Who the Buyer Has to Convince Before They Can Pay You
The person across the table is rarely the person who approves the price. Understanding the committee, the lender and the memo behind a buyer changes what you hand over and how you answer.
Jackim Woods & Co. is a leading middle market M&A advisor providing senior-level attention and flawless execution to clients across the United States — 200+ closed transactions, over $750 million in aggregate value, with particular depth in education, business services, and manufacturing.

The person across the table is rarely the person who approves the price. Understanding the committee, the lender and the memo behind a buyer changes what you hand over and how you answer.

Most of what makes a business easy to buy takes longer to build than a sale takes to run. Two years out, the question is not what to fix but what to fix first, and the answer is set by how long each item takes to show up in the record a buyer will read.

Owners treat the multiple as a market fact. It is a conclusion a buyer reaches, one step at a time, and every step is something you can influence. Here is how the number gets built, from required return to the adjustments buyers make and what actually moves it.

A composite from the sell-side table: a good company with 40 percent of revenue in one account, two buyers who walked, and the eighteen months of unglamorous work that turned the soft spot into something a stranger could verify and a successor could keep.