A growing share of Australian business sales now include an earnout. Here is what that deferred payment quietly costs owners in control, timing and certainty once the contract is signed.
A sale price agreed at signing is not always the price that lands in the owner’s account at completion. A working capital clause in the contract can move it, often unnoticed until it already has.
Two businesses with identical revenue and profit can attract very different offers. The gap usually sits in revenue quality, and it is one of the first things a buyer’s due diligence team checks.
The profit figure on your management accounts and the earnings figure a buyer applies a multiple to are rarely the same number. Understanding the gap before a sale process starts changes what you can defend.
When buyers map your client list against revenue, any name appearing too often changes the offer before negotiations begin. Customer concentration is measurable from inside the business. Most owners haven’t looked yet.
When buyers examine an Australian business for sale, customer concentration is one of the first risks they price into the offer. Here is what that calculation looks like and how to change the outcome.
Most business owners only think about due diligence when a buyer asks for the documents. By then, the scramble has already shifted the negotiating balance toward the buyer.
When buyers look at a profitable SME and offer less than the owner expected, owner dependency is often the reason. Here’s what they’re pricing in, and how to change it before you sell.
Two businesses in the same sector with near-identical revenue can attract valuations that are worlds apart. The multiple is not assigned by industry. It is earned through structure, and structure can be changed.
Every buyer opens with three years of accounts. What those EOFY numbers show about add-backs, working capital, and owner dependence sets your multiple before any negotiation starts.
The financials you lock in at year-end become the reference point any future buyer works from, which makes a clean, strong EOFY result a value decision. Here is how to make it count.
As EOFY approaches, the year-end is the moment to tidy the financials a future buyer will eventually read. Reliable numbers earn trust, and trust earns price. Here is where to start.
Buyers score a business across eight readiness dimensions before they price it. Each one quietly moves the offer. Here is how to score yourself honestly before someone else does it for you.
The choice between selling today and lifting value first comes down to a few measurable gaps. Owners often sell too early because they cannot see the upside they could build.
Buyers do not pay for last year’s profit. They pay for what the business can reliably repeat after one-off items and owner add-backs are normalised.
Most deals lose value or stall not on price but on messy information once a buyer starts digging. A prepared vendor due diligence pack protects the price and keeps the sale moving. Here is what it covers.
A good year of profit lifts your sale price once. Converting one-off sales into recurring revenue lifts the multiple a buyer pays, which is the more reliable way to grow what your business is worth.
Valuation is lifted by a year of deliberate work on recurring revenue, margin quality and reduced owner reliance, not by a last-minute polish before a sale.
A year-ahead plan built without knowing the current value of the business is missing its anchor. An honest valuation reframes which goals actually matter and where to start.
The value-lifting work before a sale, tidying contracts, reducing owner reliance and proving recurring revenue, takes years not months. The reflective December window is the right time to start the clock.
The slow stretch after the festive rush is when owners finally have headroom to ask what the business is worth. Here is why an indicative valuation belongs in your year-ahead planning.
Two comparable businesses can have completely different sale outcomes. The gap is usually clean financials, documented systems and reduced key-person risk, built over time rather than at the last minute.
When one or two customers carry too much revenue, a buyer discounts the price no matter how strong the numbers look. Spreading revenue lifts both resilience and value.
A business that cannot run a week without the owner is priced as a job, not an asset. Owner dependence is the value detractor most owners underrate, and the fix starts small.
