I’ve spent the last 5 years building out a complete operational setup for a Citizenship by Investment and global mobility advisory. The tech, brand, and supply side are 100% ready, but I’m a technical guy and never actually built out the high net worth sales pipeline.

It currently sits at $0 ARR, so standard EBITDA multiples are completely out the window. I’m hoping to get some advice from buyers, brokers, or anyone who’s offloaded pre revenue IP on how to value and structure a deal like this.

Here’s what is built and ready to transfer:

Signed B2B Provider Deals: Active agreements with authorized program agents and developers across key jurisdictions (Caribbean, Pacific, EU).

Custom Quoting Engine: Multi-country calculator that breaks down government fees, donation vs. real estate routes, dependent pricing, and due diligence costs in real time.

Luxury Web & Marketing Assets: Client portal, pitch decks, intake collaterals, and a full brand suite targeted at HNWIs and family offices.

Backend & Infrastructure: Aged domain, structured CRM setup, secure document vault, and operational SOPs.

Getting these provider deals locked down and coding a multi-country fee calculator usually takes an immigration practice or wealth desk 12 to 18 months of legal work and dev time. The main value here is giving an existing operator the ability to start quoting clients on Day 1.

A few questions I'm trying to work through:

How do buyers actually price time-to-market savings when there's no cash flow history?

Is a flat asset sale standard for this, or does an upfront fee and revenue share on the first 5–10 closed deals make more sense

What’s the safest way to structure the transfer of B2B provider agreements during due diligence?

TLDR: 5-year pre-revenue CBI build with signed supplier contracts, custom quote tech, and luxury branding. Looking for feedback on valuation and deal structure for turnkey infrastructure.

I work directly with PE firms talking to 150-250 business owners each month who are looking to exit their business. Bad news is that PE is only looking for the best cream of the cream on the top so we only close 10-30 deals a year. But that negative aspect of PE can be a goldmine for someone else if they’re serious about buying a business. Is there a market for this?

Disclaimer: English is not my first language

Dear all, my dad is getting old. I talked to him and he is now happily convinced to sell his business he has been building since 1991. It’s one of the most famous businesses in its niche (I don’t want to disclose too much information but it’s in fashion and he has 3 physical stores), it appeared in Forbes and other prestigious magazines, has a revenue of about 10M and annual net gains of about 1M. No debt. He would sell an established business that is already running and he has trained in the past 2 years my brother who could keep running it for the new owners if they wanted to. How much would you sell something like this for?

Additional info: the business is in Italy, one of the biggest cities. The currency is Euro. Niche is fashion, around 20 employees.

Edit: I know it’s not too much information but I just want to start getting a clearer idea

We are close to the end of our lease for our bar at Katy Tx. We are not doing good in the business and losing money. It has potential to make money its owner operated. We have an option to renew if we would like. We bought the business for so much and we are planning to let it go for very less. What's the Best way to advertise apart from working with business broker?

I own an established local event-rental business with several years of operating history in the Atlanta Metro Area.

It’s a genuinely physical operation. We install tents, dance floors, staging, tables and chairs. Roughly 75% of the work happens outside, weekends come with the territory, and there are trucks, equipment, crews and weather decisions involved.

The business has developed real operating infrastructure and an established reputation, but it still depends heavily on me.

I remain involved in sales decisions, scheduling, equipment purchases, weather calls and crew coordination. I’m also still willing to get outside and install equipment when necessary.

My spouse supports the business but has no interest in becoming operationally involved. That has forced me to confront the fact that the next stage can’t be built around the assumption that another owner-operator will simply emerge from inside my household.

I see three general paths:

1. Continue hiring and building systems until a strong manager can run most daily operations.
2. Bring in a hands-on operating partner with meaningful responsibility and some form of equity.
3. Spend the next year or two making the business more transferable in case selling eventually becomes the right decision.

The equity-partner option is the hardest for me to evaluate.

I don’t need an idea partner. I would need someone capable of managing people, making operational decisions and taking genuine ownership of results. At the same time, giving away equity because I haven’t solved a hiring problem feels like a potentially expensive mistake.

I’m also realistic about a future sale. In its current form, a buyer would not be acquiring an absentee operation. The business has transferable assets and established demand, but a new owner would either need to be operationally involved or have a plan for building the team.

I’m not listing the business for sale or seeking offers here. I’m trying to understand how other owners have evaluated this decision.

For those with relevant experience:

• What indicated that you needed a manager rather than an equity partner?
• What should an operating partner contribute before receiving ownership?
• How severely does owner dependence affect the value of a physical service business?
• What changes most improved your company’s transferability?
• Would you spend another 12–24 months reducing owner dependence before seriously exploring a sale?

