About CGK Business Sales
An M&A advisory and business brokerage firm built by Wall Street alumni for owners of privately-held businesses doing $1.5M to $100M in revenue.
CGK Business Sales is one firm with eleven offices and a single shared deal pipeline, run by principals who came out of Deutsche Bank, T. Rowe Price, Wachovia, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Chevron and Shell corporate finance, the U.S. Naval Academy, Cornell, and institutional trading desks and hedge funds. The Managing Principal holds both an MBA and the CFA charter.
The firm exists to fill a specific gap. Most brokerage outfits at the High Main Street and lower-middle-market scale cannot run an investment-banking-style structured competitive process, because their advisors did not come from institutional finance. CGK runs the institutional process at lower-middle-market scale, sized to the deal in front of us, with the same discipline a much larger investment bank would bring to a transaction ten times the size.
If you landed here from a referral, a buyer, a journalist piece, or due diligence on whether to put CGK on a sell-side shortlist, the rest of the page is the honest answer to who we are, what we do, what we do not do, and the standards we run to.
The Wall Street Lens on Main Street and Lower-Middle-Market Sales.
The first thing worth understanding about CGK Business Sales is where the principals came from. Pedigree is not a substitute for results, but it is the cleanest single explanation for why our work looks different from a franchise-broker engagement at the same deal size.
What the pedigree changes about a deal. A capital-markets background trains an advisor to think in forward run-rate, to normalize adjustments with documented assumption logic, to read customer-cohort retention data, to calibrate a working-capital peg against trailing seasonality, and to build a CIM that survives a PE sponsor’s third read. None of this is exotic at a bulge-bracket bank. It is the baseline.
What is different at the franchise networks. Sunbelt, Transworld, Murphy, and VR recruit from residential real estate, prior small-business ownership, and sales backgrounds. The training works at the lowest end of Main Street. It collapses the moment the buyer’s deal team starts asking technical questions about cost of capital, recurring-revenue retention math, or indemnification structure. CGK runs the institutional process because the bench was trained on it, and runs it at $1.5M and up, sized to the deal in front of us.
One Firm, Eleven Offices, Shared Deal Flow.
CGK is one firm. One P&L. One shared CRM. One buyer pool. One seller pipeline. Eleven offices in the markets we serve. That structure looks ordinary on first read. The reason it matters is that it is the opposite of how the franchise-broker industry is built, and the structural difference shows up on every cross-office deal.
How a franchise broker network actually works. Sunbelt, Transworld, Murphy, and VR are federations of independently-owned franchisees. Each franchisee runs a separate P&L, pays a royalty back to corporate, and competes against neighboring franchisees. Sharing a buyer pool cuts into a franchisee’s success fee through a referral split, so the economic model penalizes the sharing the marketing language promises.
How a single-firm structure changes the math. Inside CGK, the CRM is shared and the seller pipeline is visible firm-wide. When a buyer reaches out to one CGK market, we run the question against the seller pipeline across all eleven offices. When a seller signs an engagement letter in one market, we run outreach across buyer relationships across all eleven offices.
The Austin buyer / Dallas listing. A search-fund-backed operator-CEO based in Austin signed our buyer-side mandate looking for a Texas-based commercial services platform. Three weeks later, a sell-side engagement landed at our Dallas office for a commercial services operator inside the buyer’s stated thesis. The cross-office match closed in nine months at a multiple meaningfully above the seller’s prior unsolicited LOI.
Two independently-owned franchisees in the same network, in the same two cities, would not have shared the inventory because doing so would have cut both of their success fees. We have run the equivalent pattern across DC and Baltimore, Nashville and Houston, and Louisville and Houston over the last three years.
The eleven offices. Austin, Baltimore, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Louisville, Nashville, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Washington, DC. Every office is staffed by a named senior principal, and the cross-office bench tracks the lower-middle-market multiples published by PitchBook against deals we are actively running.
The CFA-Led Valuation Practice.
The Chartered Financial Analyst credential is the institutional gold standard for valuation analysis, equity research, and capital-structure modeling. It is the designation that sits behind sell-side equity research at the largest investment banks and behind the buy-side analyst work that powers institutional asset management. In the business brokerage industry, the credential is structurally rare.
The overlap with business brokers is vanishingly small. CFA Institute estimates fewer than two hundred thousand charterholders worldwide. Sunbelt, Transworld, Murphy, Synergy, and Generational do not lead with CFA-credentialed analysts. CGK does. Greg Knox, Managing Principal, holds the charter and leads the analytical practice. The category-of-one positioning is not a marketing line. It is a count.
