Insights on Value, Earnings & Exits

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If you read three things.

Field Guide

Bought, Not Sold

The owner's guide to the five things a buyer scores before they pay, with an honest self-assessment. If you only have twenty minutes, spend them here.

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Article

Same Profit. Very Different Price.

Why two businesses with identical earnings sell for wildly different prices, and the three levers that decide which side you land on.

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Selected Work

The Clean-Looking Deal With a 22% Problem

An illustrative buy-side QoE walk-through: the earnings held up, but a hidden concentration reshaped the deal. This is the kind of read we deliver.

See the work

Field Guides & Whitepapers

Institutional guides, free to read.

Downloadable, plain-spoken guides for owners and deal teams. Built to the standard of the ones the big firms hand their clients.

Field Guide No. 1 · Owner Edition

Bought, Not Sold

Why ready businesses get bought on the owner's terms, and the five things a buyer prices before they pay. Walks financial hygiene, owner-independence, leadership bench, market position, and transaction readiness, with a Quarry-to-Capstone self-assessment.

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Field Guide

What a Buyer Checks

Proof of cash, add-backs, revenue quality, and working capital: the buyer's-eye read of your earnings, and how to get ahead of the retrade before you list.

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Field Guide

Getting to Yes on Capital

Why the answer is usually the package, not the business, and what a lender or investor opens first. The owner's guide to being fundable.

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More guides are on the way. Want one we have not published yet? Ask us.

Articles

Field notes on value, earnings, and getting ready.

Article · By Jared Luegers, CFA
Same Profit. Very Different Price.
Provable, durable, and transferable earnings are what separate a four-times multiple from a chipped-down three. Here is how to land on the right side of the gap.
Article · By Jared Luegers, CFA
Could It Survive a Month Without You?
Owner-dependence is the most common discount on the price, and the most fixable. The test buyers run, where the dependence hides, and how to pass it before you go to market.
Article · By Jared Luegers, CFA
The Add-Backs That Kill Deals.
Which adjustments survive a buyer's accountants and which invite a re-trade. The three-part test, the ones that hold, and why eight beats twenty-five.

Selected Work

What the work looks like.

Named, client-approved case studies go here as engagements close. Until then, an illustrative walk-through shows the format and the kind of read we deliver. We never manufacture proof.

Illustrative · Buy-side QoE

The Clean-Looking Deal With a 22% Problem

A searcher under LOI on a $10.4M distribution business. The earnings held up (+83% reported to adjusted, all documented), but a 22% customer concentration the book did not lead with reshaped the deal, into an earnout, a working-capital peg, and reps that protected the buyer. A composite built to show the format.

Read the walk-through

How we work

See how a QoE runs

The eight stages, the timeline, and what you get.

Quality of Earnings

A Quick Self-Check

Twelve questions a buyer will ask before you sell.

If you can answer these cleanly, you are closer to ready than most. If a few make you wince, that is your punch list, and better to find it now than at the closing table.

If you, or your key person, were gone for a month, what would break?
Can you tie every dollar of profit you claim to the bank account?
Which add-backs could you defend to a skeptical buyer, out loud?
What share of revenue rides on your single biggest customer?
How much of the revenue recurs, versus starts from zero each year?
Who makes the day-to-day decisions when you are not there?
Is the plan written down, or is it in your head?
Could you raise price 10% and keep nearly every customer?
Do the monthly numbers close cleanly, and on time?
What is the business actually worth, and what would you net after the deal?
Who are the two or three most likely buyers, and why?
What will you do the day after the check clears?

Take the free Foundation Check

Where To Next

The next useful thing, depending on where you are.

Quality of EarningsThe service most of this writing is about.Bought, Not SoldThe full field guide, free to read.Your industryWhere the risk hides, sector by sector.

Straight talk for owners and dealmakers.

If you read three things.

Bought, Not Sold

Same Profit. Very Different Price.

The Clean-Looking Deal With a 22% Problem

Institutional guides, free to read.

Bought, Not Sold

What a Buyer Checks

Getting to Yes on Capital

The occasional, useful email.

Field notes on value, earnings, and getting ready.

What the work looks like.

The Clean-Looking Deal With a 22% Problem

See how a QoE runs

Twelve questions a buyer will ask before you sell.

The next useful thing, depending on where you are.

Reading is a start. A conversation is faster.