Guides for owners
thinking about a sale.
Direct, practical answers to the questions we hear most from founders and business owners on advisors, process, valuation, and buyers in the lower middle market.
Choosing an advisor.
Who actually does this work, what the fee should be, and how to tell an investment bank from a broker before you sign anything. Start here if you are still deciding who to call.
How to Choose an M&A Advisor for a Founder-Led Business
A practical framework for evaluating advisors when the business is your biggest asset and your life's work.
Read the Guide → April 21, 2026Sell-Side Advisor vs. Business Broker: What’s the Difference?
Where brokers and investment banks overlap, where they diverge, and which one fits your size and situation.
Read the Guide → March 10, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Selling a $20 Million Company in 2026
Twelve firms compared, what survey data says a $20M success fee should actually cost, and the retainer question most owners forget to ask.
Read the Guide → March 24, 2026Top Lower Middle Market Investment Banks in 2026
Thirteen firms compared on their own strengths, what the league tables genuinely measure and where they stop, and real fee benchmarks.
Read the Guide → August 7, 2026M&A Advisor Fees: What a Sale Actually Costs
Retainers, Lehman formulas, and pure success fees compared, plus the four engagement-letter terms that move your total cost more than the headline percentage does.
Read the Guide → July 16, 2026Best Business Valuation Firms for a Lower Middle Market Sale
Most “best business valuation firm” lists mix tax, litigation, and startup work into one ranking. This one is scoped to a single job: valuing a business ahead of a sale.
Read the Guide → August 17, 2026Best M&A Advisors and Investment Banks in Chicago for Lower Middle Market Deals (2026)
Five firms compared on deal size, sector coverage, principal access and fees, including ours, with the disclosure that we wrote the list and why the order is not a ranking.
Read the Guide → August 17, 2026Buy-Side M&A Advisor: What They Do and What They Cost
Written for the buyer rather than the owner. What a buy-side mandate actually covers, why retainers show up more often on this side, and how a percentage-of-price fee cuts against the buyer paying it.
Read the Guide → August 23, 2026Best Boutique M&A Firms for Founder-Led Lower Middle Market Companies (2026)
Six boutique M&A firms compared on deal size, fees, and principal involvement, including ours, with the disclosure that we wrote the list and why the order is not a ranking.
Read the Guide → September 9, 2026Roll-Up and Buy-and-Build Acquisition Advisory: How M&A Advisors Support Platform Building
For the buyer running a program rather than a deal. Platform criteria versus add-on criteria, how a pipeline gets sequenced against your financing and integration capacity, and why one valuation standard across every target is the whole game.
Read the Guide → September 15, 2026Best Exit Planning Advisors and Consultants for Business Owners (2026)
Six firms and organizations compared on specialization, fee model, deal size and senior involvement, including ours, with the disclosure that we wrote the list and why it is a fit exercise rather than a ranking.
Read the Guide →Preparing to sell.
The work that happens before a process starts, and the places sellers quietly lose money at the end of one. Read these in order and you will know roughly what the next few years look like.
Lower Middle Market M&A Outlook 2026
Deal activity in this size range is up while global counts fall. Why the 13.4x multiple and the $1.1 trillion of dry powder everyone quotes describe a market several times larger than yours.
Read the Guide → July 23, 2026Business Succession Planning: A Guide for Family-Owned and Founder-Owned Companies
How to separate leadership succession from ownership succession, a phased three-to-ten-year timeline, the governance that prevents family conflict, and how M&A advisor fee models compare.
Read the Guide → June 9, 2026What Buyers Look for in an Acquisition Target
The operational, financial, and management factors that shape how buyers evaluate and price a business.
Read the Guide → July 9, 2026Quality of Earnings: What a QoE Actually Finds
Most of the QoE statistics quoted at sellers cannot be traced to any primary source. What the report actually costs, and which of your add-backs it kills.
Read the Guide → August 3, 2026Deal Structure: The Six Ways Buyers Build an Offer
Two offers at the same valuation can pay very differently. Cash, earnouts, rollover, seller notes, working capital, and staged buyouts, and which way each one shifts the risk.
Read the Guide → July 24, 2026The Working Capital Peg: How Sellers Lose at Close
The least-read line in a purchase agreement. Six specific traps that move six figures after you have already agreed a price, and why buyers’ calculations are accepted in 7 of every 10 adjustments.
Read the Guide → August 12, 2026Earnouts, Escrows, and Holdbacks: What Is Actually Guaranteed
An earnout pays only if the business hits agreed targets after closing, and the buyer controls the books that decide it. Revenue against EBITDA, what escrow and holdback do differently, and what a seller can negotiate before signing.
