Seller guides, written for the sector you actually operate in
Nine guides, each one about a kind of business rather than about selling in general. They cover what a buyer looks at in that sector, what moves the price, the licensing and compliance that does or does not transfer, and the things that quietly lose a sale. Every figure is sourced and dated.
These are the sectors I have worked in or sold in. They are credibility markers, not limits. I sell businesses in every industry. Last updated 15 September 2026.
Get my free appraisal, in writingCall 0431 124 128
No obligation. Nothing is published. Nobody is contacted.
Check it yourself
The nine guides
What every guide covers
- How a buyer in that sector actually prices the business, and which earnings they normalise.
- The licensing, registration and compliance that transfers on a sale, and the parts that do not.
- What sits on the balance sheet against what sits in the business, and how each is treated.
- The specific things that lose a sale in that sector, from someone who has watched them happen.
- Between fourteen and twenty nine questions, answered, with primary sources cited and dated.
Where to go next
What is my business worth? covers pricing across every sector. Is my business ready to sell? is a free check that runs in your browser and stores nothing. What I charge publishes every figure. Businesses I sell is the wider list.
Why the sector you are in changes everything
There is a lot of general advice about selling a business, and much of it is close to useless once you get into a real negotiation. A buyer looking at a freight company is not asking the same questions as a buyer looking at an online retailer. One is pulling apart your contracted lanes, your driver roster and your compliance file. The other lives in your customer acquisition cost and your repeat purchase data. Same process, completely different pressure points.
That is the reason these guides are split by industry rather than written as one generic article. What earns a premium in earthmoving is not what earns a premium in window furnishings. What kills a construction deal will not touch a transport deal. If you prepare against the wrong checklist, you spend twelve months fixing things nobody was going to ask about, and you arrive at market with the actual problems untouched.
Which guide should you read
Read the one that matches how your business actually earns its money, not how it is described on your ABN registration. A civil contractor that makes the bulk of its margin hiring plant to other contractors should read the earthmoving guide. A building company whose revenue is mostly maintenance contracts rather than new builds will still find the construction guide relevant, because the QBCC licence question governs the sale either way.
If your business genuinely straddles two sectors, read both. A business with revenue across two cycles that do not move together carries a different risk profile to one that does not, and that is a case worth making properly rather than leaving a buyer to work it out.
Timing
You are probably not selling this year. That is exactly the right time to read one.
What separates a business sold as it stands from one prepared deliberately over twelve to twenty four months is the work done in between, and that work takes time you only have if you start early.
What reading one early actually changes
Knowing what a buyer in your sector will scrutinise turns the next two years into targeted work rather than drift. You keep running the business either way. The difference is whether the work you do in the meantime is building toward the sale or away from it.
Questions about these guides
Which seller guide should I read?
The one that matches how your business actually earns its money, not how it is described on your ABN registration. A civil contractor making the bulk of its margin hiring plant should read the earthmoving guide. A builder whose revenue is mostly maintenance rather than new builds still needs the construction guide, because the QBCC licence question governs the sale either way. If your business straddles two sectors, read both.
Are the guides free?
Yes. No sign up, no email capture, no gate. Read them, use them, and if the appraisal conversation is useful later then it is there.
My industry is not listed. Can you still sell my business?
Yes. The nine listed are the industries I have run, worked in or spent years alongside. I sell businesses in every other sector using the same process and the same buyer research. The fundamentals that determine value are identical across industries. What changes is which of them matters most, and that is learnable with proper preparation.
How far ahead of selling should I read these?
One to two years is ideal. Every guide sets out preparation work that needs lead time, and the things that lift value most, reducing owner dependence, converting revenue to a recurring basis, broadening the customer base, cannot be done in the month before you go to market.
Do these guides apply outside Queensland?
The commercial fundamentals do. The licensing and compliance detail, particularly anything involving QBCC, is Queensland specific and would need checking against the equivalent regime in another state.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Start with the number
A written appraisal costs nothing and commits you to nothing. 1300 173 183.