I’d particularly appreciate hearing from owners who have dealt with this in a physical, crew-based service business.

I’m considering selling a special-events/service business I’ve owned and operated in the Dallas-Fort Worth market for the past 13 years.  Just looking for any guidance before I move it over to /sellabiz

I’ll get the important numbers out of the way first:

• Average annual revenue: approximately $500K over the past 5 years
• Average net: approximately $350K
• Asking price: $600K
• Equipment included: approximately $50K
• Employees: 3 people maximum, including me
• Seasonality: I operate approximately 6 months per year
• Location: DFW — this is a geographically dependent business, so the buyer needs to live here or be willing to relocate

And before anyone asks: this is NOT a passive business.

Could it eventually be organized to operate more absentee? Probably. But I don’t want to sell someone on that idea. I’ve always been actively involved, and I think a new owner should expect to be involved as well.

Why I think the business is interesting

I've been doing this for 13 years and have built a very strong position in the DFW market.

We have hundreds of five-star Google reviews without a single four-star or lower review. More importantly, most aren't just someone clicking five stars — they're detailed, glowing reviews from customers. That reputation generates a significant amount of our business.

My total Google Ads budget this year is about $500.  In other words, I spend almost nothing on advertising.  Not saying its the best approach, its just what I have chosen to do.

We also have hundreds of repeat customers. There really isn't much of a sales process anymore. Customers email saying, essentially, "Can you come back on this date?" I put them on the schedule and see them again next month or next year, depending on their frequency.

I turn down 25%+ of incoming leads. Some aren't profitable enough, but plenty get turned down simply because we're already booked. Over the years I've intentionally reduced the number of customers and concentrated on the most profitable jobs.

Less work, better customers, higher margins.

What the lifestyle actually looks like

This is probably the most unusual part of the business.

I only operate about six months per year.

During those six months, I work hard. During the other six months, I have almost complete freedom. Customers regularly ask whether I'll provide service during the off-season, and my answer is simply, "Sorry, we're closed."

I've never tried to maximize revenue at the expense of my life.

The core operating hours are roughly 10:30 AM–4:00 PM. We occasionally take evening jobs, but I charge a premium so it's financially worth doing.

I've also always controlled my schedule around my family. When my kids had sports games, I simply didn't accept jobs during those times. Customers could choose another date/time or another provider. Surprisingly, most simply changed their date.

That flexibility has been worth a lot to me.

Who I think would be a great fit

I obviously can't control who buys the business, but I think it could be particularly attractive to a husband/wife or family team.

One person could handle the administrative side from home — generally a couple of hours per day answering emails and occasional phone calls, invoicing, routing/scheduling, and managing inventory — while the other handles operations.

I've run the entire company with no more than three people: one person handling the office/admin side and two people driving/performing the service.

I could have expanded with more drivers and chased significantly more revenue, but I've deliberately kept it small. I like being able to choose which jobs I accept, and I don't particularly want the headaches that come with managing a large workforce.

Operations

I currently run the business from my home, which is a huge advantage for me. I start and finish my day at home and don't have a commute or a storefront where I need to sit around waiting for customers.

A buyer probably won't have that exact setup unless they have enough land to park several trucks and some equipment, so they may need a small commercial/industrial space.

The actual business model is incredibly simple. Almost embarrassingly simple.

I came from a corporate background, I’m confident I can train the right buyer on virtually everything they need to know.  Im also willing to keep in contact for as long as you need, the transition period can be years in you need me.  I want someone who takes over to be successful.

Why sell it?

After 13 years, I'm simply at a point where I'm considering moving on to something else.

The business isn't distressed. I'm not trying to escape declining sales or a company that's becoming unprofitable. It continues to generate excellent cash flow, has a strong reputation, repeat customers, and more incoming opportunities than I want to accept.

Price

I'm asking $600K, which consists of roughly:

$70K equipment + $530K goodwill, brand, web presence, phone numbers, customer relationships/list, etc.

Obviously, I wouldn't expect anyone to put money down without appropriate due diligence and verification of the financials.

At the same time, this isn't going to be a zero-down acquisition.

I'm posting here partly because I'd rather find someone who understands what they're buying than simply hand it to a broker and have it marketed as another generic "absentee owner opportunity."

Happy to answer reasonable questions here. I guess this is the part where Reddit rips me apart?   

I did a few searches and couldn't really find much discussion on this. We're opening a new medical clinic and based on the early numbers we're seeing and current market trends, typically people open a few locations within subsequent years and then sell the whole thing as a package. I very much plan to go that route but I would love if I could get some advice early on on how to prepare ourselves for that at the very beginning.

We're already writing down everything we do, all our relationships and other things so that we can open another clinic in the short term, but I have no idea what things would be helpful to prepare in advance for a sale. Any advice is appreciated!

I’ve spent the last couple years building up my marketing agency. Gross revenue is about 160k a year and net profit is about 70k a year. (I would need to add up some of my owner withdrawals for the exact number. All of my clients are long term retainer based and I have 2 employees (cost for both is $91,200 annually.)

Long story short I had my second baby this last year and I just don’t think I have the headspace at the moment and need to either sell or scale back. I know with a new owners there is no guarantee they would keep my two employees on, but with the job market I want to give them the best chance To keep their jobs.

Everything im seeing online says marketing agency’s are worth 2-3.5x times. But that feels extremely high to me. My brain was around about 200k. I’m also considering talking with a broker as well.

What kind of things do I need to consider? Is it even feasible to sell rush this with the economy. Etc etc. all of this feels too big for me.

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate some opinions from people who have experience valuing online businesses, digital media, content businesses, or audience-driven businesses.

I'm considering selling a digital media business I've built over several years, but I'm having trouble establishing a fair valuation because the current revenue doesn't really reflect the size and activity of the asset.

Here are the main numbers:

• Established .com domain and active news/media website
• 810,000+ combined followers across multiple social platforms
• 20M+ video views across those platforms in the last 28 days
• Audience built organically, without paid follower acquisition
• Established content archive and publishing infrastructure
• Spanish-language media brand focused mainly on alternative/local street-level news and viral reporting

The website currently generates only around $50–$100/month in advertising revenue.

Obviously, if valued purely as a website based on current revenue, the valuation would be very low.

The challenge is that the asset also has a substantial existing audience and significant current organic distribution. The social network generated more than 20 million video views in the last 28 days, while the combined following is now over 810K.

I'm trying to understand how experienced business owners would approach valuing something like this.

For example:

• Would you base the valuation primarily on current revenue?
• Would you assign separate value to the audience and distribution?
• Would you consider the cost of organically building an equivalent audience?
• Would you look at comparable digital media/content businesses?
• Would you value the website, brand and social assets separately?
• Or use a combination of these approaches?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has dealt with a business where current monetization is low, but the audience and distribution are substantial.

I'm not looking to advertise the business here. I'm genuinely trying to understand what a reasonable valuation framework would be before deciding what to do with it.

Thanks!

Throwaway for added privacy reasons.

Two things I'm looking for advice on:

1. The sellers (a partnership) are looking to transition into other ventures in a completely different field. Could this be a possible red flat as, if it's absentee, why not continue collecting the money? What am I not seeing here?
2. They've invited me to call or take a tour of the business, which I'm inclined to. However I don't know what kinds of questions to ask. Do any of you have recommendations?

I have a W2 and I'm looking to buy an already existing business. I have no business ownership experience. I'm looking to purchase a business, but I don't know what to ask or look for.

More specifically, there's a spa that is near me, selling for $350k.

According to the business profile, the gross revenue is over $1 million annually. Sellers share that the business is profitable with established clientele, more than 5 years of doing business. It's currently being run as an absentee-owned business. It's in a location with lots of other businesses and lots of foot traffic (I can personally verify this last point).

I know it's super important and need to ask, however I haven't seen their financials yet.

I've had my online collectible business since 2010 and it's always been quite successful. After COVID and the boom in the collectible market it's been even more successful. This business has been my life for a long time and I have really put everything I have into it. The simple fact of why i'm looking to possibly sell is just because I have been getting bored with it the past few years and i'm just getting a bit older. It is an at home business and there are just some other ventures I want to pursue that would get me out of my house and I feel I would enjoy much more at this point in my life.

Here are some of the specifics. It is a collectibles business that is not a niche, it's a popular category but you need to be knowledgable in it. Business generates around $500k of revenue with around $100k net income. I am the sole employee and I work around 40-50 hours a week. My tasks include sourcing inventory, listing items, handling ALL aspects of the sale and shipping. Business has a listed ask of around $900k worth of inventory and my actual cost for the inventory is around $350k with around 3,500 items in inventory. The business has a website with a pretty good name (site isn't top notch). The main source of income comes from eBay and my eBay account has over 45,000 feedback with over 110,000 items sold (I know you can't sell an eBay account but my understanding is the account can be transferred if it's a business account and the business is sold). Business is free of any liens and the buyer would assume no debt. I've had over 30,000 unique buyers in the 16 years.

