Santa Fe has a perfectly good greatest hits list: Ten Thousand Waves, The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Canyon Road, Meow Wolf, and Museum Hill to name just a few. All of them are worth your time, but if you’re a repeat visitor who’s already done this circuit, the traveler whose idea of a good time involves a ghost town and a buffalo named Harley, or anyone looking for that serendipitous discovery, this series is for you. We’re...
One of the first questions sellers ask us is some version of: “How many buyers do you already have for a business like mine?” It’s a reasonable question. If you’re selling a plumbing company in Albuquerque, you assume your broker should already know every competitor, every strategic buyer, every private equity group rolling up businesses in your market. Sometimes we do. Just as often, we don’t. Of all the things a business broker brings to a transaction,...
Family-owned businesses continue to play an outsized role in the New Mexico economy, where most businesses are small and owner-operated. Yet despite how common these businesses are, succession planning remains one of the least addressed challenges facing owners approaching retirement or transition. Many owners assume that selling to a child or other relative will be simpler than selling to an outside buyer. In reality, family transitions often introduce a different set of operational, financial, and emotional...
Simply put, due diligence is how you make sure the business you think you're buying is actually the business you are buying; not the business the seller describes or that the listing presents online, but the actual operating business: its customers, revenue, cash flow, habits, and risks. It sounds straightforward. In practice, it's where some deals go sideways. Pajarito Window Washing: a Hypothetical Example To illustrate this, let’s look at a small window washing operation that consists of...
Many sellers are surprised to discover how much influence a buyer's lender has over the sale process. Even when a buyer is motivated and the business looks strong, financing isn't a formality; it's an ongoing evaluation that can shape price, structure, timing, and even who can realistically buy the business. A "Yes" Is Conditional Until Closing A bank's approval doesn't arrive once and stay put. A loan moves through several sets of hands, and each stage brings...
Most New Mexico small business owners often focus on the day-to-day operations, with an eye toward growing the business. They spend little time preparing to exit their business, often because it’s such a far-off possibility as to seem impractical. While it may sound counterintuitive, exit planning needs to be part of your growth strategy from Day One. It’s not only for large businesses. Without a plan, owners often drift toward burnout – and burnout erodes your...
Buying a business is often framed as a process. And it is with clear steps: NDA, LOI, financing, due diligence, legal review. But if you’ve been around enough transactions, a pattern starts to emerge. Some buyers move through that process and close. Others stall out, get overwhelmed, or walk away. It’s usually not because of one dramatic issue. More often, it comes down to how the buyer shows up from the beginning. Here are a few traits...
Selling a business is rarely derailed by poor negotiating tactics. More often, it comes down to preparation, flexibility, and a realistic understanding of what the other side is up against. That last part is harder than it sounds. Most sellers have spent years building something, and the number in their head reflects that history. A buyer sees a set of financial statements and a risk they're being asked to take on with their own capital and...
Most people envision selling a small business as a straightforward transaction: a purchase price is agreed upon, the deal closes, and the seller walks away with the proceeds. In many cases, that's exactly how it works. But not every deal fits that model, particularly when parties agree on the value of the business as it has performed historically but differ on what comes next. When that gap exists, a holdback is one tool that can help. Rather...
Risk reduction is one of the strongest arguments for acquiring an existing business rather than starting from scratch. And it's true – you're buying a proven model with established customers, trained employees, vendor relationships, and brand recognition. You're not guessing whether the market exists or whether anyone will pay for what you're offering. The business has already answered those questions. Buying a business lowers risk, but it doesn’t remove it. Think of it as joining a...
Selling a business isn’t like selling a house. There’s no open house, no bidding wars, and no public listings on multiple websites. More importantly, there’s no guarantee that the highest offer produces the best outcome. The wrong buyer, even at the right price, can create downstream regrets. The real challenge isn’t finding a buyer. It’s understanding how each type of buyer actually changes the dynamics of a deal. The Competitor: Speed, Familiarity, and Real Risk Attached Selling to...
Once you begin applying for an SBA 7(a) loan, one question comes up quickly and repeatedly: What experience do you have in this line of business? This isn’t arbitrary. The SBA and its participating lenders are trying to assess execution risk. All things equal, a buyer with firsthand industry experience is statistically less likely to stumble in the first critical years of ownership. Prior business ownership strengthens the case further. That logic is sound. The difficulty comes when...
For decades, owning a professional practice followed a fairly rigid sequence. Newly licensed doctors, dentists, veterinarians, chiropractors, and optometrists joined as associates. After years of building clinical experience, savings, and local reputation, a smaller subset eventually considered buying a practice of their own. Ownership came later, often much later, largely driven by financial considerations. Large down payments, conservative underwriting, and the complexity of SBA-backed loans effectively pushed ownership into mid-career. Many capable doctors never crossed that...
For much of the last decade, the idea of a “Grey Tsunami” dominated coverage of small business ownership. As Baby Boomers, now about aged 62 to 80, retired en masse, we were told to expect an eye-watering handoff of wealth and assets to younger generations. Its effects would be felt across finance, real estate, and small business ownership. After all, Boomers own just over half of U.S. small businesses, according to Census data. The implication was...
When buyers begin exploring opportunities in New Mexico, they’re not only evaluating financials and systems; they’re imagining what it would feel like to step into a business rooted in a place with its own rhythm. Whether they’re moving here from Denver or Dallas or already living in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, or Las Cruces, they want something that feels both stable and has the potential for them to put their own stamp on. The businesses that rise...
