Give your client a clearer starting point for the ownership conversation.
Send us a client situation. We send back a written read, addressed to you. Use it to inform your advice, or share it with your client alongside your own assessment.
Ask for a second opinionA buyer’s view of your client’s business, before any buyer sees it.
Start with an anonymized summary. Tell us what the business does, roughly how large it is and what the owner is weighing.
Turnaround: Set with you when it arrives. Written, not a sales call. Nothing happens next unless your client wants to talk.
Ask for a second opinion
Send the situation. Leave the names out.
Sector, size, location and the question on the table are enough for a first read. The written read comes back to you, not to your client.
- What the business does, and in which sector
- Roughly how large it is
- Where it is based
- What the owner is weighing: a sale, a partner, or a buyer who called
Built to work alongside you, not around you.
We work with you through preparation and diligence, never around you. Where appropriate and authorized, we coordinate with your client’s certified public accountant. That coordination does not make our work an audit, attestation or quality of earnings report.
With your client’s authorization, we update you at each stage: first conversation, preparation, going to market, letter of intent, close. We share only what that authorization covers.
If preparation could strengthen the business’s position before a sale, we explain the priorities and what would change our assessment.
A short written read, in plain language.
Each one covers the same five questions, so you can compare one client with another.
- What a buyer looks at firstThe two or three things a diligence team will open before anything else.
- Earnings questions and proposed adjustmentsWhich proposed adjustments may be supportable and warrant further review, and what evidence a buyer is likely to request.
- What moves the priceCustomer concentration, recurring revenue, dependence on the owner, and the records behind each.
- What to fix before going to marketThe changes most likely to be worth making, in order, with a rough time for each.
- Timing considerations, information gaps and potential next stepsIncluding when preparation should come before a sale.
Something worth forwarding, every quarter.
Advisors we work with receive a short note each quarter, drawn from the deals we see, including the ones that broke.
From our dead deal notes: the findings that ended deals, and how early they could have been caught.
The questions diligence teams are leading with in the sectors we cover.
A plain-language page you can send to a client who is starting to think about a sale.
What advisors ask us first.
Do I need to name my client?
No. Sector, size, location and what the owner is weighing are enough for an initial perspective. They are not enough to support adjusted earnings or a reliable sale price; that takes the records. Names come later, and only if your client wants to talk.
Will you replace me in the deal?
No. Your client’s certified public accountant and attorney stay in the work. Where appropriate and authorized, we coordinate with them through preparation and diligence, and we keep you informed within what your client authorizes.
What if a sale is not the right move?
We say so in writing and explain what would change the answer. If the answer is “not yet,” you will hear it plainly.
What happens after the second opinion?
Nothing, unless your client wants to talk. If they do, you choose how the introduction is made. We contact your client directly only with their permission.
How is what I send handled?
Please start with an anonymized summary. We use submissions to prepare and deliver the assessment, with access limited to authorized personnel and service providers subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations, except where disclosure is legally required. Please obtain your client’s permission before sharing identifying or confidential information.
Have a client weighing a sale?
Send us an anonymized summary. You will get a written read to inform your advice.
No names needed for an initial perspective.
The second opinion is a preliminary business assessment based on information provided. It is not a formal business valuation, appraisal, fairness opinion, quality of earnings report or assurance engagement, and it does not guarantee a sale price or buyer acceptance of adjustments. This page and the assessment do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy securities. Any further engagement is subject to a separate written agreement and applicable legal requirements. Capital Row is not a registered broker-dealer.