Deal Structure 101 for Business Owners
You negotiate for months to land a $3 million purchase price. Then the deal closes and after debt payoff, taxes, transaction fees, escrow holdbacks, and earnout risk, you walk away with significantly less than you expected. Most business owners don’t know this is coming until they’re already sitting across from a buyer. And by then, the structure has been set.
Deal structure is where the real negotiation happens. Two sellers can agree to the exact same price and produce completely different outcomes. The difference isn’t luck, it’s how the deal is built.
In this episode, Christian and Stephen break down the three deal structures every owner needs to understand – cash at close, seller financing, and earnouts – explain the six terms you must know before signing anything, and walk through what the real negotiation is actually about. Then they hand you a six-step preparation checklist to start building your deal readiness today, whether you’re thinking about a sale in two years or ten.
Whether you’re planning an exit, thinking about acquiring a business yourself, or simply want to understand how deals actually work, this is the episode that closes the gap between what you think a deal is and what it actually is.