The Owner's Manual: Why, When, and How to Sell Your Business to Private Equity

Most owners don't plan the sale of their companies. Instead, they drift into it after receiving a "we're interested" email. The Owner's Manual helps prepare founders and owners for a potential sale years before that email is received. This book explains how private equity investors evaluate and price businesses so that if and when you are ready to sell your business, you can be well-positioned to get the outcome you want.

Inside, you'll learn to:

• Think like a buyer: prioritize predictable cash flow, decrease key man risk, build durable revenue, reduce customer concentration, and focus on the metrics that move multiples.
• Baseline with EVRSTM: every business (based on its industry, size, and other factors) trades in a range of multiples. Where your business is in that range depends on seven elements. You'll see where you are in that range TODAY and then you have a choice: remodel the business before selling, or take it to market as is. But either way, you'll know where you stand.
• Choose the right path: platform vs. add-on, when to go to market, and how to assemble a team that can help you from the time you contemplate selling all the way through to the exit.
• Understand that valuation is not the only consideration in selling a business: who you partner with matters, and how the deal is structured 'Arill be a function of how anti-fragile the business is.
• Avoid the traps: missed numbers, "market" myths, being unprepared, and other key factors that kill deals.

With clear checklists, actionable takeaways, and case studies, this is the field guide for owner-operators who want a great outcome on purpose-not by accident. Better preparation means better multiples, cleaner terms, and your best shot at a life-changing sale.

Author: Seth Deutsch
Publisher: Samson Partners Group
Published: 11/04/2025
Pages: 242
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9798993609409

About the Author
Deutsch, Seth: - Seth Deutsch is a deal architect, investor, and operator who helps founder-led companies grow, go to market, and sell on their terms. Over his career he has led or advised on 70-plus acquisitions, built nine private-equity-backed platforms, and partnered with dozens of owner-operators to make their businesses investor-ready. As founder of Samson Operating Partners, Seth's team works directly with owners and investors to professionalize operations, strengthen leadership, and drive enterprise growth by blending the discipline of private equity with the empathy of an operator. He travels the country speaking with CEOs, PE firms, and advisors to educate as many buyers and sellers as possible. In The Owner's Manual, he distills that experience so owners can think like investors and engineer life-changing sales.

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