Maintenance
Seller Preparation Comparison: Five Choices
A seller preparation comparison covers five choices—timing, leadership, deal structure, buyer type, and exit plan—and what each changes in sale preparation.
Archive
September 2026
Reviews
Why does every seller preparation service want to run the numbers first?
Seller preparation services judged by what they earn if you sell, what they will put in writing, and who carries liability if the finding is wrong.
Rules
Seller preparation checklist, legal file: entity, IP, staff, disputes, broker letter
A seller preparation checklist for the lawyer's part of a sale: entity standing, who owns the IP, staff on transfer, disputes and the engagement letter.
Guides
Seller preparation mistakes often look like sound decisions at the time
Nine seller preparation mistakes that feel like good decisions, including the price set too early and the refusal of any deferred consideration, with corrections.
Reviews
Closing and integration services, sorted by whether to buy the job in or keep it
Closing and integration services sorted by whether to buy the job in or keep it, with what to verify about escrow, completion accounts and integration help.
Industry
Closing and integration examples: five late stage failures and the fix for each
Five constructed closing and integration examples show how a missing consent, working capital peg, double count, payment setup or handover goes wrong and the fix.
Industry
The buyer search checklist: five gates before you spend a cent on diligence
Buyer search checklist with five gates: what to settle before enquiring, before signing confidentiality, before a letter of intent, and before paying for diligence.
Guides
How to evaluate buyer search claims, and where your own funnel is actually stuck
How to evaluate claims made to a buyer, with a checkable test for each, plus a funnel review of your own search that shows where the process is actually stuck.
Features
How to vet a buy-side search service before you sign
Sort buy-side search services by how they get paid, plus the completion, tail, exclusivity and scope terms to verify in writing before you sign.
Industry
Five intermediary arrangements in a small business sale, and whose interest each serves
Five ways to arrange the intermediary in a small business sale, from exclusive broker engagements to a franchisor resale desk, and whose interest each serves.
Reviews
Acquisition financing structures: SBA 7(a), seller notes, earnouts, mezzanine debt, and who carries risk
SBA 7(a), seller notes, earnouts, and mezzanine debt: how each acquisition financing structure works, who carries repayment risk, and what coverage test applies.
Costs
Matching a business broker service to your deal, and what the fee covers
Match the kind of intermediary to your transaction, then test the individual on completions, process, references and liability before any price is quoted.
Rules
Acquisition financing mistakes: what to review before signing
Acquisition financing mistakes: review the rate, repayment, fees, collateral, default terms, prepayment, guarantees and covenants before signing.
Costs
Acquisition financing requirements: documents to gather
Acquisition financing requirements vary by lender and program. See the buyer, business and transaction records to gather, plus forms and reports to confirm.
Guides
Acquisition Financing Review: How to Read an Offer
Use this acquisition financing review to sort lender statements, conditions, expiry dates, and binding undertakings before discussing funding with a seller.
Industry
Acquisition financing rules worth knowing
Acquisition financing rules that keep an approval alive, plus the covenants and guarantees in the facility documents that govern how you run the business after.
Costs
Acquisition financing layers: what each takes besides money
Acquisition financing layers set side by side by what each takes besides repayment: security, guarantees, control, covenants and speed, plus two key decisions.
Reviews
Acquisition financing calculator: what it cannot know
An acquisition financing calculator cannot say what you can borrow. What the coverage and collateral tests depend on, and why lenders differ on one file.
Maintenance
Acquisition financing examples, taken apart
Acquisition financing examples: six invented purchases shaped by what could be funded, from thin collateral to a coverage test and an approval that lapsed.
Features
Acquisition financing lenders, compared by what each channel actually lends against
Named acquisition lenders compared by what each lends against, from Live Oak to Huntington, and how a buyer weighs two offers that look alike.
Rules
A closing and integration checklist that runs from two weeks out to the first month
Closing and integration checklist for the switchover: payment routes, supplier accounts, access, insurance and people, from two weeks out to the first month.
Features
Closing and integration checklist: consents and handover
A closing and integration checklist: which consents third parties must give, who usually pays each step, the day-one handover items and why a delay costs most.
Maintenance
Closing and integration requirements: a practical overview
Closing and integration requirements cover common sale conditions, transaction documents, employee issues, and first-day operating tasks.
Rules
Business broker engagement patterns: six invented engagements and what each one teaches
Six invented business broker engagement patterns, each shown as it appears, how it plays out, and what to study, with real rules and providers noted.
Reviews
Business brokers: six engagement letter clauses to read before signing
Business brokers' engagement letters taken apart: six clauses, how each follows the deal structure, who pays whom, and the costs no invoice ever shows.
Industry
Broker requirements collide in three directions: the law's, yours and theirs
What the law requires of an intermediary, what you should require before signing an engagement, and what they will require of you, with where those collide.
Features
9 points worth checking on acquisition financing
Nine checks on acquisition financing cover what each layer of the funding stack is and what a lender reads before it lends against a business.
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Maintenance
Buyer search examples: ten fictional decision points
These buyer search examples are ten fictional vignettes about decision points that can derail or redirect a business acquisition search.
Rules
Six buyer search mistakes, from job or asset to diligence
Six buyer search mistakes named in order: job or asset, asking price, the seller's broker, bidding to win, a vague letter of intent and diligence.
Industry
Buyer search rules: four sources and who enforces each
Buyer search rules sorted by who enforces them: the law, the agreements you sign, the market conventions that decide who gets shown deals, and your own discipline.
Reviews
Between signing and completion: the closing and integration details sellers miss
Closing and integration: the conditions between signing and completion, the working capital adjustment that surprises sellers, and the handover that follows.
Features
Seller preparation: four clauses, a clean-up list and Form 8594
Seller preparation before a business sale: four engagement-letter clauses to read, a clean-up list in buyer order, and how Form 8594 and the IRS rates work.
Industry
Seller preparation examples: five owners who fixed the wrong thing first
Five invented sellers who prepared for the wrong thing, from a lease that expired mid process to a licence that would not transfer, and the reasoning that fixes it.
Maintenance
Where seller preparation requirements come from
Seller preparation requirements come from legal obligations, buyer diligence and lender conditions. See what sellers should prepare and what is optional.
Costs
Four things a business broker actually does, and where incentives stop matching yours
Business brokers explained: the four things an intermediary does, where their incentives stop matching yours, and the engagement clauses to read closely.
Reviews
Seller preparation in the year before a sale: what actually needs fixing first
Seller preparation in the year before a sale: clean books, reduced owner dependence, honest concentration, and the file a buyer will ask for anyway.
Features
Buyer search: from criteria to letter of intent
A practical buyer search guide to setting criteria, budgeting the hunt, finding deals, assessing unsold businesses, and preparing a letter of intent.