Practical guides for Australian business owners in the $2M–$25M EBITDA range. Everything a business owner wishes they had known before starting a sale process.
M&A advisors do more than find buyers. They design the process, manage information flow, create competitive tension, and, in many cases, determine whether a deal happens at all. This article explains what they actually do, who they are suited to, and why the $2M–$25M EBITDA range is where their involvement matters most.
Finding the right advisor is not about picking the biggest name; it is about matching sector experience, deal-size fit, and track record to your specific business, and knowing the questions that separate a genuine specialist from a generalist.
Success fees, retainers, Lehman-scale structures, break fees: the fee landscape for M&A advisory is more complex than most owners expect. This article explains what is standard at different deal sizes, what to negotiate, and how M&A Concierge's model sits differently.
They both help you sell a business, but they serve different markets, run different processes, and produce different outcomes. Understanding the distinction before you engage either is one of the most important decisions you will make.
Preparing a business for sale takes 12 to 24 months, and the order matters more than the checklist: ownership structure first, presentation last, with capital gains tax changes from 1 July 2027 adding a deadline.
Most Australian businesses in the $2M–$25M EBITDA range typically sell within seven to twelve months of engaging an advisor, and longer where due diligence findings or regulatory clearance extend the timeline; where they land in that range is largely decided before they go to market.
A trade sale, a private equity deal and a management buyout each work very differently for an Australian owner, and the right route depends less on price than on what you want your involvement to look like afterwards.
Most owners who sell a business in the $2M–$25M EBITDA range without an experienced M&A advisor either do not complete or complete on worse terms, and the cases where doing it yourself makes sense are narrow.
From the decision to go to market through to settlement, a complete walkthrough of what selling a business in Australia actually involves, written for owners who are doing it for the first time.
Selling confidentially means controlling who learns what and when, from anonymous teaser to data room, and knowing where landlords, lenders, key customers and the ACCC can force disclosure.
Valuation and price are not the same thing. This article explains how EBITDA multiples work in the Australian mid-market, what normalisation means, and why the price your business achieves depends on more than any valuation report.
Timing a business sale involves three separate questions: where the business is in its cycle, where the market is, and where you are personally. Getting all three aligned is rare. This article explains how to think through each, and what to do when they don't line up.
The headline price on an offer is not the amount you receive. Cash, debt, working capital, retentions, earnouts, deferred consideration and vendor finance all sit in between, and a higher headline can mean less at settlement.
Since January 2026, some sales cannot complete until the ACCC approves them. Which sales are caught, who notifies, and what it means for your timetable and sale agreement.
The advisory call takes everything you've read and applies it to your specific situation: your business, your objectives, your timeline, and the advisors who are right for your transaction.
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