Read the Guide → September 2, 2026How Sellers Protect Themselves After Closing
The median escrow is 10% of the deal without reps and warranties insurance and 0.5% with it. What caps, baskets, survival periods, and a policy each do to the money you keep.
Read the Guide → September 23, 2026Letter of Intent: What to Negotiate Before You Sign (2026)
The letter of intent is the last point where buyers compete for your business. What binds when you sign, how long exclusivity should last, and the 12 terms to settle first.
Read the Guide → September 23, 2026What You Keep After Selling Your Business (2026)
A $20 million offer is not $20 million in your bank account. What comes out at closing, what gets paid later, and what federal and state taxes take.
Read the Guide → September 22, 2026Asset Sale vs. Stock Sale: What Business Owners Need to Know in 2026
What each structure actually transfers, which liabilities follow the business, and how contracts, employees, taxes, and the purchase agreement change what a seller keeps.
Read the Guide → September 16, 2026Family Business Succession Planning 2026: What to Do When There's No One to Take Over
When no family member or employee is ready to take over: five realistic paths compared on valuation, cash at closing, employee continuity, and your role after closing, and why one unsolicited offer is not a market price.
Read the Guide → MSP & IT Services · September 16, 2026How to Prepare an MSP for Sale: A 24-Month Readiness Checklist (2026)
What to fix at 24, 12, and 6 months out: contracted recurring revenue and founder dependence first, then contract terms and customer concentration, then the PSA, RMM, and SLA records buyers test.
Read the Guide → Pet Care & Dog Daycare · September 17, 2026How to Prepare a Dog Daycare Business for Sale in 2026
A two-phase readiness timeline: what needs 12 to 24 months of operating history, and what you confirm in the last three to six. Adjusted EBITDA support, owner dependence, membership and deferred revenue, licensing and lease consent, and facility condition.
Read the Guide → Preschool & Childcare · September 17, 2026How to Prepare a Preschool or Childcare Business for Sale in 2026
Enrollment that survives a buyer’s test: licensed capacity against usable capacity by classroom, tuition and subsidy reconciled to cash, credential and licensing files, lease consent, and the state change-of-ownership approvals that set the closing date.
Read the Guide →The sale process.
How a sell-side process runs from first call to wire, how long each phase really takes, and the language you will hear along the way.
Sell-Side M&A Process: A Guide for Lower Middle Market Business Owners
A 14-step walkthrough of how a sell-side process actually runs, from preparation through closing and the post-closing transition.
Read the Guide → May 19, 2026How Long Does It Take to Sell a Business in the Lower Middle Market?
Realistic timelines for each phase of a sale, and the factors that most often speed up or stall a deal.
Read the Guide → June 23, 2026Strategic Buyer vs. Private Equity Buyer: Which Is Better for Sellers?
How the two buyer types differ on price, terms, speed, and what happens to the business after close.
Read the Guide → August 18, 2026What is an M&A Auction Process?
How a multi-buyer auction runs stage by stage, and how it compares with negotiating quietly with one buyer.
Read the Guide → September 7, 2026Due Diligence Checklist: What Buyers Request
What the buyer’s accountants, lawyers, and lenders actually ask for after the LOI, and how to have it ready first.
Read the Guide → September 20, 2026Someone Wants to Buy My Business: How to Evaluate an Unsolicited Offer (2026)
Verify the buyer, protect confidentiality, and see how the headline price differs from cash at closing before you choose among four responses.
Read the Guide → Reference · June 16, 2026M&A Glossary: Lower Middle Market Terms Explained
Plain-language definitions of IOI, LOI, EBITDA, rollover equity, earnouts, and the other terms you'll hear during a sale.
Read the Guide →Valuation and what businesses sell for.
What buyers pay and why. Start with the basics, then find the multiples for your industry. Advisor comparisons for these same sectors are under By Sector.
EBITDA and Business Valuation Basics: What Every Owner Should Know
What EBITDA actually measures, why buyers use multiples, and the common adjustments owners should understand.
Read the Guide → Business Services · July 29, 2026Business Services Valuation Multiples
“Business services” is a filing cabinet, not a sector. A composite multiple covering both pest control and commodity staffing tells an owner nothing, and the reason is that contracted revenue and recurring revenue are not the same thing.
Read the Guide → Childcare & Daycare · August 1, 2026Childcare & Daycare Valuation Multiples: What Centers Sell For
Every published multiple ladder for this sector traces back to brokerage marketing rather than transaction data. What centers actually sell for by operator size, and why occupancy sets the ceiling on all of it.
