Know what your business is worth. Before you go to market.
The Pre-Market Assessment gives you an indicative valuation range, the earnings behind it and a plan to strengthen both, in order of what raises the value. Three working sessions and one written assessment. You do not need to have decided to sell.
Request a Pre-Market AssessmentThe first read.
Then you decide.
Three steps, each deeper than the last. The Pre-Market Assessment gives you an indicative valuation range, your adjusted earnings as you report them, the adjustments a buyer is most likely to question, and a plan in order of what raises the value. The preparation review traces every figure to source. The Sell-Side QoE is the report. You can stop after any step, and nothing reaches a buyer without your written permission.
The first read: an indicative valuation range, your adjusted earnings as you report them, the adjustments a buyer is most likely to question, and a plan in order of what raises the value. For owners who may sell in two years or never.
What the assessment includes →Step twoPreparationThe full trace: revenue reconciled to bank deposits, every adjustment marked supported or unsupported with the document that decides it, customers, contracts and licenses read the way a buyer will. Non-attest, and yours to keep.
What the review covers →Step threeSell-Side QoEThe report, from the independent firm of certified public accountants Capital Row partners with, built on the record the first two steps assembled. A buyer’s team meets reconciled schedules instead of a blank page.
About the Sell-Side QoE →Scope is agreed in writing before any work begins.
Request a Pre-Market Assessment
Wednesday, January 20, live online. Everyone who reserves a seat receives the playbook.
This is non-attest preparation. For a quality of earnings report, see Sell-Side QoE.
Most owners arrive at the sale without a read on their own numbers.
The valuation gap is the most cited reason a deal does not close, and it is a gap between what the owner expects and what the records support. The assessment reads the records first.
Across five deal-size segments in the lower middle market, the share of sellers who arrived at the sale with less than a year of planning, or none. IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse, Q2 2026.
Share of investment bankers’ engagements that did not close because of the gap between the owner’s price and the market’s. Pepperdine, 2024. Two thirds of those gaps were 11 to 30 percent.
Share of seventy-five collapsed letters of intent in 2025 where adjusted earnings were not what was presented. Double the share of two years earlier.
In the lower middle market, in the second quarter of 2026. The assessment is the read that comes before the year.
A valuation range, and the reasons behind it.
A range, not a single number, with the assumptions behind it written down.
Your adjusted earnings as you report them, and the adjustments a buyer is most likely to question.
The findings a buyer’s diligence is most likely to raise, in order of their effect on value.
What to work on over the next ninety days, in order.
The valuation range is an indicative estimate for your own planning. It is not an appraisal or a fairness opinion, and it is not prepared for a lender, a tax filing or a court.
Four steps, and you decide what happens after each one.
- 1A conversation
About the business, its market and your timing.
- 2Three working sessions
The assessment starts with an agreed information request. Scope is agreed in writing before any work begins.
- 3A written assessment
Your valuation range, the earnings behind it and the findings that move it. Yours to keep.
- 4A plan, in order
What to work on over the next ninety days, in order.
Owners who may sell in two years, or never.
The range, the earnings behind it and a plan in order, with time to act on all three before a buyer sets the first number.
A read on what the records support before the conversation goes further. The first number is rarely the last.
What the business is worth today, what moves the range, and what to work on. Useful whichever path you take.
An indicative range both sides can read, with the assumptions written down.
The earnings as a lender will read them, and the findings that move them, before the application.
Non-attest, with the engagement held by you.
Four things the assessment is not.
- An appraisal or a fairness opinionThe range is an indicative estimate for your own planning. It is not prepared for a lender, a tax filing or a court.
- A quality of earnings reportThe assessment reads your adjusted earnings as you report them. The preparation review traces them; the Sell-Side QoE is the report, from the independent firm of certified public accountants we partner with.
- A listing agreementYou do not need to have decided to sell, and nothing in the assessment commits you to anything.
- A promise about priceIt shows what your numbers support and gives you the chance to fix what they do not, before a buyer prices it.
When you have a valuation, pressure-test the earnings behind it.
Preparation is the deeper, separately scoped step: your numbers traced to source documents, and every adjustment marked supported or unsupported. It is non-attest. For a quality of earnings report, see the Sell-Side QoE.
See what the review coversNothing from your assessment reaches a buyer, or anyone else, without your written permission.
Plain answers, then a conversation if you want one.
What do I need to send?
To start, nothing but a conversation. The assessment begins with an agreed information request: the financial statements as you keep them, the customer list by revenue, and the adjustments you would propose. No financial documents through the website.
How long does it take?
Three working sessions and one written assessment, usually inside a month, with a plan in order at the end of it.
Is the valuation range a number I can quote?
It is an indicative range for your own planning, with the assumptions written down. It is not an appraisal, and it is not a price.
What happens after the plan?
You decide. Sell now, sell later, keep building, or take the deeper step: the preparation review that traces every figure to source.
Who sees it?
You. Nothing from your assessment reaches a buyer, or anyone else, without your written permission.
Come prepared.
Capital Row is the M&A firm that reads your numbers the way a buyer will, before you go to market. Every figure is traced to a source document, every adjustment is marked supported or unsupported, and the findings are yours to keep.
Scope is agreed in writing before any work begins. Nothing from your review reaches a buyer, or anyone else, without your written permission.