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Business Valuation Services for Owner Operated Companies

There is a moment in every transaction where the owner believes the hard part is over. Terms are agreed, both sides shook hands, and the number is settled.

Then sixty to ninety days pass before money reaches your account, and those are the days when deals fall apart. Not usually because someone changed their mind. Because a lease could not be assigned, a lender asked for a document nobody had, a licence turned out to be held personally rather than by the company, or four professionals were each waiting on one of the others.

Closing is a coordination problem. It is unglamorous and it decides whether you get paid.

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The Moving Parts We Coordinate

The lender: If your buyer is financing the purchase, the lender is the longest pole in the tent and the most common cause of delay. Underwriting on an SBA transaction commonly runs sixty to ninety days and involves a third party valuation, a full review of your financials, and a list of conditions that has to be cleared before funding.
We stay in front of that process rather than waiting to be told about problems. When a lender's valuation comes in below the agreed price, which happens, there is a conversation to be had about restructuring rather than a deal to abandon.
The attorneys: Your attorney drafts and negotiates on your side, the buyer's does the same on theirs. We keep the commercial intent clear so the lawyers are arguing about language rather than rediscovering what was already agreed. Deals lose weeks when the documents drift from the deal that was actually struck.
The landlord: If your business operates from leased premises, the lease has to be assigned or a new one issued, and the landlord has to agree. Landlords are frequently the single slowest party in a transaction because it is not their deal and they have no deadline.
Some will use the moment to renegotiate terms or demand a personal guarantee from the buyer. Getting to the landlord early, with the buyer's financial information ready, is one of the highest value things that happens in a closing.
Licences, permits and certifications: Contractor licences, professional licences, alcohol permits, health certifications, industry accreditations. Some transfer with the business. Many do not, and the buyer has to qualify independently, which can take weeks or months depending on the jurisdiction.
This is one of the most common causes of a late surprise, and it is entirely avoidable by identifying which category each of yours falls into early.
Customer and vendor contracts: Contracts often contain assignment clauses requiring consent on a change of control. Which ones, and how many of your customers will need to be approached, is a strategic question with confidentiality implications. It gets planned rather than discovered.
Employees: Which employees the buyer intends to retain, what offers they receive, who tells them and when, and how accrued time off is handled. This is the part owners care about most personally, and it deserves to be planned properly rather than handled in the last week.
Insurance and bonding: The buyer needs coverage in place from day one, and in bonded trades the bonding capacity can be a genuine constraint on whether a specific buyer can operate the business at all. Worth knowing before the LOI, not during closing.

Our focus is on doing right by the owner — whether that means working together or helping point you in the right direction.

50+

$500k - $30MM

Enterprise value range

Transactions advised across our team's combined careers in financing, buy-side M&A, and brokerage

Seller-side representation, we never represent buyers

100%

Discuss Your Exit Options

Who Runs Your Closing

Most agreements include a transition period where you stay involved. Its length and structure were negotiated earlier, but the execution matters, because in a deal with a seller note or an earnout your remaining money depends partly on how well the business does after you leave.

A good transition means customer relationships are genuinely introduced rather than mentioned, your team knows who to go to, and the operating knowledge in your head gets transferred while you are still available to answer questions.

We stay engaged through this rather than disappearing at funding.

Transition After Closing

Sam Domino or Marco White, personally. You will not be handed to an analyst.

Sam's background spans both sides of the transaction. He has represented sellers, acquired businesses as part of a private equity backed investment team, and arranged the acquisition financing and debt structuring that gets deals closed. Evaluating businesses from a buyer's perspective is a large part of what he has done professionally, which is directly relevant to telling you how a buyer will see yours.

Marco has worked on more than fifty closed transactions and spends much of his time with owners who are not selling yet, helping them understand current value and what would increase it before an exit.

Graymarc is a member of the International Business Brokers Association.

We are based in Austin, Texas and work with owners across Central Texas including Travis, Williamson and Hays counties. We also represent sellers in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas Fort Worth.

Most of our work is out of state. We have closed transactions in Texas, California, South Carolina and Maine, and we represent sellers nationwide. Valuation is largely a document exercise, so where you are located does not change the quality of the analysis or the price of it.

Where We Work

Who We Work With

Privately held, owner operated businesses across a wide range of industries, generally between $200,000 and $6,000,000 in annual profit, with enterprise values from $500,000 to $30,000,000.

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