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CGK Insights

The CGK blog on selling, buying, and valuing privately-held businesses.

Commentary from the senior named principals who actually close the engagements.

The CGK blog is where senior CGK principals publish working analysis on what is moving the market for privately-held companies in the High Main Street and lower-middle-market bands. Topics rotate across selling a business, buying a business, business valuations, M&A structuring, financing, tax, regulatory shifts, and the macro and policy backdrop reshaping the buyer pool. Read what you need, then submit a confidential profile if you want a senior principal to weigh in on your specific situation.

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Inside the Blueprint, the national business television program featuring CGK business brokers and M&A advisors.

CGK has been featured on Inside the Blueprint, a national business television segment that highlights the strategy, discipline, and outcomes that separate the M&A firms business owners should actually engage from the ones they should not.

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All CGK Insights

Recent commentary from the CGK team.

Every post below is authored or reviewed by a senior CGK principal. Topics span selling a business, buying a business, business valuations, M&A structure, financing, tax, and the macro backdrop. Use the pagination at the bottom of the grid to browse the full archive.

Tips to Sell Your Business ASAP

Tips to Sell Your Business ASAP

Updated July 2026. The fastest way to sell a business is to be ready before you start: financials documented, a defensible price built from real comparable sales, and an advisor who brings qualified buyers instead of waiting for them. Prepared businesses sell in months. Unprepared ones sit for years or ...
What Do All Profitable Businesses Have in Common

What Do All Profitable Businesses Have in Common?

Running a business can be challenging, to say the least. According to the United States Small Business Administration or SBA, roughly one in twelve small businesses close during a given year. While these numbers may be a bit disheartening, potential sellers can achieve success if they follow the right steps ...
How Will Rising Interest Rates Affect Selling My Business

How Interest Rates Affect Selling Your Business

Updated July 2026. Interest rates shape what buyers can pay for your business because most acquisitions are financed. When rates rise, the same cash flow supports less debt and offers compress. When rates ease, buyer purchasing power recovers and competition returns. Sellers cannot control the cycle, but preparation determines which ...
Defending your EBITDA

Defending your EBITDA

Updated July 2026. Defending your EBITDA means proving your earnings hold up when a buyer and their lenders test every line: documented add-backs, consistent accounting, explained anomalies, and a clean bridge from tax returns to the number in your marketing materials. Every dollar of earnings you cannot defend costs you ...
How Seller Financing Can Help You Sell Your Business

How Seller Financing Can Help You Sell Your Business

Updated July 2026. Seller financing means you carry a note for part of the purchase price, commonly 5 to 20 percent, repaid with interest after closing. Used well, it widens the buyer pool, supports your asking price, and signals confidence in the business. Most well-structured deals still deliver the large ...
Three Red Flags Sellers Should Look For In a Buyer

Three Red Flags Sellers Should Look For In a Buyer

Updated July 2026. The three red flags to watch for in a business buyer: money that cannot be verified, a timeline that keeps slipping, and terms that quietly shift risk onto you after the handshake. Vetting buyers before they enter diligence protects your confidentiality, your momentum, and your final price ...
How to Get Buyers Interested When Selling Your Business

How to Get Buyers Interested When Selling Your Business

Updated July 2026. Buyers get interested when a business shows documented, transferable earnings, a story they can finance, and scarcity created by a real process. In practice that means a clean earnings recast, a blind profile that sells the opportunity without naming you, and direct outreach to qualified buyers rather ...
Essential Traits for Successful Business Owners

Essential Traits for Successful Business Owners

Running a business can be challenging, especially in competitive markets. That said, it can also be immensely satisfying for the type of person. If you're thinking about buying a business, it's important to be realistic about not just the local market but also your abilities as a future business owner ...
Universal Keys to a Profitable Business

Universal Keys to a Profitable Business

Every day, entrepreneurs purchase or start businesses and plan to succeed in their endeavors. While many do, others don’t, as they fail to explore all the elements that make a business prosper. If you’re considering purchasing a business, it’s important to understand there are a few generally accepted strategies owners ...
Your Guide to Starting a Real Estate Business in Phoenix

Your Guide to Starting a Real Estate Business in Phoenix

Quite a few people are considering entering the real estate sector these days. After all, it’s an in-demand field that offers numerous opportunities and rewards. As a real estate agent, you’ll be able to connect people with their dream homes and aid current property owners in moving on to the ...
Biggest Business Trends in 2022

Biggest Business Trends in 2022

Over the past two years, the pandemic’s impacts reverberated through the business sector, creating problems no one ever expected to face. Once-thriving businesses were forced to close, costing jobs and changing the way people viewed owning a business. At the same time, some sectors prospered, which means business owners in ...
Here’s Why You Need a Business Plan

Here’s Why You Need a Business Plan

While statistics vary dramatically based on their source, a huge number of small businesses open every year in the U.S. Owners of those businesses anticipated succeeding and being around for years to come, but their plans don’t always work out. Here’s why you need a business plan. Approximately 20 percent ...

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