Services
Our work centers on guiding owners through a successful sale and the planning that surrounds it — with the same principal-led attention at every stage. Our advisory assignments are performance-based: no upfront retainers, and we don't get paid a dime unless we're successful for the owner. For owners who'd rather partner than sell outright, we can also invest directly.
End-to-end representation of owners through a confidential, competitive sale process — positioning, marketing, negotiation, and close.
Hands-on work to make the business sale-ready: cleaning financials, tightening operations and reporting, packaging the equity story, and closing the gaps buyers discount for — so you enter a process from a position of strength.
Helping owners prepare years in advance — clarifying goals, timing the market, and planning life after the sale to maximize value and continuity.
Honest, defensible assessments of what a business is worth today — and a clear plan for the drivers that increase it before a sale.
Discreet access to strategic acquirers, financial sponsors, and successors aligned with the owner's goals for legacy and people.
Helping owners evaluate and structure a sale to the people already running the business — an Employee Stock Ownership Plan or management-led buyout.
Coordinating with the owner's CPA, tax attorney, and wealth advisor so deal structure and timing are built around after-tax proceeds, not just headline price.
When a partnership fits better than a broad auction, Bellarmine can invest its own capital through Bellarmine Growth Partners. Learn more →
Sell-Side Advisory
When you decide to sell, you deserve an advisor on your side of the table and no one else's. We run a confidential, competitive process designed to surface the right buyer at the right value — while protecting your people and your name every step of the way.
That means preparing the business to be seen at its best, telling its story to a carefully chosen set of buyers, creating genuine competitive tension, and negotiating terms that hold up long after the closing. We stay in the details others hand off, because the details are where value is won or lost.
Our sell-side work is performance-based. We're compensated through a success fee on a completed transaction — no upfront retainer — so our incentives and the owner's point the same direction from the first call to the close.
Sale Preparation Consulting
Most of the value in a sale is created before a CIM goes out. Sale Preparation Consulting is the practical work between “we might sell someday” and “we are ready to run a process”: normalizing financials, documenting what makes the business durable, strengthening management reporting, addressing customer concentration and key-person risk, and shaping how the company will be seen.
Many businesses never sell — not because the owner didn't work hard, but because the company is too small, too owner-dependent, or not professional enough for a buyer to underwrite. Brand value built over a career can be left on the table if the business isn't ready to transfer.
Sale Preparation changes that trajectory: strengthen the company, grow what can be grown, and package the equity story so the owner gets paid for the brand and goodwill they built — not just trailing-twelve-month cash flow.
It's distinct from long-range Exit & Transition Planning — which is about goals, timing, and life after the sale — and from running the auction itself. Often it's three to twelve months of focused readiness that pays for itself in diligence speed and purchase price.
How we get paid: we structure the engagement so the economics are tied to upside. We only get paid on value we help create — not retainers up front. Our incentives align with the owner's; if we don't move the outcome, we don't get paid.
Exit & Transition Planning
A great result is rarely improvised. For owners who aren't ready to sell tomorrow — but know the day is coming — we help build a roadmap: clarifying what you want life to look like afterward, deciding on goals and timing, and choosing the right moment to go to market. Where Sale Preparation Consulting is the operational readiness work, this is the strategic layer above it — the “why,” “when,” and “what comes next.”
Sometimes the answer is selling now. Just as often, it means waiting eighteen months and capturing far more value. Either way, you go into the decision with clear eyes.
Valuation & Positioning
Every owner deserves a straight, defensible view of what their business is worth today — not an inflated number to win the engagement, and not a lowball to make a quick sale look good. We ground valuation in how real buyers actually pay, then map the specific drivers that move the number before you go to market.
Positioning is the other half of value. The same business, framed and presented well, commands a materially different price. We make sure yours is seen for everything it is.
Buyer & Successor Search
Price matters. So does who takes the keys. We give owners discreet access to strategic acquirers, financial sponsors, and individual successors — and we help weigh not just the offer, but the fit: what happens to your employees, your customers, and the company that still carries your name.
For many owners, the difference between two similar offers comes down to who they trust to carry it forward. We take that as seriously as the number.
ESOP / Employee-Led Buyouts
The best next steward of your business isn't always a strategic acquirer or a financial sponsor; it may be the people already running it. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) or a management-led buyout can transfer ownership to the team that built the company's day-to-day success, often preserving culture, jobs, and the owner's legacy in ways a third-party sale cannot.
We help owners evaluate whether an ESOP or employee-led structure fits their goals, coordinate with the specialized ESOP trustees, valuation, and legal advisors these transactions require, and structure a transition that works for the owner's timeline and the company's ability to fund it over time.
Tax Coordination in a Sale
The after-tax proceeds of a sale are shaped by decisions made months or years before closing — entity structure, deal structure, purchase price allocation, and timing. Bellarmine Partners is an M&A advisory firm, not a tax or legal advisor, but we make sure the transaction is built in close coordination with the ones who are.
We work alongside the owner's CPA, tax attorney, and wealth advisor throughout a sale process so that structuring decisions, timing, and negotiating positions reflect the full tax picture — not just the headline price. See our related insight, Tax Planning for a Business Sale →
Sell to Us
Not every owner is looking only for an exit. When a direct partnership fits better than a broad auction, Bellarmine can invest its own capital through Bellarmine Growth Partners — growth equity, acquisition, or an operating partnership for the next chapter. It's a separate conversation from a sell-side mandate.
Note that investing our own capital is different from advisory work: an equity investment is not an advisory retainer or fee. What carries across both paths is owner-aligned structuring — we still aim to build the deal around what the owner wants to keep.
Whether a sale is years away or already on your mind, we're glad to help you think it through. The first conversation is confidential and carries no obligation.
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