Grow Through Acquisition,
Exit With Confidence.

You might not be — and that's worth knowing now rather than mid-deal. Readiness isn't just about revenue; it's about how dependent the business is on you, the predictability of your pipeline, the cleanliness of your financials, and how concentrated your client base is. I use a structured readiness framework to give you an honest picture of where you stand and what needs to shift before you engage with buyers or targets. Most owners are 6–18 months away from being truly ready, and that time is well spent.

From the first serious conversation to a closed deal, most agency transactions take 6–12 months — sometimes longer if preparation work is needed upfront. Buying tends to move faster than selling, because you're setting the pace. Selling is slower: there's preparation, outreach, diligence, negotiation, and transition planning. Rushing any of those phases is one of the most common — and costly — mistakes owners make.

Honestly? It would be irresponsible for me to give you a number here — I don't do valuations, and anyone who throws out a multiple without knowing your business is doing you a disservice. The range of outcomes is wide, and there are too many variables that could move that number significantly in either direction: your margins, how dependent the business is on you as the owner, client concentration, service specialization, deal structure, and whether you're talking to a strategic buyer, a private equity-backed roll-up, or a founder-to-founder deal. A $3M revenue agency with 20% margins and low owner dependency will command a very different outcome than one with 8% margins and a founder who touches every client.

What I can do is help you understand which of those factors are working for you, which are working against you, and what levers you can realistically pull before you go to market.

No — but you need clean enough financials to be credible. Buyers will run diligence regardless of what you tell them upfront, so if your books are messy, it's better to surface that early and address it than to get caught mid-process. What actually matters most: consistent revenue trends, clearly defined margins, and an accurate picture of owner compensation and add-backs. I'll help you identify where your financials need shoring up before anyone else sees them.

Owner dependency — by a wide margin. When the agency's client relationships, institutional knowledge, or operational continuity live entirely in the founder's head, buyers get nervous. They've seen what happens when the founder walks out the door. The second most common reason is a mismatch in expectations around deal structure, particularly earnouts. Both of these are addressable — but only if you know about them before you're already deep in a process.

It depends on why your margins aren't strong. If it's a capacity or pricing problem that an acquisition could solve — adding capabilities, eliminating redundant overhead, or expanding your client base — then acquisition can actually be a strategic fix. But if your core operations are already stressed, adding complexity through an acquisition will almost always make things worse before they get better. This is a conversation worth having before you fall in love with a target.

A broker's job is to transact — they work on success fees and their incentive is to get a deal done. An advisor's job is to help you make a good decision — whether that's buying, selling, waiting, or walking away from a deal that looks good on paper but feels wrong. I work as an advisor. I don't have a financial incentive to push you toward a deal that isn't right for you, and I'll tell you when something doesn't add up. That said, I also won't keep you stuck in analysis paralysis — my goal is clarity and forward momentum, whatever direction that leads.

No. My advisory work is fee-based, not commission-based. That structure keeps my incentives aligned with yours — I'm not motivated to push you toward a deal to earn a payout. What you get is objective guidance at every stage, including the candid advice to slow down or walk away if that's the right call. In some engagements, I also negotiate a small phantom equity stake alongside the retainer — which means I have real skin in the game and a genuine long-term interest in the outcome, not just the transaction.

Yes, within reason. I'm not a broker with a proprietary database of buyers, but I have an active network in the agency world and can help you think through your buyer or target profile strategically. For sellers, that means identifying who's likely to value what you've built. For buyers, it means refining your acquisition criteria so you're not wasting time on the wrong targets. I can also help you prepare the outreach materials and conversation frameworks to approach potential parties professionally.

An earnout is a portion of the purchase price tied to future performance — it lets the buyer reduce upfront risk by making part of the payment contingent on the agency hitting certain metrics post-close. They're extremely common in agency deals, and they're also a frequent source of post-deal conflict when the terms aren't structured carefully. Retention packages are used to keep key people — including founders — engaged through the transition. Both of these deserve close scrutiny in the negotiation phase. I help clients understand what's market-standard, what's worth pushing back on, and what red flags to watch for in the language.

This is the part most advisors stop thinking about — and it's where a lot of value gets destroyed. Integration is operationally and culturally hard, and agency acquisitions are especially vulnerable because the "product" is your people and relationships. I stay engaged through the transition using a structured 100-day playbook built for agency integrations — covering culture alignment, client communication, org structure changes, and the operational priorities that need to get locked in before momentum fades. If you're a seller, this is also where we make sure the earnout you agreed to is actually achievable in the environment you're walking into. The first 100 days set the tone for everything that follows.

As involved as you need me to be. Some clients want me in every conversation; others want me in the background as a sounding board and strategist. I'll adapt to your style and what the situation calls for. What I won't do is leave you in the room alone at critical moments without having prepped you thoroughly for what to say, what not to say, and what to watch for.

Every engagement starts with a focused discovery conversation to understand where you are, what you're trying to accomplish, and what kind of support will actually move the needle. From there, we work together on a monthly advisory retainer — ongoing access, structured check-ins, and support across the full arc of the process, whether that's readiness work, navigating a live deal, or managing the integration after close.

But the retainer isn't just access to me. It's also access to the broader DAB network — a curated group of M&A experts, advisors, and operators who've been through these deals from multiple sides. That includes a dedicated Slack channel where you can get real answers to real questions without the formality of a scheduled call, M&A Labs sessions designed to go deep on specific deal topics, and events where you're in the room with people who are actively building, buying, and selling agencies. When you need specialized expertise — legal, financial, tax structuring, integration consulting — I can connect you to the right people within that network rather than leaving you to find them cold.

In some engagements, I also take a small phantom equity stake in the holding company alongside the retainer, which means I have real skin in the game — not just a transactional interest in getting you to close.

What doesn't change regardless of structure: you get direct access to me, not a junior analyst or account manager. This is owner-to-owner advisory, and that's how it stays.