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Blog
Practical guidance for A/E/LS firm owners navigating exits, employee buyouts, SBA financing, and valuation. Written by John R. Allen, III, M&A advisor and NSPS approved national speaker.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
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The Step-Down: How Owners Actually Leave
Owners fear the day after the sale more than the price. The step-down takes them from 40 hours a week to on call, and transfers what only they know.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
Why the Employees You Trained May Be Your Best Exit Strategy
Your best buyer is often already on your payroll. The people you trained hold the knowledge, clients, and culture an outside buyer would pay a discount to get.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
The Step-Up Legacy Plan: A New Framework for A/E Firm Ownership Transition
A framework for transitioning an A/E firm to its own employees using SBA financing, so the seller is paid at closing and the buyers own it outright.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
Selling to a Third Party vs. Keeping It in the Family
A third-party sale hands your A/E firm to a stranger. Keeping it in the family, your employees, preserves the culture. How the two exits actually compare.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
The Succession Timeline Most A/E Firm Owners Get Wrong
How long succession really takes for architecture and engineering firms, the three-to-four year countdown that works, and why selling to employees is faster.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
Retiring TO Something: Life After Selling Your A/E/LS Firm
The owners who handle the sale well built a life waiting. How the step-down process gives A/E/LS firm sellers runway instead of a cliff.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
Case Study: How a 28-Person A/E Firm Owner Exited with Step-Up
How a 28-person A/E firm owner exited with Step-Up: SBA financing, independent valuation, paid at close, and a clean control transfer.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
Who Bears the Risk? Capital Structure in A/E Firm Ownership Transitions
Compare 6 A/E firm ownership models by seller risk and liquidity. SBA buyouts, ESOPs, MBOs, EOTs, co-ops, and seller financing analyzed by who bears the financial risk.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
ESOP Alternatives for A/E Firms: SBA-Friendly Employee Buyouts
ESOPs cost $150,000 or more to set up and rarely fit firms under $10 million in sales. See how your employees come in with as little as 5% down and you are paid at closing.
Step-Up Legacy Plan
SBA Employee Buyout vs. ESOP vs. MBO vs. EOT vs. Co-Op vs. Seller Financing
Compare 6 employee ownership models by seller risk, cash at closing, and complexity. SBA buyouts deliver the lowest seller risk and highest upfront liquidity.
Buying Out the Boss
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When One Partner Wants Out and the Other Doesn't
One partner is ready to retire, the other is not. How to value a single partner's stake and finance the buyout without draining the remaining owner.
Buying Out the Boss
Why Most Buyouts Need Two Buyers, Not One
Running an A/E firm takes a technical lead and someone who wins the work. One person rarely holds both, which is why most employee buyouts involve a group.
Buying Out the Boss
Younger Partners Can Buy Out the Senior Partner, and He Still Gets Paid at Closing
Your partnership agreement may pay a departing partner monthly over years. That is a funding choice, not a rule. Bank financing pays him at closing instead.
Buying Out the Boss
How Much Cash Does an Employee Need to Buy a Business?
How much cash an employee really needs to buy a business: the 5 percent down math, where the money comes from, and how co-buyers shrink the number.
Buying Out the Boss
How to Buy Out Your Boss: A Step-by-Step Guide
A step-by-step guide to buying out your boss with SBA financing, from confirming the numbers privately to closing the deal and taking ownership.
Buying Out the Boss
Key Employee Buyout: What Happens After You Say Yes
What happens after you commit to a key employee buyout: valuation, financing, the letter of intent, closing, and the transition into ownership.
Buying Out the Boss
Risks and Red Flags Before Buying Out Your Employer
The risks and red flags to check before buying out your employer, from client concentration to cash flow quality, and how SBA underwriting protects you.
Buying Out the Boss
What It Takes to Buy the Company You Work For
What you actually need to buy the company you work for: the down payment, the cash flow banks require, and the personal readiness that makes a buyout work.
Buying Out the Boss
Why the Spouse Belongs at the Table in A/E/LS Firm Buyouts
Every A/E/LS firm buyout has four decision-makers, not two. Bring the buyer's spouse in early so the household is aligned before the bank is.
Buying Out the Boss
Buying the Boss Out: 2026 SBA Financing Guide
Updated 2026 SBA rules make employee buyouts viable with as little as 5% down and cash at closing. The Step-Up Legacy Plan beats ESOPs for $1M-$10M A/E firms.
Buying Out the Boss
How to Sell Your Engineering Firm to Key Employees
A/E firm owners can sell to key employees using SBA 7(a) loans with as little as 5% down. The Step-Up Legacy Plan pays cash at closing.
SBA Financing
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A Signed Agreement Isn't a Sale: Why SBA Expertise Matters When Selling an A/E/LS Firm
A signed purchase agreement is a plan for a sale. Until the acquisition loan is funded, the seller has an agreement, not the proceeds. Here is what SBA acquisition expertise changes.
