Sell your business without regret.

Most owners sell once. The buyers they face, private equity platforms, strategic acquirers and family offices, do it every quarter. That gap is where value is lost: not in the offer price, but in the terms nobody explained until it was too late to change them.

The Eight-Figure Exit Guide is the framework Breakwater walks its clients through, in the order we walk through it. Written for owners with $1M or more in EBITDA who want to understand what a buyer will pay, why, and how to protect the number through closing.

Inside the guide:

• Pre-exit preparation: quality of earnings, reviewed financials, management depth, and the four risk buckets buyers price

• Valuation factors: seven drivers of the multiple, 4x–6x benchmarks, and why two similar companies sell for different numbers

• Structuring the deal: asset vs. share sale, earn-outs, rollover equity, majority recapitalizations, and the second bite

• Buyer marketing: PE platforms and bolt-ons, strategics, family offices, search funds, and the process that produces competing offers

• Negotiation: the working capital PEG, the levers beyond price, and the six LOI terms to lock before exclusivity

• Closing the deal: diligence, final terms, the purchase agreement, and the four re-trade triggers that kill deals after the LOI

Plus a two-page valuation worksheet, the Eight-Figure Exit Checklist, and a glossary of the terms buyers will use.

Breakwater M&A is a Canadian sell-side advisory firm with $250M+ in closed deals and a buyer database of 10,000+. This guide is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice.