Mike knows his business. He knows what it costs to run it and what he clears at the end of the year after everything is paid. What Mike doesn’t know is what his business actually looks like to a buyer. Ask Mike what his business is worth and he starts with revenue. Then he talks about his trucks and equipment. Then he mentions how long he has been in the market and the reputation he has built. All of that is real. But none of it is how a buyer thinks about value. A buyer is a

He's seen it happen to a competitor two towns over. A big platform company comes in, buys the business, strips the name off the trucks within six months, brings in their own management, and turns something a family spent thirty years building into a regional service. The local culture is gone. Mike watched that happen and told himself he would never do the same thing to his business. What Mike doesn't know yet is that the story he watched play out is one version of what a pa

Mike didn't build this business alone. He'll be the first to tell you that. Danny has been on his crew for fifteen years. He was there when Mike had three trucks and was still doing service calls himself on Saturdays. Carol has run the office for twelve years and knows every customer by first name, every vendor, and probably every mistake Mike has ever made. There are five other people who show up every single day, do the work, and make the business what it is. When the conve

How to Sell Your Business Confidentially Mike almost told his lead technician. They had been together for fifteen years. The guy showed up every single day, knew the customer base better than anyone, and had covered for Mike more times than Mike could count. Telling him felt like the right thing to do. He picked up the phone twice before setting it back down. Both times, something stopped him. A question he couldn't quite answer: what happens the moment the call ends? Mike ha

Mike has been running his HVAC company for 22 years. He built it from one truck and a lot of late nights into a business doing $5 million a year in revenue. He has a good crew, loyal customers, and a reputation in his market that took two decades to earn. Mike also has a number in his head. And when I ask him where that number came from, he says something I hear from almost every owner I talk to. "We do five million a year. So I figure the business is worth around five millio

Mike has been pricing his business in his head for years. Twenty-two years of hard work. A loyal customer base. Revenue that has grown steadily. A reputation in the market that took a long time to build. He knows what all of that is worth to him. When a buyer looks at the same business, they are doing something entirely different. Buyers are not buying Mike's history. They are buying a prediction. Specifically, they are trying to predict what the business will produce after M