Family- and founder-owned businesses in Chicago and the six counties.
Family- and founder-owned businesses with roughly $1 million to $15 million in revenue in Chicago and Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties: manufacturing and machine shops, distribution, the trades, logistics and professional practices. If you want to sell one, or find out what it's worth first, start with the free CPA-prepared value range. If that isn't you, we'll say so on the first call.
An owner still in the building, and a business worth preparing.
The businesses we serve share three things. Revenue between about $1 million and $15 million. An owner, or a family, who built the company and still runs it. And a reason the next five years have come up: retirement, a partner who wants out, a buyer who called, or a health or family question that moved the timeline.
Most of them are profitable, and most of them have never been valued by anyone who wasn't selling something. The books are usually fine for taxes and not yet fine for a buyer's accountant. The top customer relationships usually sit with the owner. The way the work gets done usually isn't written down. That gap between a good business and a sellable one is our work, and closing it is what buyers pay for. How we work.
We prepare these businesses for sale, sell them, and when the fit is right, buy them. The same people do all three, in person, at your place of business.
Three kinds of business, and what buyers pay for in each.
Machine shops, fabricators, food producers, distributors, trucking and logistics, printing.
Buyers in these categories pay for a customer list that doesn't depend on the owner, equipment that's been maintained and sits on the books at a real value, and margins that hold when the earnings are rebuilt from the bank statements. A second person who can quote and run the floor is worth more than most owners expect. The page for that owner is sell my manufacturing business in Chicago: who buys, what they pay and how fast it can close. A family manufacturing business in its second generation sells the same way, with one extra item on the list: which family members stay, in what roles and at what pay, settled in writing before the buyer asks.
HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping.
Roll-ups are active in these categories across the six counties, and they pay for recurring service agreements, licensed technicians who will stay, and dispatch and job-costing that don't live in the owner's head. Clean books matter twice here, because the buyer's lender reads them too. Who buys these companies, what they pay and which licenses have to transfer is in selling a contracting business in Chicago.
Dental, veterinary, engineering, accounting, agencies, business services, healthcare services.
Buyers pay for patient or client retention that survives the founder's departure, associates or senior staff with a reason to stay, and a billing history that ties out to the deposits. A written transition plan, with the founder staying a defined number of months, usually moves the price more than anything else.
If your industry isn't listed, ask. The test is whether a buyer's accountant would read the business the way we do, and for most owner-run companies in this size range the answer is yes.
Six counties, in person.
Our office is at 10 South Riverside Plaza in the West Loop, near Union Station. Engagements run at your business, not ours.
- Chicago and Cook County
- Everything, from the industrial corridors on the South and West sides to the practices and agencies in the North and West suburbs. Most of the region's businesses are here, and so are most of the buyers.
- DuPage
- Distributors and contractors along I-88 and I-355, and the professional practices in the towns between them.
- Kane
- Manufacturers and machine shops in Elgin, Aurora and St. Charles, and the trades that serve the Fox Valley.
- Lake
- Professional practices and light manufacturing along the North Shore and Route 41.
- McHenry
- Family manufacturers and trades in Crystal Lake, McHenry and Woodstock, many of them second-generation. What that sale looks like: selling a family manufacturing business in Chicago.
- Will
- Logistics, trucking and construction around Joliet and I-80, and the trades serving the towns along I-55.
- Northwest Indiana
- By arrangement, mostly manufacturing and trades across the state line, when the business and the timing make sense for an on-site engagement.
Who we're not right for.
We'd rather tell you on the first call than after an engagement letter. In each of these cases we'll say what we'd look for and, where we can, who to call instead.
- Startups and pre-revenue companies
- The buyers we sell to pay for earnings history. Without a few years of it there's nothing for us to prepare or price, and the fee wouldn't earn its keep.
- Businesses under about $1 million in revenue
- Our fees are flat and in writing, and below about $1 million they take too large a share of what you'd net. A sale to an employee or a smaller local broker is often the better path, and we'll say so.
- Franchises with resale rules
- Franchise agreements usually set who can buy, on what terms, and with whose approval. That's a process the franchisor runs, and our preparation work rarely changes the outcome enough to justify the cost.
- Businesses outside Chicagoland
- We work on site in Chicago and the six counties, and in Northwest Indiana by arrangement. That's a deliberate limit. Outside it, we'll tell you what a buyer's accountant would look for and refer you on.
If the profile fits.
The free confidential value range takes three inputs and two business days. The Exit-Readiness Review is two weeks and $4,500 flat, credited against our fee if we later list. How the sale runs covers the listing process and the 10% success fee; what that fee comes to at each sale price, next to the Chicago market, is on business broker fees in Chicago. Services and fees puts every offer on one page. Timing questions are answered in why now and the owner FAQ.
Thirty minutes with a CPA. Your numbers, straight answers.
Pick two windows and he'll confirm one within a business hour. Or call the office, weekdays 9 to 5. A person answers.