Option one · List now

Take your business to market, properly.

A full sell-side engagement, run confidentially, from the first valuation call to the closing wire.

Start with a valuation call Not ready yet?

What a listing engagement covers

Everything between deciding to sell and being done.

We take the whole file. You keep running the business, because a business that slips during a sale process loses more value than any negotiating point will win back.

Valuation & recast

Three years of financials normalised into true owner earnings, with add-backs documented so they survive a lender's review.

CIM & data room

A Confidential Information Memorandum, a blind teaser profile, and a secure data room built listing by listing.

Confidential marketing

Listed where real buyers look, plus direct outreach to strategics, searchers and private buyers already in our network.

Buyer qualification

NDA, proof of funds and intent before your company name is released. Tyre-kickers do not get a tour.

Offer & LOI negotiation

Price, structure, escrow, working capital, earn-outs, transition and restrictive covenants, negotiated as one package.

Diligence & closing

SBA and conventional lender coordination, landlord consents, licence transfers and the closing checklist.

How it runs

The engagement, step by step.

Weeks 1–2

Discovery and valuation

Financials, tax returns, customer concentration, lease and licence review. You leave with a value range and the assumptions behind it in writing.

Weeks 2–4

Packaging and pricing

CIM, teaser, data room build, and an asking price we can both defend. This is also where we fix the small things that would otherwise cost you in diligence.

Month 2 onward

Go to market

Blind listing, direct outreach, buyer screening. You see a weekly summary of activity, not a stream of unqualified enquiries.

Varies

Offers and LOI

We present every credible offer with the trade-offs spelled out. Once an LOI is signed, diligence opens and the clock starts.

30–90 days

Diligence and financing

Lender underwriting, quality-of-earnings requests, third-party consents. This is where deals break, so this is where we spend our time.

Closing

Close and transition

Final documents, funds flow, and an agreed transition plan so the business you built keeps running after you step back.

A listing that goes to market unprepared does not just take longer. It takes a discount.

Timelines vary with size, industry, financing and buyer type. We will tell you which of those is your constraint before you sign anything.

Ask what your timeline looks like

Confidentiality

Your staff, your customers and your competitors find out when you decide they do.

A leaked sale process costs key employees, unsettles customers and hands competitors a talking point. Everything we do is built to prevent that: blind marketing profiles, mutual NDAs before any identifying information moves, a separate data room per listing with per-user access and revocation, and buyer capacity checks before a tour is ever scheduled.

Ask about our confidentiality process

Blind profile first

Buyers see industry, geography band, revenue range and earnings. Not your name.

Mutual NDA

Signed before the company is identified, and enforceable, not a web form checkbox.

Controlled data room

Documents released in stages, access logged, and revoked the moment a buyer drops out.

Are you the buyer in this story?

If you are the one acquiring, you want representation of your own. The Deal Strategy Co. handles buy-side search, diligence and closing support as a fee-for-service engagement.

See buyer services

Questions owners ask first

Before you commit to anything.

What is my business actually worth?

It depends on recast earnings, not revenue, and on how much of the business walks out the door with you. We build the range from your financials and comparable transactions, and we show you the multiple and the adjustments rather than handing you a number.

How long does a sale take?

Six to twelve months is a common band from listing to closing for owner-operated businesses, though financing type and industry move it considerably. Preparation before listing shortens everything that comes after.

Will my employees find out?

Not from us. Marketing is blind, NDAs come before identification, and we plan the employee communication with you as part of the transition, on your timing.

What does it cost?

Sell-side engagements are structured around a success fee at closing, with the terms set out in the listing agreement before you sign. We will walk through the full fee structure on the first call, in writing.

What if the offer comes in low?

You are never obligated to accept. Part of our job is telling you when an offer is genuinely the market speaking and when it is a buyer testing you, and those are different conversations.

I already have a buyer. Do I still need a broker?

Often yes, and for a different reason. An unrepresented seller with a motivated buyer usually loses value in the terms rather than the price. We can run a limited engagement around a buyer you already have.

Next step

Start with a valuation conversation.

Confidential, no listing agreement, and you keep the analysis whether or not you engage us.

Book a confidential call