For owners thinking about the exit
Nothing has been bought yet.
This is where that starts.
A small number of ordinary, profitable companies — bought, kept and run. Not flipped.
That goes first because the rest of the page reads better once it is out of the way. There is no portfolio here and no deal closed. What there is: somebody who runs the growth side of businesses for a living and would rather own the next one than invoice it.
The shape of it
What I am looking for
Profitable, without heroics
It makes money now, and it makes money in a normal month rather than only in the good ones. Turnarounds are somebody else's craft.
Boring is the feature
Services, trades, maintenance, inspection, small business-to-business work. The unglamorous companies that quietly work are the ones worth owning.
An owner who wants out — or wants to stop carrying it alone
Both are real conversations. Not every seller wants to disappear; some want the weight off and the job back.
Small enough that a broker will not take the mandate
Below a certain size most brokers decline, and those owners end up selling to a neighbour for whatever is offered or closing the doors after thirty years. That gap is the whole reason for this page.
Size
[DEAL SIZE — not set]
What is not on offer here
No fee for a valuation, no retainer to look at a business, nothing to sign in order to have a conversation. If money is asked for before there is an offer on the table, something has gone wrong.
No investment is being solicited on this website, and nothing here is an offer of securities or an invitation to put money in. This page is about buying companies, not about raising money to do it.
No claim that funding is sitting ready. Funding is arranged per deal and nothing is committed until it is written down. Anyone telling a seller that the cash is waiting, before a deal exists, is telling them what they would like to hear.
The process
How a conversation goes
A call, in confidence
What the business does, why selling is on the table, and what the owner actually wants to happen afterwards. No numbers needed on that call unless the owner wants to give them.
A look at the figures
Two or three years of accounts and a straight conversation about how the money really works. Under an NDA if that is wanted — asking for one is normal and it is never taken as a bad sign.
A yes or a no, with the reasoning
If it is a no, the reasoning comes with it, because that is useful to an owner whether or not I am the buyer. If it is a yes, the terms are put in writing before anybody's solicitor is paid for anything.
What is different about this side of the table
An operator, not a spreadsheet
Most of what small-business sellers meet is either a broker who will not take the mandate or a buyer who has never run anything.
The thing I do for a living is the growth side of a business: the offers, the outreach, the follow-up. That is the part a small company is usually weakest at, and it is the part that decides whether it is still worth something in five years.
So the plan for a company I buy is not a cost programme. It is the same work described on the other page, done on something I own.
Straight answers
Questions worth asking
Has anything actually been bought?
No. Not one. That is the first line of this page on purpose, because a buyer who is vague about that is worth being careful around.
Is this a broker service?
No. Nothing is being sold to sellers here — no valuation, no preparation package, no fee of any kind. This is one buyer talking to owners directly.
What size of business?
Not set yet, and rather than invent a band the page marks it as unset. The honest filter for now is: profitable, ordinary, and small enough that the usual brokers will not list it.
Is confidentiality taken seriously?
Yes. Nothing gets discussed with anybody, and an NDA before figures change hands is completely normal. No business is ever named on this website.
What if the answer is no?
Then the reasoning comes with it, in writing if that is useful. An owner who learns why a buyer walked is better off than one who hears nothing.