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SELLING YOUR BUSINESS

You'll sell once. Here's exactly what happens.

Every step, in the order you'll meet it, and what it takes from you—before you commit to anything.

Rather talk it through first? Book a call—five minutes while you walk to get a coffee.

CONFIDENTIAL ENQUIRY

Tell us what you're selling, and why.

BOOK A CALL

How a sale usually goes—and how it goes with us.

The moments every sale passes through. What normally happens, and what happens with us.

Start early

THE USUAL

Effort starts only when you're ready to sell—and only once you've paid the upfront fee.

WITH 20SEVEN

We can run Strategic Sale Planning 12–18 months before you're ready, to improve your exit value. How Strategic Sale Planning works.

How it starts

THE USUAL

You find a broker, they promise the world.

WITH 20SEVEN

We tell you what a good outcome actually looks like, including when it's 'don't sell yet'. Then you decide.

What it costs

THE USUAL

A high upfront fee to build the materials, then they forget about you.

WITH 20SEVEN

A small monthly fee, weighted mainly to a success fee charged only if you sell.

The materials

THE USUAL

A template Word-doc IM and your Xero extract, if that.

WITH 20SEVEN

A unique IM, a databook and model, and a list of the acquirers we think would buy your business.

Who runs it

THE USUAL

A junior runs your deal while the partner who pitched you moves on.

WITH 20SEVEN

Our directors. You just show up.

Getting found

THE USUAL

Listed on a portal. One of hundreds. Buyers have to find you.

WITH 20SEVEN

300+ acquirers ranked by why they can't lose you, approached one at a time, your name blind until you choose.

THE PROCESS

Seven steps, three to six months to a signed deal.

The weeks below are the real ones, not a brochure timeline. They overlap—the materials get built while the acquirer map is still being worked.

  1. 01
    Week 0

    We tell you what it's worth.

    Before you owe us anything. A company deep dive and an honest valuation—what a buyer will actually pay, not what you'd like to hear. If the number doesn't work for you, this is the cheapest place to stop.

  2. 02
    Weeks 1–3

    We build the acquirer map.

    Every buyer who could credibly own this business, ranked by why they can't afford to lose you—strategics, competitors, adjacent platforms, private equity. Not a portal listing. A named, reasoned shortlist.

  3. 03
    Weeks 2–6

    We build the materials.

    A unique information memorandum, a databook, and a financial model. Written to your strategic narrative, not dropped into a template with your figures retyped into it.

  4. 04
    Weeks 6–10

    We go out, one buyer at a time.

    Approaches are made personally and in sequence, not blasted. Your name stays blind until you decide to reveal it. You keep running the business; we run the outreach.

  5. 05
    Weeks 8–14

    NDAs, then real conversations.

    We run the paperwork so interest turns into a proper conversation cleanly, and we sit in the meetings with you. You show up and talk about the thing you built.

  6. 06
    Weeks 12–18

    Bids arrive, and we run them against each other.

    Multiple credible buyers at the table at the same time is the entire point—it is what turns a price into a market. We compare on structure and certainty, not just the headline number.

  7. 07
    Weeks 16–28

    Diligence, documents, done.

    The data room opens, legal agreements are worked, and we drive the pace so momentum never stalls.

Not ready to start yet? Some owners come to us twelve to eighteen months out and we warm the best buyers up first, so the relationships already exist by the time the process starts. That is a different product— see how Strategic Sale Planning works.

20Seven is a sell-side M&A adviser working with founders and owners across Australia and the US. We run the sale end to end: valuation, materials, buyer outreach, bids, diligence and completion.

QUESTIONS WE GET

The questions we get, answered straight.

A direct sale process usually runs three to six months from the day we start to a signed deal, then a further period to complete. The biggest variable is how ready your financials are on day one, not how many buyers we find.

Seven: an honest valuation, an acquirer map, the materials (information memorandum, databook, model), buyer outreach one at a time, NDAs and meetings, bids run against each other, then diligence and completion.

We charge a small monthly fee, with the economics weighted mainly to a success fee that is only charged if you sell. That is deliberately the opposite of a large upfront fee to produce materials, which pays the adviser whether or not a deal ever happens.

A broker generally lists a business on a portal and waits for buyers to find it. An M&A adviser identifies the specific acquirers for whom your business is strategically valuable, approaches them directly, and runs a competitive process. Brokers typically work at the smaller end of the market; advisers work where the buyer is a company rather than an individual.

Not at the start. Approaches are made blind—buyers see the business described without being told who it is—and your name is only revealed once you decide to, under an NDA. Most owners tell their team much later in the process.

By what a buyer will actually pay, which is a function of who the buyer is and what owning you does for them—not a multiple applied to your last profit figure. We give you that number before you owe us anything.

If you're ready, we run the direct sale described on this page. If you're twelve to eighteen months out, Strategic Sale Planning warms your best buyers up in advance so they already know the business by the time you go to market, which usually improves the outcome.

That is the most expensive moment to negotiate alone, because a single interested buyer sets the price. The fix is to bring the other credible buyers to the table at the same time, which is exactly what this process does.

Sell it once. Sell it right.

No pitch—just the truth about what your company is worth and who might buy it.

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