Business Sale FAQ for Private-Company Owners

Start with a reconciled earnings basis, the company's assets and liabilities, revenue durability, customer concentration, management depth, and comparable market evidence that actually matches the company's size and economics. A calculator can organize assumptions; it is not a formal valuation.

It is a record-backed review of reported results, proposed adjustments, revenue and margin patterns, and the risks that affect whether earnings can continue. It is related to valuation work but is not itself a valuation, audit, or promise that a buyer will accept an add-back.

No. Each adjustment needs an amount, period, reason, source record, recurrence test, and a realistic view of any cost a buyer would still incur. Owner compensation may also carry entity-specific tax issues that should be reviewed separately from the sale adjustment.

Begin with reconciled financial history, an adjustment bridge, revenue and customer schedules, an owner-duty map, an organization chart with decision rights, material contract and legal indexes, and a list of seller priorities. The full sale-readiness checklist breaks the work into five files.

Not through the initial web form. A blind customer schedule and broad financial ranges can frame the first conversation. Before sensitive disclosure, confirm the recipient, purpose, confidentiality terms, contact rules, and secure delivery method.

A percentage alone does not answer the question. Review margin, tenure, renewal history, contract terms, pricing, relationship coverage, transfer consent, and the reason the customer stays. Two companies with the same concentration can carry very different exposure.

Document the owner's actual duties, managers' decision rights, customer and supplier coverage, reporting cadence, operating procedures, and system access. Show examples of decisions the team already makes without the owner, then identify the duties that still need a transition plan.

It is an agreed level of operating assets and liabilities expected at closing, based on definitions in the deal documents. The included accounts, historical period, seasonality, reserves, and true-up process can affect proceeds and require accounting and legal review.

Cash at close, debt repayment, escrow, working capital, seller notes, earnouts, rollover equity, taxes, governance, and the owner's post-close role change timing, control, liquidity, and risk. Compare those lines before ranking the headline number.

Treat an earnout as a separate part of the offer, rather than as a percentage of the headline price. Read the performance metric, baseline, measurement period, accounting rules, operating control, dispute process, termination provisions, and required owner role as one package. Those terms determine how much of the price remains contingent and who controls the conditions for payment. Tax and legal implications need company-specific advice.

No. The site provides educational tools and first-party intake for manual review. It does not guarantee a valuation result, buyer interest, an advisor match, a response, or a transaction outcome.