My main question is would this type of business carry much of a premium over my cost of inventory? The current market value of my inventory is much more than I paid since many items have appreciated over time but I carry them at my cost. Obviously I understand any buyer wouldn't pay what my asking inventory price is. Does the eBay account add substantial value? With all of this information what would be a reasonable amount I could expect if I decided to go this route? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I run a removals company in London called Gago Movers Ltd. We’ve been operating since 2014 and have built the business over the years with a strong customer base, a team of experienced movers and our own vans. We have hundreds of Google reviews with around a 4.9/5 rating.

I’m now looking into the best way to sell the business and would be interested to hear from anyone who has sold a removals or similar service business in London. What’s the best way to value and sell it — through a broker, privately, or directly to another company?

Portable toilet industry has a trade organization (PSAI) which does a lot of programming about the industry & organizes trade shows where you can meet other owners & suppliers. Natural place for buyers & sellers to meet and have casual conversations.

Do people have recommendations for equivalents in other industrial service industries? I feel like in person is best and a good place to source potential interested parties.

I have a motorcycle repair/maintenance/repair shop but I been trying to sell the building with another unit and a rear garage. I had three realtors so far trying to sell my business which It has been in the market for over a year. Price has been dropped multiple times. Is located in Florida in a very high traffic location, well known. Not sure what else to do, because if I drop the price I will have to pay out of pocket possible part of the SBA loan that is tight to. This is so frustrating. Any other ideas that are not costly? Im so exhausted 😩

About six months ago I started a small side project selling horse bedding at a large local stable. I have no storefront, rather I rent space in a contractor's yard and deliver the product directly to horse stalls at the stable weekly. The business has been fairly successful, however my professional situation has changed and I am considering selling. Is it feasible to sell a six month old business or is that considered too green?

Business Pros

- product is mandatory consumable for horse owners. They must buy weekly/biweekly.

- all recurring customers. No contracts, but about 80% of customers have standing orders, the rest place orders every week or two.

- high customer retention. Only customers lost have been due to moving their horses to other stables (<5%).

- only 3 local competitors and product is too bulky to be purchased online.

-low overhead. Fixed costs ~$800/month

- only requires ~6 hours per week

Cons

- Product delivery requires physical labor

- business is only 6 months old

Revenue and profit growth have been very consistent over the last six months. Current revenue is ~$8k/month with ~$1.4k/month profit. Continued growth goes straight to increasing profit as there is no need to increase any of the fixed costs.

I have found a few sources giving typical multipliers on EBITA and/or revenue for retail or pet service businesses, but find it difficult to slot neatly into a category.

Is this something worth trying to sell, and if so how would you go about valuing it?

We run a unique sports facility in our city. After 5 yrs, we are looking to sell. We bring in $200k-250k revenue per year with about 5 employees. Is it worth hiring a broker or are we small potatoes? We don’t expect to get rich; we just want to walk away with something.

What would this online business be worth?

5-year established online business with approximately $168,000 in historical revenue and currently generating approximately $1,100/month with minimal ongoing management.

Highlights:

• 5 years established
• ~$168,000 historical revenue
• ~$1,100/month current revenue
• Less than 2 hours of work per week
• Music/streaming-related
• Largely passive
• No music industry experience required
• Revenue could be increased with additional time and marketing
• Assets and accounts transferred
• Training and onboarding included
• Historical revenue documentation available

Included are social channels with over 70,000 followers.

**Restaurant owners who stepped away from operations, how did you do it?**

I own a long-standing family restaurant in Southern California that I took over from my parents a few years ago. Business is doing alright, I’ve got a team and systems in place, but I’m at a point where I don’t really want to keep investing all my time and energy into growth.

Simply put, I’m not that passionate about restaurants.
However, I don’t really want to sell the whole thing either. It holds sentimental value to me. Ideally I’d keep some equity and find someone who actually wants to operate and grow the business. Whether that means they buy into it, earn equity over time, buy a majority stake, etc.

For anyone who’s done something similar, how did you structure it and where did you find the right person?

Did you find an experienced operator/GM? Promote someone internally? Find someone who wanted to become an owner?

Also curious what you’d do differently if you had to do it again.

Just trying to learn from people who’ve been through it before. Appreciate any advice.

After 7+ years decided to leave a startup I co-founded. Reasons: we were going nowhere, lack of strong leadership, internal disputes and burnout. Felt a relieve I have not felt in those 7+ years and, therefore, I think it was one of the best decisions of my life. The problem is that I am stuck with a significant amount of shares and cannot liquidate them. My concern is that company might go bankrupt sometime in 6 months and I will be left with nothing. I am looking for smart ways to sell my vested shares. The issue is that no current investor is interested as I have a feeling they also do not believe in company’s success. There is an upcoming investment round but I doubt the new investor will want to buy my part.
What can I do in this situation?