on what you need to retire won’t survive the first conversation. A number with evidence will.
02 · What we do
We help you fix those problems before buyers start asking questions.
03 · How it works
Three steps, in your own time.
-
01Free
Get your score
Fourteen questions online, about ten minutes. You see straight away how ready the business is and where the gaps are.
-
02Free
Talk it through
A 45-minute call with one of us to go through your report and talk about what to fix first.
-
03Fixed fee
Get sale-ready
We recast your financials, analyze your customers, prepare the buyer materials and organize your documents. If we find changes worth making before you list, we can help you make them. Fixed fee for the four-week package, below.
04 · The four weeks
Four weeks. About five hours of your time.
The Sale-Ready Package, at a fixed fee.
Day one
Kick-off
We agree the fee in writing, sign a confidentiality agreement, and send a short list of documents.
Week 1
Documents and conversation
You upload what you have to a private folder. We talk for ninety minutes.
Week 2
The numbers
We recast three years of financials and analyze your customers. We come back with questions, not homework.
Week 3
The story
We write the memo and build the document room. You check the facts.
Week 4
Hand back
A final call to walk through everything, your fix-it list and your indicative value range.
05 · What you get
What you give us. What you get back.
We turn what you already have into the financials, buyer materials and document room you need before going to market.
In · You give us
- Three years of tax returnsBusiness returns, as filed.
- Your booksProfit-and-loss and balance sheets, or an export from your accounting software.
- Bank statementsSo every number can be traced.
- Sales by customerAn export from your invoicing system.
- Lease, contracts and licensesWhatever you have, in whatever state.
- Ninety minutes of your timeOne conversation about the business and its history.
Out · You get back
Illustration. Figures invented.
01Illustration
Recast financials
Your books were prepared for tax reporting, not for a sale. A buyer needs a clear view of what the business earns for its owner.
- Profit on your tax return$212,000
- + Owner’s pay above a manager’s wage85,000
- + Family vehicle, phone and travel31,000
- + One-off legal bill18,000
- = True owner earnings$346,000
- Three years restated
- Every adjustment tied to a document
- A one-page reconciliation to your tax returns
- Not an audit
02Illustration
Customer analysis
Buyers worry that customers may leave with the owner. We use your sales records to show how durable those relationships are and where the risks sit.
14%Largest22%Next four64%Everyone else
71%of revenue from customers who also bought the year before
9 yearsaverage tenure of the top twenty customers
- Concentration, repeat revenue and tenure
- The risks, and your answer to each
- Customer names never shown to a buyer without your written say-so
03Illustration
Your story, written for buyers
Buyers look at dozens of businesses. The memo is what makes them pick up the phone about yours. We write it from our conversation with you and from the numbers, in plain language, and you approve every word.
- 8–35
- pages, read by a buyer first
- 1
- page summary up front
- 3
- realistic ways a new owner could grow it
- What it does, for whom, and why it has lasted
- How it runs
- Recast financial summary
- Three realistic ways a new owner could grow it
04Illustration
An organized document room
Deals slow down, and sometimes die, while a seller hunts for paperwork. We collect, sort and index everything a buyer’s checks will ask for, and tell you what is missing while there is still time to find it.
- 01Financials3 years, recast and original
- 02Tax returns
- 03Customers
- 04People
- 05Property and equipment
- 06Licenses and insurance
- 07Suppliers
Missing: signed lease renewal — flagged for you.
- Every document indexed
- A list of what is missing
- You keep the folder
05Illustration
A fix-it list
We rank the issues by their likely effect on value and the chances of closing, then show what each one will take to fix.
- This week
- List every personal expense in the books
- Find the signed lease
- This month
- Introduce your manager to your top ten customers
- Write up the ten tasks only you can do
- This quarter
- Move regulars onto service agreements
- Renew the lease with an assignment clause
- This week, this month, this quarter
- What is not worth fixing, and how to explain it instead
06Illustration
An indicative value range
Most owners have a number in mind. Few have evidence for it. We show you what businesses like yours have actually sold for, apply that to your recast earnings, and give you a range you can defend.
As it stands today $0.9M–$1.1M
With the gaps closed $1.2M–$1.5M
$0.8M$1.0M$1.2M$1.4M$1.6M
- Today, and with the gaps closed
- The earnings and market multiples behind it, with sources
- Not a formal valuation
06 · Price
One fixed fee.
Paid half when we start and half when we hand back.
Business worth under $1M
From
$5,000
Business worth $1M–$3M
From
$10,000
Business worth $3M–$10M
From
$15,000
Business worth over $10M
On request
Contact us
We don’t take a percentage of your sale, and we don’t act as your broker.
Value ranges are indicative, not formal valuations. We aren’t tax or legal advisers.
For a business worth more than $10M, we quote a fixed fee for the work involved. Call (646) 360-0296 or write to contact@handoveradvisors.com.
07 · Confidentiality
Your plans stay private.
Your staff, customers, suppliers and competitors don’t need to know you’re thinking about selling. We only ever deal with you, and nothing you share leaves us without your say-so. We sign an NDA with every client before kick-off. Files are deleted 90 days after we finish unless you ask us to keep them.
You
The next owner
READY
Start with the score.
Fourteen questions. You’ll know where you stand in ten minutes.
Get your free readiness score
Free and confidential.
Rather talk first? Call (646) 360-0296, book a call or write to contact@handoveradvisors.com.