03 · Value and sell

Find out what it is worth before you need to know.

The owners who get the best outcomes started two years early. The ones who get the worst found out their number at the same time they found out they had to sell.

A valuation is free and confidential, and it costs you nothing to know. Most owners are surprised in both directions.


How a sale actually runs

One · Valuation and preparation

What the business is worth today, and which specific things would move it. If the gap is large, the right answer is usually twelve to twenty-four months of work before anyone sees the numbers.

Two · A blind profile, not your name

Buyers see the shape of the business before they see whose it is. Your crew, your customers and your competitors find out at closing — in a labour market this tight, a leak costs you people before it costs you price.

Three · A real process, not one call

Several qualified buyers on the same timeline is the only thing that produces competitive terms. One unsolicited offer, handled alone, is how good businesses get bought cheaply.

Four · Diligence and structure

Quality of earnings, working capital pegs, escrow and what you are asked to stay for. Price is the headline; structure is where the money actually is.

What moves your number

Recurring or contracted revenueUp
Management depth past the founderUp
Customer concentrationDown
Owner still closing the salesDown
Deferred capital expenditureDown

Sell-side advisory

The Roundtable does not sell your business. Hillandale does.

Every M&A engagement that starts in this network goes to Hillandale Advisors — our banking partner, and owner-operators of Carolina businesses themselves. We would rather say that plainly than pretend the network is neutral.

Confidential. NDA before financials.