Why the credential matters inside a deal. When the buyer’s deal team pushes on the forward run-rate model, the cost-of-capital build, or the working-capital peg, the CFA-led conversation runs at the investment committee’s altitude. The credential is not the lever. The training behind it is.
The free verbal valuation walkthrough. Any owner seriously thinking about selling, on any horizon, can sit through a free verbal valuation walkthrough with a senior CGK principal. We pull up the comparable transactions in your industry, walk you through the multiple band, the EBITDA adjustments, and the math behind the range. A year out, five years out, longer. The free walkthrough is the same work in each case.
Written valuations are a separate engagement. A formal written valuation, used for tax planning, estate work, partner buyouts, or gift-and-trust filings, is delivered through our paid valuation practice. Visit our business valuation page for the structure and scope. CGK does not deliver written valuations for divorce or contested partnership work.
What a 90%+ Close Rate Actually Means.
The industry average for brokerage close rates sits at roughly twenty percent. The gap between twenty and ninety is not luck and it is not narrative. It is the disciplined output of two halves of the same engagement, and both halves earn the number.
Most brokerages take any listing that walks in the door and watch four out of five engagements die between LOI and closing. The breakage usually happens in confirmatory diligence, where the CIM does not hold up or the working-capital peg was not modeled.
The CGK close rate sits above ninety percent because we run a disciplined intake on the front end and a disciplined execution on the back end. Both halves earn the gap.
The front-end filter. A meaningful share of owners who reach out to CGK should not sign an engagement letter at all. The right answer is often to wait twelve to twenty-four months while the owner cleans up customer concentration, stretches the company to a stretch of clean monthly performance, or finishes an operational handoff. We tell those owners to wait or pass. That discipline is the half of the close rate most competitors structurally cannot replicate.
The back-end execution. The engagements we sign run on institutional-process discipline through every phase. The recast surfaces the EBITDA the buyer will underwrite to. The CIM holds up under a PE sponsor’s third read. The LOI negotiation treats headline price, escrow, working-capital peg, rollover, earnout, and indemnification cap as a six-variable system. The post-LOI diligence push defends the headline number against the renegotiation attempts that take down four out of five industry deals.
Senior Named Principal Start to Finish.
The principal who runs the free verbal valuation on the first call is the same principal who signs the engagement letter, writes the CIM, runs the buyer outreach, negotiates the LOI, quarterbacks confirmatory diligence, and sits across from you at closing. The handoff most owners expect from a brokerage engagement does not happen at CGK.
How the franchise model handles the same arc. A franchise broker engagement typically opens with a senior franchisee on the intake call, hands the seller to a junior screener for the listing build, and presents whichever LOI surfaces first as the right outcome. The seller meets three or four different people between intake and wire.
How CGK runs the same arc. One senior named principal owns the engagement end to end. The CIM is written by the principal who took the intake call. The LOI negotiation is run by the principal who knows where the buyer’s deal team is going to push. The closing-week working-capital peg is supervised by the same principal who modeled the forward run-rate twelve months earlier. The continuity is what keeps the price up when the buyer-side renegotiation pressure arrives.
The bench behind every named principal. Every CGK principal is supported by the firm’s national bench. A Houston-led mechanical services engagement can pull CFA-led modeling from the Managing Principal. A Dallas-led MSSP engagement can pull industry-comp research from a Managing Director with a deeper cyber Rolodex. View the full CGK team.
Where We Sit: High Main Street and the Lower Middle Market.
CGK Business Sales serves privately-held businesses with $1.5M to $100M in annual revenue and $300K to $10M in SDE or EBITDA. The served band covers two adjacent market segments, and CGK runs both as one firm because the methodology compounds across them.
High Main Street: $1.5M to $5M Revenue
Owner-operated companies running $1.5M to $5M in revenue and $300K to $1M in SDE. Often a single location, a family-built service business, or a regional operation with a clear local buyer pool and SBA-financed acquisition profile.
- SBA 7(a) buyer financing common
- Owner-operator and search-fund buyer pool
- Six-to-ten-month closing window
- Right home: /business-brokers/
Lower Middle Market: $5M to $100M Revenue
Privately-held companies running $5M to $100M in revenue and $1M to $10M in EBITDA. Founder-CEOs, second-generation owners, family-office principals, and PE-backed sellers fielding unsolicited interest from PE platforms and strategics.
- PE platform, strategic, and family-office buyers
- Full CIM, structured data room, blind teaser
- R&W insurance and working-capital pegs
- Right home: /m-a-advisors/
Why one firm runs both bands. Most outfits that serve High Main Street cannot step up into a $25M lower-middle-market sale, and most boutique investment banks that serve the lower middle market will not touch a $3M brokerage engagement. CGK runs both bands because the analytical methodology and the buyer-relationship infrastructure compound across them. A industry consolidator buyer who looks at a $3M listing this quarter is the same buyer who will look at a $25M tuck-in next quarter.
