Most owners start this conversation two years too late.

The boring businesses people will always need. Handover works with their owners: we get the books straight, find the buyers who can actually close, and run the sale to handover. The first conversation is confidential and costs nothing.

Start a private conversation

No listing, no signage, no one on your team finds out.

Ridgemont Heating & Air, readiness check

09/18/2026

P&L0
Tax return0
Bank deposits0
139,000 variance
118,000 variance
  • open139,000, p&l revenue against tax return gross receipts
  • open118,000, bank deposits against p&l revenue
  • open46,000, owner vehicle and phone costs run through the business
Stated earnings680,000
Adjusted earnings665,000

The figure a buyer will underwrite.

Illustrative, fictional

Four stages, and what you decide at the end of each.

  1. 01

    The first conversation

    Confidential, off the record, and usually a year or two before anything happens. We tell you what the business would look like to a buyer today and what would need fixing.

    Outputs

    • A verbal read
    • A written note if you want one
    • Nothing else

    You decide whether to do anything at all.

  2. 02

    Getting sale-ready

    With your permission we organise the documents and reconcile the P&L, the tax returns and the deposits. Every gap is investigated by an adviser before a buyer sees a number, because a discrepancy found in diligence costs far more than one found now.

    Outputs

    • A clean document set
    • A reconciled earnings figure
    • A written list of what we could not resolve

    You approve the numbers before anyone else sees them.

  3. 03

    Meeting buyers

    We approach a vetted list with financing already checked. You see who they are before they see who you are.

    Outputs

    • A buyer shortlist
    • A CIM
    • Introductions on your terms

    You choose who gets a call.

  4. 04

    To handover

    LOI, diligence, purchase agreement, transition. We run it and you keep working on the business.

    Outputs

    • A signed agreement
    • A transition plan
    • A handover period you set

    You sign or you walk, at any point up to closing.

Four decisions are yours. Nothing is listed, advertised or shown to anyone without your written say-so.

Three documents, one set of numbers, and the gaps between them.

Statement of operations

DOC-014 / P&L / FY2025

Service revenue2,914,000
Installation revenue1,102,000
Maintenance plans184,000
Total revenue4,200,000
Cost of services2,466,000
Operating expenses1,100,000
Seller's discretionary earnings680,000

Prepared by the company bookkeeper

  • P&L revenue

    4,200,000

    Tax return gross receipts

    4,061,000

    Gap: 139,000

    Deferred revenue on annual maintenance plans recognised differently in each.

    Maintenance plans are billed annually and recognised in full in the management accounts, while the return recognises them across the service months. The underlying contracts were traced to the plan schedule and agree in total.

    Resolved, no adjustment to earnings.

A buyer's accountant will find every one of these. The only question is whether you found them first.

How we find people, and what we do not record.

We build a picture from public records: licence status, filing history, years trading, review volume, hiring activity. That is all business information and all of it is public.

We do not record or infer anything about an owner's age, health or personal circumstances, and nothing of that kind appears in our system.

Every approach is a person writing to a person. If you would rather not hear from us again, one reply ends it permanently.

The buyers, and how they are checked.

Individual searcher

cleared

SBA 7(a) PRE-QUALIFIED

Operations background in mechanical services, intends to run the business himself.

Regional operator

cleared

CASH + CREDIT FACILITY

Runs four branches in the upstate, would keep the name and the crews.

Holding company

cleared

COMMITTED EQUITY

Buys and holds contracting businesses, leaves management in place.

Local competitor

not cleared

NOT EVIDENCED

Financing not evidenced, not cleared to meet.

An owner's time is the scarce thing in a sale. Nobody gets a meeting on the strength of enthusiasm.

We are paid when it closes.

No retainer for the first conversation or the readiness check. If you go to market, we are paid a success fee on the consideration you receive at closing. Legal and accounting work is billed at cost by the specialists doing it, and quoted before they start.

What this is not.

Not every business is sellable at a price the owner wants. We will tell you that at the first conversation rather than take you to market to find out.

We are not your accountant or your attorney. They are separate and you instruct them directly.

Readiness takes months, not weeks. If you need to be out by spring, we are probably the wrong call.

resolved139,000 variancedeferred maintenance revenue

Found in week two. Not in diligence.

Have the conversation early.

Confidential, no fee, no obligation, and no one on your team needs to know it happened.

Start a private conversation