Read the Guide → Dental & Orthodontics · September 16, 2026Dental Practice Valuation Multiples (2026): What DSOs and Private Buyers Actually Pay
SDE and adjusted EBITDA multiples cannot be compared until you check the earnings behind each. Reported ranges by practice size, why a DSO and an individual dentist price the same practice differently, and what 60% to 70% cash at closing leaves deferred.
Read the Guide → Dog Daycare & Pet Care · July 17, 2026Dog Daycare & Pet Care Valuation Multiples
Boarding, daycare, and grooming get underwritten as three separate businesses even when they share a building. The occupancy math behind the margin, and what veterinary consolidation says about where this is heading.
Read the Guide → Manufacturing & Industrials · July 28, 2026Manufacturing Valuation Multiples: What Plants Sell For
EBITDA ignores the equipment a plant cannot avoid replacing. Subtract maintenance capex and the multiple changes shape, which is most of why private equity and strategic buyers quote such different numbers for the same business.
Read the Guide → MSP & IT Services · July 30, 2026MSP Valuation Multiples: What Managed IT Services Businesses Sell For
Published EV/EBITDA multiples by deal size and segment, why MSPs trade below the broader IT services market, and what moves a shop up or down its range.
Read the Guide →By sector.
The advisors, buyers, and consolidators active in the industries we work in. Pair each of these with the matching guide under Valuation & Multiples. We advise directly in three of them: preschool and childcare, MSP and IT services, and dog daycare and pet care.
Best M&A Advisors for Early Childhood Education
Six advisors compared including HINGE and SchoolWise, what preschools actually sell for, and the platforms buying right now.
Read the Guide → Business Services · June 25, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Business Services
Six advisors compared by vertical, published fee benchmarks, and how many deals Alpine’s platforms closed last year.
Read the Guide → Manufacturing & Industrials · June 29, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Manufacturing & Industrials
Six advisors compared using Axial’s 2026 industrials rankings, fee benchmarks, and why industrials is the busiest category in the market.
Read the Guide → Dog Daycare & Pet Care · August 5, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Pet Care & Dog Daycare Businesses
PET|VET, Peakstone Group, Lincoln International, Capstone Partners, DanaShift, and Salt Creek compared for owners of dog daycares, boarding facilities, grooming operations, and pet resorts.
Read the Guide → MSP & IT Services · August 6, 2026Best M&A Advisors for MSPs & Managed Service Providers
Not one of the six publishes an MSP deal count you can check against anything but its own website. What the FINRA records show instead, and why the firm ranking first for this search works for buyers.
Read the Guide → Accounting & CPA Firms · August 24, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Accounting & CPA Firms
Four advisors compared for practice owners weighing a sale, an internal successor, or a PE platform, with what firms actually sell for on normalized EBITDA.
Read the Guide → HVAC & Home Services · August 24, 2026Best M&A Advisors for HVAC Companies
Salt Creek, Good Hope, Align, Cetane, CT Acquisitions, and Schryver compared on deal-size fit, who the advisor actually represents, and which firms publish a fee model at all.
Read the Guide → Dental & Orthodontics · August 27, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Dental Practices
Salt Creek, TUSK, McLerran, PTS, Large Practice Sales, ADS, and Henry Schein compared on practice-size fit, fee transparency, and whether a DSO or an individual dentist is the better buyer.
Read the Guide → Plumbing & Home Services · August 28, 2026Best M&A Advisors for Plumbing Companies
Salt Creek, Good Hope, SF&P, The Advisory IB, Main Street Wealth, Ridgefield, and Three Sixty Seven compared on fee model, deal-size fit, and how much of the price a PE platform actually pays at closing.
Read the Guide → Legal Services & Pet Care · June 27, 2026Why Roll-Ups Are Heating Up in Legal Services and Pet Care
Why two fragmented, owner-heavy industries are attracting active roll-up interest, and what it means if you're in one.
Read the Guide →From the founders.
Why we built the firm the way we did, and a few things we think about that have nothing to do with a deal.
Why We Built Salt Creek Around Relationships, Not Transactions
Jack Pitts on why community and real relationships are a better foundation for this business than treating deals as pure transactions.
Read the Note → Jack Pitts · July 1, 2026Coming Home: Family, the Midwest, and This Fourth of July
A personal note from Jack Pitts on leaving private equity in New York, coming home, and building something with his brother.
Read the Note → Connor Pitts · June 30, 2026Community, the Midwest, and What It Means to Sell a Family Business
Connor Pitts on Midwest community, growing up around a family business, and what actually changes for a town when one gets sold.
Read the Note → Jack Pitts · June 18, 2026How AI Is Actually Changing Business (Not the Hype Version)
A grounded look at where AI helps, where it falls short, and how we use it at Salt Creek.
Read the Guide →