If you own a business in Massachusetts and you are thinking about selling it in the next five years, there are two numbers you need to internalize before anything else. The first is 9 percent: the combined Massachusetts state rate on the portion of your gain above the surtax threshold (5 percent base plus the 4 percent Fair Share Amendment surtax). The second is $2 million: the Massachusetts estate tax exemption, which is not indexed for inflation, is not portable between spo

Virginia received $68.5 billion in Department of Defense contract spending in fiscal year 2023. Only Texas received more. That money is concentrated overwhelmingly in one corner of one state: Northern Virginia, where Fairfax County alone has been associated with roughly $490 billion in cumulative federal defense contracts over recent years per GovernmentContractsWon.com. If you own a Virginia business, the buyer pool you are selling into looks fundamentally different from the

Most owners selling a business in Washington DC walk in thinking the process looks the same here as it does in Virginia or Maryland. It does not. A business broker in DC is the advisor who helps you price your company, find serious buyers, negotiate the deal, and close, but in DC the tax structure rewrites the math on every one of those steps. A top-bracket DC seller can pay close to 35 percent of their long-term capital gain to federal and District taxes combined. That is on

Most people hear “Delaware” and think corporate. Fortune 500s. Holding companies. The Court of Chancery. The state pulls in close to 290,000 new business filings a year, and more than two thirds of the Fortune 500 calls Delaware home on paper. Here is what nobody tells you. That has almost nothing to do with the actual market for buying and selling operating businesses inside Delaware’s borders. The real Delaware market is small. Tight. And honestly, if you know how to play i

I think 10% is fair. I know that is not what a lot of sellers want to hear when they are about to part with a significant chunk of their sale proceeds, but after doing this for as long as I have, I can tell you that a good broker earns every dollar of that commission and then some. The problem is not the percentage. The problem is that too many sellers sign listing agreements without understanding what the fee covers, how it is structured, and what they should be negotiating

A business broker is a licensed professional who manages the entire process of selling a business, from initial valuation through closing. The broker values the business, prepares the marketing materials, identifies and screens buyers, manages confidentiality, handles negotiations, coordinates due diligence, and keeps the transaction moving toward a successful close. They are part advisor, part project manager, and part deal closer. That is the short answer.

Here is the number nobody wants to put on a website: out of every ten businesses that get listed for sale, somewhere between two and three actually close. The rest sit, go stale, and eventually come off the market unsold. I have watched it happen more times than I can count, and almost every time, the wrong broker was part of the problem. So let me answer the question straight. To find a business broker, you build a list of three to five candidates from professional directori

Why use a business broker? A straight comparison of broker fees vs. selling DIY, the hidden costs, and what the data shows about who actually nets more.

Here is a pattern I see across New York City sellers more than I would like. The owner runs a profitable restaurant, retail shop, dental practice, or service business. They hire a broker, list it, and only then learn that the most valuable thing they own is not the business at all. It is the lease. A long lease at below-market rent in a desirable Manhattan or Brooklyn block can be worth more than the cash flow it produces. A short lease without renewal options, in the wrong n

North Carolina was ranked the number one state for business in the United States in 2025, and the state's economy grew 3.8% from Q3 2023 to Q3 2024, making it the eighth-fastest growing economy in the country.

A Pennsylvania business broker is an intermediary who values, markets, and negotiates the sale of a privately held Pennsylvania business, typically charging a success fee of 8 to 12 percent for sales under $5 million or a sliding Double Lehman scale on larger deals.

In many states, there are no licensing requirements to call yourself a business broker. None. That means the person sitting across from you could have closed dozens of deals or could have started last Tuesday. There is no board to check, no bar to pass, no minimum standard to meet. The burden of figuring out whether someone is qualified falls entirely on you. The questions you ask a business broker before signing a listing agreement are the only real vetting tool you have. A

I got a call recently from a guy who had been trying to sell his HVAC company on his own for fourteen months. He had the financials in order, a solid customer base, and a business worth north of a million dollars. But every buyer he talked to either lowballed him, got spooked during due diligence, or just disappeared. When he finally asked me what went wrong, I told him the truth: he did not need a better buyer. He needed a broker. A business broker is a licensed intermediary