Honest truth: most owners fail to sell.
SELL WITH BREAKWATER
About 70% of businesses that go to market never close. Most were good businesses. The owner was not prepared for the process. Preparing owners is what we do.
FREE · 3 MINUTES · ANONYMOUS
WHY HIRE BREAKWATER
A track record you can check.
Offices: Victoria
$250M+
IN CLOSED TRANSACTIONS
One Deal Partner, start to finish
The partner who wins your mandate runs it. No handover to a junior team, and one person answerable for the outcome.
20,000+
BUYERS AND OWNERS IN OUR DATABASE
A team that knows your buyers
One of our three sector teams runs your sale. They know which acquirers are active in your sector, what they have paid, and which of them close.
100
STEPS IN OUR WRITTEN PROCESS
Owners who have done it
Every Deal Partner has built, bought, or sold a business of their own. We have sat where you are sitting.
01
A competitive process
Several qualified buyers, working from the same materials at the same time. Competition is what moves price and terms in your favour, and an owner cannot create it alone.
02
Pitfalls we have seen before
Retrading after the LOI, working-capital pegs, rejected add-backs, earn-outs that never pay out. We know where deals go wrong and structure yours so they do not.
03
We carry the work
Recast, teaser, CIM, outreach, NDAs, data room, diligence answers. We do the bulk of it while you keep running the business.
04
International buyer network
20,000+ buyers in our network. Outreach, follow-up, meetings, and offers across every interested party, tracked in one place. No serious buyer is lost, and none wastes your time.
WHY HIRE AN ADVISOR
What an advisor changes about the outcome.
Selling a business is a full-time project on top of running one. An advisor runs the process, keeps buyers competing, and catches the problems that cost owners money after signing.
PHASE ONE
Prepare
✓ Valuation and exit-value range
✓ Financials recast, add-backs defended
✓ Buyer Presentation and Data Room
WHAT WE DO FOR YOU
Full support from valuation to closing.
PHASE TWO
Market
✓ Buyer list built, your exclusions removed
✓ Outreach, NDAs, and buyer vetting
✓ Questions and meetings handled for you
PHASE THREE
Close
✓ Offers compared on price and terms
✓ Diligence and lawyers coordinated
✓ Funded close and transition
01
Find out what it’s worth
Start with the free Exit Audit for a range in three minutes. From there it is your call: talk to us about a full valuation built from your financials, or keep the number to yourself until the timing suits you.
YOU ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS
02
Get the numbers buyer-ready
We review the financial records with you and your bookkeeper, and agree how owner expenses and one-time costs are presented. Some owners arrive with this already in good order. Either way, buyers end up looking at one clear picture.
WE WORK WITH YOUR BOOKKEEPER
03
Write the story buyers read
A one-page blind teaser, then the Confidential Information Memorandum: the document that answers a buyer’s first thirty questions before they can ask them. Your name appears in neither until you approve it.
YOU APPROVE EVERY PAGE
04
Approach buyers confidentially
Named buyers from our database of more than 20,000: strategics, operators, and funds active in your sector, local or global depending on the buyers your business is suited to. No listing sites, no signage, and no notice to your staff.
YOU APPROVE THE BUYER LIST
05
Meet the shortlist
Calls and site visits, scheduled around your operating week. You only meet buyers who have signed an NDA and shown they can fund the purchase.
ONLY VETTED BUYERS
06
Compare offers, sign one
Indications of interest arrive, we run them side by side, and you sign a letter of intent. We compare them on the terms that decide what you actually keep, not on the headline number alone.
YOU CHOOSE THE BUYER
07
Get through diligence
A concentrated stretch of buyer requests, a quality-of-earnings review, and legal drafting in parallel. We answer what we can answer for you and keep the closing date on the calendar.
WE RUN THE DATA ROOM
08
Close and hand over
Funds flow, the papers are signed, and you tell your team on your terms. We stay through the transition period you agreed to, however long that is.
FUNDED CLOSE
THE SELLING PROCESS
Eight stages, from first question to funded close.
Most owners have never seen the whole map before they start. Here it is in plain language, with what you decide at each step.
DISCRETION
Your sale stays confidential.
Buyers see anonymous materials until they sign an NDA. Your name goes only to parties you approve, and no client is ever named publicly without written permission.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
When I first planned on selling my business, I thought I could do it without any support. Having gone through the process, I was relieved to have the Breakwater team there to support me along the way.
ZAC ROFF · EXIT · VALKYRIAN CANNING
FEES
Incentive-aligned fees to get you the best result.
Our success fee varies with the size of the business. We are paid on the purchase price, and on what actually lands in your pocket.
STRAIGHT TALK
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Ask who will personally run the mandate and what else they are carrying. Ask for deals closed in your sector over the past two years. Ask how the buyer list is built and how many of those buyers they have spoken to this year. The answers separate firms quickly.
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An unsolicited offer is one buyer’s opening position. We can advise on that single conversation, or bring enough credible alternatives that the offer has to compete. The difference usually shows up in the terms as much as the price.
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Rarely. Owners who speak with us a year or more ahead use that time to remove the discounts a buyer would otherwise price in. Start with the Exit Audit, and we will tell you if the answer is to wait.
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You don’t sell. You keep the business, the valuation, and everything you’ve learned.
Exit planning
Plan your exit with us, years before you sell.
Eligible companies get free monthly P&L reviews and exit-planning meetings, until you decide to sell.
P.S. You are going to sell this once. Do it with your eyes open.
Exit Audit
See your business the way a buyer will.
Find out if you qualify for free exit planning, and what to fix first.
Free · Confidential · No obligation