SBA Financing
Why the Bank Decides Your A/E Firm Sale, and What It Weighs
In a bank-financed A/E firm sale, the lender has the loudest voice. It sets the value and approves the structure. Here is how banks decide a transaction.
SBA Financing
SBA Financing for Employees Buying Their Employer's Business
How SBA 7(a) financing lets employees buy their employer's business with as little as 5 percent down, what the loan covers, and how the equity injection works.
SBA Financing
Seller-Financed MBO vs SBA-Financed MBO
Seller-financed and SBA-financed management buyouts differ on one thing that matters most: when the owner gets paid. Here is how the two structures compare.
SBA Financing
SBA-Financed Employee Buyouts: The Exit Path Owners Miss
How A/E firm owners sell to their key employees with SBA financing and get paid at closing, the exit path most owners never hear about until too late.
SBA Financing
Common Deal Structures for A/E Firm Buyouts: SBA, Seller Notes, and Hybrid Models
Compare the most common deal structures for architecture and engineering firm buyouts. SBA 7(a), seller financing, hybrid models, and earnouts explained for both buyers and sellers.
SBA Financing
What SBA Lenders Actually Look For When Financing an A/E Firm Buyout
SBA lenders approve A/E firm buyouts based on DSCR, backlog, client mix, and management depth. Learn the 5 factors that determine if your deal gets funded.
Valuation & Deals
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Need, Want, Worth: The Three Numbers Before You Sell
Every A/E firm owner carries three numbers: what they need to retire, what they want, and what the firm is worth. How to tell which gap actually matters.
Valuation & Deals
The Hidden Value Drivers in an A/E Firm, and How to Build Them Before You Sell
The biggest hidden driver of your A/E firm's value is how much it depends on you. Reduce owner reliance and build these value drivers before you sell.
Valuation & Deals
What Is Your Engineering Firm Actually Worth?
A plain-language guide to valuing an engineering or architecture firm: the cash flow that drives value, the rule-of-thumb multiples, and why banks care.
Valuation & Deals
EBITDA Multiples for A/E Firms: What Your Firm Is Actually Worth in 2026
A/E firms with $2M to $10M in sales run 4.0x to 8.0x EBITDA. Firms below $2M are valued on 1.5x to 4.0x SDE. See what moves your multiple.
Valuation & Deals
How to Value Your A/E/LS Firm for a 3-4 Year Exit
A/E firm valuations run 1.5x to 4.0x SDE below $2M in sales, or 4.0x to 8.0x EBITDA from $2M to $10M. Learn what drives your firm's worth.
M&A Services
All M&A Services posts →M&A Services
How to Evaluate an A/E Firm Before You Buy It
How to evaluate an architecture or engineering firm before buying it: where the value sits, what to ask for, and how a bank reads the same numbers.
M&A Services
How to Tell Your Staff You Sold the Firm
The proven way to announce an A/E firm sale: gather everyone the morning after closing, name the buyer, and let them tell the room their jobs are safe.
M&A Services
What a Confidential Firm Sale Actually Looks Like
How confidentiality is protected when an A/E firm goes to market: blind profiles, signed NDAs, staged disclosure, and when staff and clients find out.
M&A Services
Most Engineering Firms Are Small. The Succession Advice Is Not Written for Them.
87 percent of engineering firms have fewer than 20 employees. The ESOP and large M&A advice online was written for the other 13 percent, not for them.
M&A Services
Three State Associations, One Message About Getting Paid at Closing
Three industry placements this summer: MALSCE, Engineering Georgia Magazine, and the ACEC Georgia podcast. What each one argued and who it was written for.
M&A Services
The Hardest Part of Selling Your Engineering Firm Has Nothing to Do with Money
The hardest part of selling your A/E firm is not the price. It is identity, the fear of the unknown, and letting go. Here is how owners work through it.
M&A Services
Ownership Transition for Land Surveying Firms
How land surveying firm owners transition ownership: the licensure wrinkle, the value drivers banks reward, and how employees buy in with SBA financing.
M&A Services
What Is a Management Buyout?
A management buyout is when a firm's own managers buy it from the owner. Here is how an MBO works, how it is financed, and how it compares to an ESOP.
M&A Services
Why Minnesota Engineering Firms Are Positioned for the Coming Ownership Transfer
Minnesota engineering firms face a wave of owner retirements. Here is why an internal sale to key employees with SBA financing fits them well.
M&A Services
Beyond the ESOP: Exit Strategies for A/E Firm Owners
The real exit options for architecture and engineering firm owners, from a third-party sale to an ESOP to a bank-financed employee buyout, and how to choose.
M&A Services
How to Find and Evaluate Confidential A/E Firm Listings
Most A/E firms worth acquiring never appear on public listing sites. Learn how confidential deals work, common deal structures, and how to value an engineering business.