Your exit should reflect everything you’ve built.
RBG Capital guides private business owners through M&A transactions, management buyouts, and succession planning. Our advisors understand both the financial and personal dimensions of a transaction, and the fine line between your personal and corporate balance sheet.
Est. 1986
Four decades advising private business owners from Scottsdale, Arizona
$10M–$250M
The lower middle market enterprise values where our practice runs deepest
Sellers only
We represent business owners exclusively, never the buyer across the table
1–3 years
The ideal head start before a target exit, while value can still be built
Our approach
A structured process for the most important transaction of your life.
Selling the business you spent decades building, in whole or in part, is unlike any other financial event. The stakes are high, the process is complex, and the decisions made in the first 90 days often shape the final outcome far more than any negotiation tactic later.
That is why everything begins with you. Your goals and objectives (financial, personal, and legacy-related) are paramount, and they drive the process from the first conversation to the closing table. Before we recommend any structure, we take the time to understand what you need the transaction to accomplish: for your family, for your employees, and for the company that carries your name.
The decisions you make in the first ninety days often determine the final outcome far more than any negotiation tactic later.
RBG Capital: Advising Business Owners Since 1986
Every option on the table
One destination. Five roads.
A sale to a third party is only one way out of a business. Our process starts with your goals and objectives, not a structure, and we explore every path before recommending one.
Strategic Sale
A sale to a strategic acquirer (often a company operating in or around your industry) pursued through a structured market process designed to create competitive tension.
Management Buyout
Ownership passes to the leadership team that already runs the business, with a structure shaped around financing realities, your timeline, and the company’s continuity.
Private Equity Recapitalization
Sell a portion of the company to a financial partner, take liquidity now, and retain a stake in the business’s next chapter.
ESOP
Sell the company (in whole or in part) to a trust held for the benefit of your employees, a structure with distinctive tax characteristics. We maintain a dedicated ESOP advisory practice.
Explore ESOP advisoryPhased Family Transition
A deliberate, multi-year transfer of ownership and leadership to the next generation, coordinated with your estate and tax planning.
How an engagement unfolds
Five disciplined steps from first conversation to close.
A succession transaction rewards preparation, sequence, and patience. One team carries the process end to end, so you can keep running the business buyers are evaluating.
Start the ConversationGoals & Readiness Assessment
We begin with a candid conversation about your financial needs, timeline, personal goals, and what you want to happen to employees, customers, and the business after close.
Business Valuation
We prepare a thorough valuation analysis using comparable transactions, DCF methodology, and industry-specific multiples to establish a realistic range of value.
Value Enhancement
We identify and address issues that could suppress valuation: supplier and customer concentration risk, key-person dependencies, working capital normalization, and EBITDA add-backs.
Market Process
We identify and approach the right buyers (strategic acquirers, private equity firms, or individual buyers) and run a structured process that creates competitive tension.
Negotiation & Close
We negotiate deal terms, manage due diligence, and coordinate your legal, financial, and accounting teams through to a successful close.
Where we stand
On your side of the table. Only yours.
Three commitments define how we engage: who we represent, the work we carry, and when that work should begin.
Sellers, Exclusively
- The interests of buyers and sellers are fundamentally opposed in a transaction
- Representing both sides creates unavoidable conflicts, so we never do
- Our loyalty, from first meeting to final wire, is to you alone
The Financial & Strategic Work
- Confidential Investment Memorandum and financial model preparation
- Valuation, buyer identification, and deal structure negotiation
- Letter of intent terms and due diligence management
- Close coordination with your M&A attorney, who handles the legal documentation
Earlier Than You Think
- Ideally, engage an advisor one to three years before your target exit
- Time to clean up financial statements before buyers ever see them
- Time to address key-person dependencies that suppress value
- Time to review CRM and business analytics software functionality
Business Succession FAQ
We focus on lower middle market businesses with enterprise values typically ranging from $10 million to $250 million. This is our deepest area of expertise and where we believe we add the most value relative to larger investment banks or generalist advisors.
Ideally 1–3 years before your target exit. This gives us time to help you maximize value including cleaning up financial statements, addressing key-person dependencies, and reviewing CRM and business analytic software functionality.
We represent business owners (sellers) exclusively. We believe the interests of buyers and sellers are fundamentally opposed in a transaction, and representing both creates unavoidable conflicts. Our loyalty is to you.
We handle the financial and strategic dimensions: prepare Confidential Investment Memorandum and financial model, valuation, buyer identification, deal structure negotiation, letter of intent terms, and due diligence management. Your M&A attorney handles the legal documentation. We coordinate closely with legal counsel throughout to ensure alignment.
Yes. Our process starts with a thorough review of your goals & objectives (financial, personal, and legacy-related) before recommending any structure. Options we explore include strategic sale, management buyout, private equity recapitalization, ESOP, or a phased transition to family members.
Thinking about your next chapter?
The best time to start planning your exit is earlier than you think. Let’s have an honest conversation about where you are and where you want to go.