When should I start preparing to sell my construction business?

Start 24 to 36 months out. In due diligence a buyer and their accountant read three years of your financials. Four things hurt you there. Owner expenses mixed into the business. Revenue recognized in more than one way. Job costing nobody can follow. Add-backs with no paper trail. Each one drops your price or ends the deal. Give us those two to three years. We clean the baseline and normalize your EBITDA. We build the WIP and the backlog a buyer expects. We structure the deal so more of the money survives closing.

What is EBITDA normalization and why does it affect my sale price?

Normalization takes the owner items and the one-time items out of earnings. Examples are above-market salary, personal expenses, and costs that do not repeat. The buyer then sees the profit that repeats. Because construction businesses sell on a multiple of EBITDA, every normalized dollar can be worth several at closing.

ServicesService 06 of 06

Sell for top dollar.

When it is time to sell, you want top dollar. We get your business ready years ahead so you get it.

Roofing contractors Framing & carpentry contractorsConstruction financial management across Central Texas

In short

What does exit & m&a planning cover?

We start two to three years before you go to market. That is enough runway to normalize the earnings, get the financial history clean, and put together the documentation a buyer’s team expects to see, so when an offer lands the deal is built to leave more of the price in your hands.

ProofAdded at close

“Selling the business, our books were a mess. They cleaned up three years in eight weeks.”

Plumbing contractor, Houston TX

+$350,000

What we do4 line items

When someone buys your company, they go through years of your books line by line. Personal expenses go through the business. Nobody keeps the records straight. You cannot prove the add-backs. Each one drops the price or loses the buyer. And most owners start fixing it far too late.

01Business valuation
02Sale-ready financial cleanup
03EBITDA normalization
04Buyer due diligence and deal structuring

Questions2 answered

01

When should I start preparing to sell my construction business?

Start 24 to 36 months out. In due diligence a buyer and their accountant read three years of your financials. Four things hurt you there. Owner expenses mixed into the business. Revenue recognized in more than one way. Job costing nobody can follow. Add-backs with no paper trail. Each one drops your price or ends the deal. Give us those two to three years. We clean the baseline and normalize your EBITDA. We build the WIP and the backlog a buyer expects. We structure the deal so more of the money survives closing.
02

What is EBITDA normalization and why does it affect my sale price?

Normalization takes the owner items and the one-time items out of earnings. Examples are above-market salary, personal expenses, and costs that do not repeat. The buyer then sees the profit that repeats. Because construction businesses sell on a multiple of EBITDA, every normalized dollar can be worth several at closing.

NextAustin, Texas

Which job loses money right now?

Owners who wait until a buyer is already at the table tend to leave a lot on it, sometimes millions, sometimes the whole deal.

Get your numbers correct Check your WIP first