The $1.5M revenue floor is a real floor. Below $1.5M in revenue or $300K in SDE, the structured competitive process does not produce the lift that pays for itself. The reader landing here at $800K in revenue is reading the right firm with the wrong size for our practice.
Industries We Have Sold.
Breadth without bragging. The list below is the industry coverage CGK has actually closed in across the eleven offices. The industry-page library at cgkbusinesssales.com walks through about fifty specific verticals in detail, with the multiples, the buyer-pool depths, and the deal-mechanics nuance that matter at the industry level.
Healthcare and healthcare services. Behavioral health, addiction treatment, dental practices, veterinary practices, pharmacy, home health agencies, medical practices, physical therapy, med spa and aesthetic services, dental labs. One of the largest segments of CGK’s closed-engagement footprint, driven by sponsor demand for recurring-revenue clinical practices.
Professional services. Law firms, accounting practices, consulting firms, insurance brokerages, and financial-services-adjacent advisory businesses.
Construction and the trades. Plumbing, HVAC, electrical, mechanical, roofing, landscaping, painting, garage door, window cleaning, flooring, pest control, restoration, cleaning services, and window and door replacement. One of the most active PE consolidation themes of the last five years.
Manufacturing, distribution, and logistics. Specialty manufacturers, industrial finishing, regional distribution operators, food distribution, and last-mile logistics.
Retail, restaurant, hospitality, and transportation. Specialty retail, franchised restaurant operations, regional hospitality, and transportation operators across freight, passenger services, and specialty fleets.
Education, childcare, and family services. Daycare and early-childhood operators, supplemental education, and tutoring platforms.
Technology and tech-enabled services. Managed cybersecurity services (MSSP), managed IT services (MSP), and tech-enabled recurring-revenue platforms. CGK does meaningfully less in pure SaaS.
Federal and state contracting. GovCon, DoD-adjacent professional services, state-contracting service operators, and federally-funded healthcare and education platforms. The federal cluster sits heaviest in the DC, Baltimore, and Houston markets.
Specialty operators and asset-light services. Car wash, auto repair, funeral homes, convenience stores, pet services, pool service, wastewater services, and adjacent categories. About fifty specific verticals are covered in detail across the industry-page library at cgkbusinesssales.com.
Inside the Blueprint, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business News.
CGK Business Sales was featured on Inside the Blueprint, the syndicated business television series. The CGK segment aired on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News. A Bloomberg appearance is structurally unusual in the broker industry. Most franchise-broker networks do not appear in financial-news placement of any kind, because editorial gatekeepers filter for institutional-credential coverage rather than commission-driven outreach.
Watch the segment, then start a confidential conversation. The full segment lives on the CGK press features page.
What We Do Not Do.
The boundaries below are the engagements we say no to, on purpose, every quarter. A firm without published boundaries either does not have any or does not write them down. The list below is the honest version of where CGK stops.
Take divorce or contested-partnership valuations. Litigation valuation work requires a different posture and credential set. Owners in those situations are better served by a forensic valuation specialist.
Work on businesses below $1.5M in revenue or $300K in SDE. Below the floor, the structured process does not produce the lift that pays for itself. We say no rather than run engagements at a lower standard.
Represent both sides of the same transaction. Buy-side and sell-side engagements are run as separate workstreams with separate compensation and separate confidentiality firewalls. The structural conflict of dual representation does not happen at CGK.
Promise outcomes we cannot underwrite. The valuation range we deliver in the free walkthrough is defended by the same financial modeling that holds the price up under buyer scrutiny six months later.
Take an engagement when our front-end analysis says the seller should wait. The brokerage industry is built on commissions that pay brokers to take any listing. CGK is built on a different incentive structure.
How CGK Actually Operates.
The standards below are the operating principles every CGK engagement runs through. They are written down because the firm sticks to them across markets, sectors, and deal sizes, and because the reader who is vetting CGK for a referral or a buy-side mandate has the right to see them on a page.
Confidentiality from the first call forward.
Every conversation with CGK is confidential by default. The blind teaser, the NDA-gated CIM, and the sequenced data room protect the seller’s identity until the buyer has earned visibility through the process.
Defensible analysis under sophisticated buyer scrutiny.
Every number CGK publishes inside a CIM, a valuation, or an LOI defense is built to survive a PE sponsor’s third read. The forward run-rate is documented, the retention math is sourced, the working-capital peg is calibrated to trailing data.
Senior named principal continuity through closing.
The principal who runs the intake call is the same principal who signs the engagement letter, writes the CIM, runs the LOI negotiation, and sits at the closing table.
