You have seen this listing
A good business that will not survive diligence in its current state.
The revenue is real, the owner is credible, the price expectation is defensible on the surface. And you already know what the buyer's accountant will find: earnings that depend on the owner, one customer that is a third of revenue, reporting that cannot answer the second question, margin that does not hold at unit level.
Every one of those becomes a discount, a retrade, or a dead deal. All of them were knowable a year earlier.
What we do for the deal
Improve the business before it reaches market. Or find what will discount it before the buyer does.
Improve sale readiness
Owner dependency, customer concentration, weak reporting and margin questions are knowable in advance. We find them, quantify them, and put owned initiatives against the ones worth fixing.
Protect the valuation
Every issue a buyer finds first becomes a discount. Every issue resolved or honestly explained before market protects the multiple you have priced the mandate on.
Reduce due-diligence surprises
The businesses that sell well run their own diligence before the buyer does. The APG evidence base is exactly that: sourced, quantified and current.
Strengthen vendor evidence
A documented financial baseline, an initiative history with measured results, and explanations for material variances. A business a buyer can read is a business a buyer can pay for.
What the referral is worth
A listing that survives diligence.
A referral only works if it helps twice. The vendor has to get a better outcome, and so does the mandate you are holding.
For your vendor
They find out what a buyer will find, a year before the buyer finds it. The issues that can be fixed get fixed. The ones that cannot get a clean explanation instead of an awkward silence in diligence.
For you
A business that reads clearly, priced on earnings you can defend. Fewer retrades, fewer dead deals, and a campaign that moves because the questions have already been answered.
We do not broker, we do not take mandates, and we do not contact your vendor without your agreement. The transaction stays yours.
Boundaries: this matters
The transaction is yours. It stays yours.
- We do not broker businesses or take mandates
- We do not issue valuations or appraisals
- We do not negotiate with buyers
- We do not contact your vendor without your agreement
Your vendor remains your vendor. APG works on the operating and commercial causes that determine what the business is worth. You run the transaction.
Timing is the honest limit on this work. Six months or less before market shifts the focus from real improvement to presentation. The best referrals come early, while there is still time to change the number rather than the story told about it.
How it works
One entry point. A defined scope. Your mandate intact.
The engagement starts with a Commercial Assessment: two to four weeks, fixed fee, built around what a buyer will look at. The vendor gets a priced picture of what is holding value back and a clear order of work. Where the work proceeds, each initiative carries its own number and is checked against the accounts monthly in the APG Platform, building the record a buyer will want to see.
A good referral
- Twelve months or more before the intended campaign
- Established owner-led business with real earnings underneath the story
- An owner who will act on findings, not just hear them
- Gaps that are knowable and fixable: dependency, concentration, reporting, margin
Not a fit
- Going to market in the next few weeks
- Distressed sales where timing is forced
- Owners who want the issues papered over rather than fixed
Common questions
What brokers ask before referring.
When should I refer a client to APG?
When a business would sell better after a period of work, or when it carries issues a buyer would find and discount for. If the vendor is going to market next week, it is usually too late for anything but an honest read; if there is six to eighteen months, the gap is often very fixable.
Do you take over the client or the mandate?
No. The relationship and the mandate stay with you. We work on the commercial and operating causes behind the numbers, and hand the business back in better shape for you to take to market.
What does APG actually do for a pre-market business?
We find the issues a buyer would surface in diligence, and either resolve them or make them honestly explainable before market. Every issue a buyer finds first becomes a discount or a retrade; resolved or explained up front, it protects the multiple you have priced the mandate on.
Is this a valuation?
No. We can indicate what the gaps are costing and what closing them could be worth, but we are not registered valuers, and this does not replace a formal valuation or an appraisal.
How do early conversations work?
They can stay entirely de-identified. A short conversation about the shape of a vendor situation is usually enough to tell whether the gap is fixable and worth fixing, before any client is named.
Have a listing that needs a year of work first?
A short conversation is enough to tell whether the gap is fixable and worth fixing. Initial conversations can stay entirely de-identified.
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