🏴‍☠️ The $12M Lie: How Brokers Trick You Into Overpricing Your Business

Adam thought he had it made.
His broker said his company was worth $12 million. They even had the teaser built, NDA signed, “buyers lined up.”

Ten months later?
No deal. No offers above $5M. A busted process.

Adam wasn’t the problem. His positioning was.
His broker told a story the market never believed.
And worse: it masked the real gaps inside his business.

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Why the Numbers Lie When You Don’t Know What to Look For

Adam’s financials looked “fine.”
$4.1M in revenue. $1.1M in EBITDA (on paper).
But dig deeper and the problems were obvious:

• 29% of revenue was from one customer

• 22% of EBITDA came from one one-time project

• “Recurring” revenue wasn’t under contract

• Owner took 40+ calls a week from clients

His broker used the top-line numbers.
We used the real ones.

Rebuilding the Business Before the Exit

Here’s what we actually did with Adam (long before going back to market):

• Segmented Revenue: Broke out recurring vs. one-time

• Fixed Customer Concentration: Mapped a 12-month plan to reduce reliance on 2 major accounts

• Reduced Owner Dependency: Built a leadership plan so Adam could step out of ops and into managing strategy.

• Profit Clarity: Rebuilt job costing to understand margin by segment

This wasn’t about painting a shinier picture.
It was about building a stronger business.

How to Reverse the Damage and Rebuild the Exit

We built Adam a new strategy to make his business more valuable, resilient, and ready for sale.

Here’s what it looked like for him:

1. Exit From Chaos

   • Identified fires he was still putting out weekly

   • Created a 90-day calendar to systematize delivery and free him up

2. Exit Through Systems

   • Designed SOPs for high-margin work

   • Shifted pricing model to reduce discounting and improve close rates

3. Exit To Choose

   • Reforecasted financials under new model

   • Built a hold-vs-sell model based on $7.2M–$8.1M realistic valuation

He didn’t just become ready to sell.
He became a CEO with options.

Action Steps This Week:

If you’re in the “maybe I’ll sell in 1–2 years” zone, now is the time to act:

✔ Pull your last 24 months of customer revenue.
→ Who’s contributing the most and who’s most at risk?

✔ Map out your team org chart.
→ Could they run without you for 2 weeks?

✔ Analyze gross margin by service line.
→ Where are you making money or losing it?

✔ Poke holes in your own business.
→ If a buyer showed up today, what would they find messy?

Before You Go

Adam thought he was selling a $12M business.
He wasn’t.

But we helped him build a real $8M business, one he could scale, hold, or sell.
No sidelines coaching or snake oil. Just strategic consulting that rebuilt his foundation.

You don’t need a broker who flatters you.
You need a guide who fixes what’s broken.

Want to talk through what your version of this looks like?
Reply and we’ll walk through your numbers together.

See you next week.

-Kinza