Six articles so far, each one an answer we found ourselves giving across the desk more than once. Sourced where there are numbers, plain where there aren't, and none of it requires you to hand over an email address.
Sellers got 83 to 92 percent of the price in cash at closing in Q2 2026 (IBBA Market Pulse); 90 percent of buyers expect a seller note and 29 percent of owners plan to offer one (BizBuySell). Normal note terms, the SBA's 2025 full-standby rule, how earnouts are defined and taxed, and the six documents that keep price out of deferred paper.
What each one does, how each is paid (8 to 12 percent success fees versus retainers plus Lehman-style sliding scales, with the arithmetic on a $3 million sale), the revenue and EBITDA lines where the likely buyer changes, what the titles mean under Illinois and federal law, and five questions to ask before signing with either.
Where to start, what to fix before going to market, how the price is set, how buyers are found without telling your employees, what the letter of intent settles, and what an Illinois closing needs. Month by month, with what adds time.
Cash-basis books, owner-held sales, one customer over 20 percent, undocumented add-backs, no SOPs, working capital that swings, and deferred maintenance. What each one costs at the sale table, how the accountant finds it, and how long the fix takes.
SDE versus EBITDA, the multiples buyers are paying by industry and by size with the publisher and year for each, why the range is so wide, and a worked example for a $3 million machine shop.
Success fees, Lehman and Double Lehman, retainers and minimums, the tail clause, and five questions to ask before you sign a listing agreement. Our own terms, stated plainly.
We write about the questions that come up in the first thirty minutes with an owner: what the business is worth, what a buyer will push on, what selling costs, and whether now is the time. Where there is a number, we give the publisher and the year, and where the public data runs out we say so rather than round up. Where there isn't a number, you get our judgment, labeled as judgment.
There is no newsletter and no gated download. If a question you have isn't answered here, ask it on a 30-minute consult and there's a fair chance it becomes the next article.
Each piece points to the page where the work actually gets done. The timeline article is the long version of selling a business in Chicago. The diligence article pairs with the Exit-Readiness Review, which scores a business on the same seven items and more. The multiples article is the background to the free value range. The fees article is the context for how we sell a business and what we charge to do it. The deal-structure article is the long version of the structure step in that process: what a seller note and an earnout cost, and how to keep the price in cash.
The five things every buyer's accountant tests: financial credibility, owner dependence, customer durability, team and process, and the deal file.
Read the five lenses MarketThe owner wave in Chicagoland, who is buying, and what a crowded market does to the price of an unprepared business.
Read why now Owner FAQTwenty-two questions owners ask before they list, with the numbers where numbers exist.
Read the FAQRevenue, industry and an email address. A CPA-prepared range and the two or three items a buyer's accountant would raise first, within two business days.