Profit = leverage (lessons from a founder)

March 25, 2025
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How much should you expect to pay an M&A advisor or broker to help you sell your business?

This is one of the common questions that comes up in my calls with founders who would like to sell...

So we created a graphic to explain.

Keep in mind, the numbers you see below are only an estimate.

That's because every advisory has their own fee structure.

Some charge commission only, which is often called a "success fee" — so you pay after you sell.

Others charge a retainer — before the sale — in addition to a post-sale commission. Sometimes that retainer goes toward the commission, or the commission is lowered because it's in addition to a retainer.

Yet most advisors use some version of a sliding scale, whereby the fee percentage decreases as the size of the deal increases.

Here's what that might look like:

Of course, the biggest question about advisor fees is always...

💰 Are M&A advisors worth the cost?

That's a whopper we'll answer in detail in a future newsletter, but I will tell you this:

Most of the founders who tell us they wish they had not used an advisor say it's because they had a bad experience with the advisor they used.

In other words, your most important choice might not be whether or not to work with an advisor, but WHO you choose to work with.

If you need a recommendation, ask us!

Our full story offers more details about advisor and broker fees:

​How much do M&A advisors charge to sell a business? Here’s what to expect​

Sponsored by

Sell your company to a buyer who keeps your company's magic (and awesome team) thriving

Ashley Emerole, Principal at Saunders Street Capital, is looking to acquire and operate a great business for the long term, especially if you:

• Have a great team committed to excellent service
• Serve a loyal and diversified customer base
• Are growing and profitable
• Bonus, but not required: Your end-market serves education or government institutions, women, or parents

Ashley brings experience as a media and telecom investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, and she previously worked for the City of New York in criminal justice budgeting and policy and as an adjunct professor at CUNY John Jay College.

She's a passionate and energized entrepreneur, looking for the right business to buy.

Here's what you can expect from working with Saunders Street Capital compared to traditional private equity or a strategic buyer:

Ready to discuss exiting into your next adventure ?

2 lessons from an agency sale

Krit, a software development agency, sold in 2022.

They were a small shop, just two founders (three initially, but one left) and four employees, and they grew to $1 million in revenue before selling.

The sale was an acqui-hire, so their team went in-house with the buyer.

Two lessons stood out from this story:

1. Nailing the right positioning helped this agency grow

They struggled to land clients when they were a dev shop “for anyone and everyone.”

Once they niched down both both horizontally — they focused on app development for non-technical founders — and vertically — specializing in working with Seed-Series A cybersecurity startups… the company began to find its stride.

2. Profit gives you leverage

“It sounds obvious, but the best way to have leverage in acquisition talks is to build a great business that you don't want or need to sell,” said co-founder Andrew Askins.

“We lost a lot of leverage because we weren't very profitable and we wanted out.”

Here’s the full story:

​How finding the right positioning helped these founders build and sell a million-dollar agency​

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​

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P.S. This founder who just exited shares why he sold now even though he could've grown the company bigger.