The part that kills deals, managed so it does not kill yours.
The buyer now verifies everything: earnings, contracts, customers, employees, vehicles, licenses, liabilities. We run the process so it stays organized, stays quiet, and you keep running your business.
Due diligence, defined.
Due diligence is the buyer proving to themselves that what you told them is true. Financial, operational, legal and often a formal quality-of-earnings review by an outside accounting firm.
Practically it means a long request list, a data room, and weeks of questions. It is the longest and most fragile stretch of the whole process.
This is where owners gain or lose ground.
More deals die here than anywhere else, and rarely because the business was bad. They die because information arrived slowly, inconsistently, or contradicted something said earlier.
Every surprise a buyer finds is a reason to retrade the price. Every question answered quickly and cleanly is a reason to hold it.
Our job at this step.
Three mistakes we see again and again.
Answering slowly
Delay reads as a problem being hidden. Momentum is protection.
Handling it yourself while running the company
Diligence is a second full-time job. Owners who take it on personally see the business dip, which the buyer notices.
Disclosing a problem late
Every issue found by the buyer costs more than the same issue disclosed by you up front.