Free verbal valuation on any horizon, paid written valuation for formal use.
The first walkthrough is free for any owner seriously thinking about selling on any horizon. The formal written valuation is a separate paid engagement for sellers who need a third-party-defensible report.
Institutional discipline at lower-middle-market scale.
The structured competitive process runs at $1.5M and up, sized to the deal. The same discipline a much larger investment bank brings to a far larger transaction, calibrated to the band CGK serves.
No franchise royalty markup.
CGK is one firm. No corporate parent collecting a six-to-eight-percent royalty baked into the fee structure.
Plainspoken communication.
Capital-markets language translates into plain English when we sit across from a founder-CEO who has built a company for thirty years without ever caring about a working-capital peg until ninety days before closing.
Schedule a Confidential Conversation.
Submit a brief profile and a senior CGK principal will respond within one business day. Confidential, no commitment, and free. For privately-held owners with $1.5M+ in annual revenue.
What to expect on the first call.
The first conversation runs forty-five to seventy-five minutes. A senior CGK principal listens first. We tell you which engagement fits, what the next two steps look like, and what the realistic timeline is. No pressure. No commitment.
What the free verbal valuation includes.
A senior CGK principal pulls up the model on screen-share, walks you through the comparable transactions, the multiple band, the EBITDA adjustments, and the math behind the range. Free for any owner seriously thinking about a sale on any horizon.
If the right next step is going to market.
If the right step is a full sell-side engagement, we walk you through the engagement letter, the recast-and-modeling runway, the CIM build, and the success-fee structure. Most CGK engagements close six to twelve months from engagement to wire, with some closing in three to six. Larger middle-market deals tend toward the upper end of that band.
How CGK runs a sell-side engagement → · Meet the national bench →
Talk to a Senior CGK Principal
A senior CGK principal will respond within one business day to schedule a confidential conversation, in person, or by screen-share. For privately-held owners with $1.5M+ in annual revenue.
Confidential. No obligation. Direct routing to a named CGK principal, not a junior screener.
Latest from the CGK Blog.
Recent commentary from CGK’s principals on lower-middle-market and middle-market deal mechanics, valuation, and the industry multiples privately-held owners are tracking.
AI productivity tools are quietly compressing operating cost lines and reshaping the multiples sophisticated buyers are willing to pay. Owners going to market in 2026 need to understand how a buyer’s deal team prices the AI lift before signing an LOI. […] Read More
Stock vs. asset structure, F-reorganizations, QSBS eligibility, installment-sale considerations, and state-tax allocation can each shift net proceeds by tens of thousands or more. The 2026 update walks privately-held owners through the structuring decisions that have to be made twelve months before close, not at LOI. […] Read More
SBA 7(a), conventional senior debt, mezzanine, seller notes, rollover equity, and earn-outs each carry different cost-of-capital, covenant, and risk profiles for the buyer. The post breaks down how each layer interacts with the seller’s preferred structure and where most first-time acquirers misprice their cap stack. […] Read More
Start with a confidential conversation. No commitment.
Submit a brief profile and a senior CGK principal will reach out within one business day. The first conversation is always free, and the verbal valuation that follows is free for any owner seriously thinking about a sale on any horizon.
Strictly confidential. Senior named principal start to finish. Direct routing, not a junior screener.
Talk to a Senior CGK Principal
A senior CGK principal will respond within one business day. For privately-held owners with $1.5M+ in annual revenue.
Or scroll up to the seller-profile form in the block above. Direct routing to a senior CGK principal, not a junior screener.
Confidential. No obligation.
Sell your business by industry vertical.
CGK business brokers serve owners across healthcare, federal contracting, distribution, manufacturing, MSP, and construction industries. Each industry has its own diligence cadence, buyer pool, and value-driver story. Click any card below to see the playbook for your industry.
Healthcare
Sell a medical practice with payer-mix, clinical-credentialing, and Stark Law diligence discipline.
Visit pageFederal Contracting
Sell a federal contracting business with cleared-personnel, option-year, and 8(a)-graduate diligence discipline.
Visit pageDistribution
Sell a distribution business with customer concentration, recurring revenue, and logistics diligence discipline.
Visit pageManufacturing
Sell a manufacturing business with capacity-utilization, customer-concentration, and equipment-and-fleet diligence.
Visit pageMSP and IT Services
Sell an MSP or IT services business with recurring-revenue, contract-retention, and managed-services diligence.
Visit pageConstruction
Sell a construction business with backlog quality, workers compensation experience-modification-rate, and trade-bench retention diligence.
Visit pageCGK has offices across the country.
Whichever office you reach, you get the entire firm. Click any city to learn about that local presence and the named principal leading that market.