Duran Advisors

08/29/2026

A planner referred a client who wanted to sell her practice in three years. Discovery found her key employee was retiring for medical reasons within one year, with no replacement. The recommendation changed. So did the timeline. Here is what happened next, and the four-move playbook behind it.

EPI finds roughly 80% of owner net worth sits in the business, yet only 27% of Boomer owners hold a valuation. A financial planner's playbook for the gap.

08/29/2026

One wholesale distribution business drew more than 300 interested buyers. Every one of them raised the same objection: the owners did too much. It eventually sold for about half its potential. Strong demand could not fix a business built to depend on its owners. Three gates decide how an exit ends, and owners control two of them.

A good exit clears three gates: you, the business, and the market. EPI finds 76% of sellers regret the sale within a year. How the prepared minority avoids it.

08/26/2026

A consultant valued a Gulf South service company at three times net profit and referred the owners to Duran Advisors. Our formal valuation came back more than four times higher. We were hired by the seller and brought in an offer that was even higher than our valuation. The gap was not a disagreement about the business. It was the difference between a rule of thumb and an actual buyer pool. Full story below.

Brokers serve Main Street deals under $2M; M&A advisors serve the $2M-$50M lower middle market. Research shows advised sellers earned 6-25% higher premiums.

08/25/2026

An owner sits down convinced the tax return tells the whole story. Then the recast comes back, and the earnings number is half again what they believed. It happens often enough that Duran Advisors wrote the whole explainer: what counts in seller's discretionary earnings, and which add-backs buyers strike first.

SDE is the number small businesses are priced on. What counts, which add-backs buyers reject, and Q1 2026 median multiples of 2.0x to 3.0x SDE by deal size.

08/25/2026

A CFO spent weeks tying every single add-back to a general ledger line before the business ever hit the market. He was not thrilled about it. Months later, the lender's valuation firm demanded exactly that substantiation, and the file was already built. Financing approved, no scramble. Here is why that one document decides your price.

A CIM is the document buyers see after signing an NDA. What goes inside, who writes it, and why 83% of $5M+ deals drew three or more offers in Q1 2026.

08/21/2026

A buyer planned to hand employment agreements to the management team days before closing. Duran Advisors pushed the opposite: move it up by weeks. Every key employee pushed back, two needed direct compensation to sign, and it took weeks to work through. On the original timeline, that deal likely dies.

Too early risks panic and departures; too late blindsides key people. The timing that protects your deal, by business size, and how to plan the announcement.

08/20/2026

A New Orleans restaurant owner gathered his staff and announced the business was for sale. Within weeks the crew had thinned out, the deal died in diligence, and he closed for two months to rebuild. Same information after a closing lands the opposite way. Timing is the whole thing.

Selling a business in New Orleans: Louisiana non-compete limits, community property, buyer pools, insurance diligence, and a realistic 6 to 12 month timeline.

08/19/2026

An owner with $3M in EBITDA got a direct offer from a family office at three times earnings. No broker, no fee, no competition. Skipping the fee cost him roughly five times what the fee would have been. Duran Advisors breaks down the arithmetic, plus the six other quiet mistakes that cost Gulf South owners the most.

Most lost value in a business sale is self-inflicted. The seven mistakes that cost owners most, from chasing net profit to negotiating alone with one buyer.

08/18/2026

Twenty-four hours before the evidence deadline in a divorce matter, opposing counsel produced a full conclusion of value report. The other side had ordered the cheaper engagement months earlier to control costs. Everything changed overnight. The lesson was not about price. It was about who has to believe the number.

https://duranadvisors.com/resources/value-a-business/calculation-of-value-vs-conclusion-of-value/

08/17/2026

An owner knew exactly who she wanted to sell to. She trusted the family and wanted them to carry the business forward. The buyer knew she wanted them, so their first offer came in low. What she could not see: her business was the growth their side of the table did not have.

https://duranadvisors.com/resources/sell-a-business/strategic-vs-financial-buyers/