Foreword

“Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish Novelist

When I began helping entrepreneurs sell their businesses over 20 years ago, I scoured the market for useful information on the topic. I soon discovered that most of this knowledge didn’t deal with many of the real-world problems I encountered when working with my clients. A big chunk of it was theoretical. Or it was directed at large, publicly traded companies. Many of the books at the time were simply a random collection of observations that were difficult to apply in the real world.

I wrote this book for owners of companies valued from $10 million to $100 million – or companies with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $2 million to $10 million per year. 

Whether you’re seeking general guidance or looking for a useful, concise description of the sale process for companies in this size range, you’ll have difficulty finding truly useful, actionable tips. To be sure, there’s a lot of theoretical intelligence out there that might be helpful to academics. But if you own a private business, much of the information in these books won’t be helpful to you. You’ll find that most M&A books are written by academics, accountants, attorneys, financial planners, or business appraisers who have abstract knowledge about the process but who may not have participated in actually selling a business. 

This book is different. It offers clear, concrete, and practical advice grounded in real-world experience. In it, I’ll walk you, the seller, through the entire sales process and offer guidance based on my decades of helping entrepreneurs in a variety of industries successfully sell their businesses. 

In these chapters, I offer recommendations that even the busiest entrepreneurs can apply in their hectic lives. And while this book speaks directly to sellers, anyone involved in the M&A process – buyers, attorneys, accountants, and business appraisers – will benefit from the observations and advice that follows.

Sincerely, 

Jacob Orosz